154 brigade RFA - East London, did they recruit from elsewhere, E York

[Guest Northpennine]

Hello all, hope someone can help or advise.

I'm putting together a website about my grandfathers in ww1, but most records for both seem to have been lost in the main.

What I'm particularly keen to sort out at the moment is how W H Stevens, a horseman from Howden East Yorks seems to have been recruited/assigned into the 154 brigade B battery(all info on which leads me to believe it was made up from local recruits from East/West Ham). Is this possible?

I know he was in the 173rd brigade D battery until the end of the war (from his medal card and that the 154 B battery was renamed as such in 1916 (from the brigade war diaries). I am making the assumption that he did not move brigade at any stage, family info is that he was at Woolwich to start with. On the citation in the London Gazette re his DCM it says D/173 Brigade (Howden).

I cannot find any records about his and Howden recruitment sadly. He enlisted Jan 13 1915, his army number was 82457.

Can anyone help at all, would love to know how a farm labour from East Yorks ended up fighting his entire war with a London brigade attached to an Irish division (36th).

Many thanks

Graham

[David Porter]

Graham,

Welcome to the Forum.

Your grandfather's number was issued to him at No. 6 Depot, Glasgow around January 18, 1915. As you have found, his Medal Index Card gives an entry date to the war in France of November 28, 1915 and that ties nicely in with the brigades you mention. Therefore he seems to have been posted as a regular trained soldier to B/154th Brigade sometime between the 2 dates. I suspect that as 154th Brigade was raised from around May 1915 it may have needed addition drafts prior to being sent overseas and your grandfather was posted later in the year.

It would be useful to try and find similar numbers to his as casualties in B/154th Bde later D/173rd Bde to find a likely posting date. It will probably be from one of the many Reserve Brigades around at the time.

[Phil Evans]

Graham,

You may also find this thread useful.

Phil

[Guest Northpennine]

Thanks Phil, you've set me off in a new direction. I assume the numbers were given out consecutively. I do have some old handwritten notepaper with names,ranks and numbers of those in his 'team', it is titled the nominal roll, probably 1917/18' not before, there are probably about 20 on it,I'm away at the present so can't check. I'll have a look at them and casualties as you suggest.

I am not sure how things worked. Would he have been training at Glasgow until the 154th was raised or would he have been with another brigade first? We're they assigned to a brigade immediately? Perhaps all will become clearer as I research further.

Many thanks again, any help is much appreciated.

Graham