Battery Allocation 291 Brigade

[Mumbles1]

My relative joined 2/2 London Brigade, what later became 291 Brigade. Having joined up in 10/1916, the Brigade landed in France 1/1917, over a year of gunnery training.

Does anyone have an idea at what stage the gunners would have been allocated to one of the 4 Batteries?

Rob

[sotonmate]

Maybe when they got some guns ! The LLT comments that second line Divisions,this was 58 (2 London),suffered greatly from lack of equipment which affected training. The same source often gives the Battery elements which make up the RFA Brigade but not on this occasion. From the few examples that I have seen the Batteries seem to have been made up when the Brigade comes into existence.

[David Porter]

They would have been allocated to the battery associated with their place of enlistment immediately. In this case all three batteries were associated with Woolwich and Eltham. The fourth, or D battery, came from the Home Counties Division. However, by October 1916, soldiers on regular attestations could be posted to any of the batteries. They would have come from a wider area. So sadly, there is no straightforward answer to your question.

[Mumbles1]

Thanks Sotonmate and thanks David,

My Great-uncle signed up at Leonard Street in the City so he would of immediately entered 2/2 London Brigade but maybe only got his Battery allotment when they moved to Heytesbury in mid 1917?

Sotonmate

What is LLT?

[David Porter]

Having joined up in 10/1916, the Brigade landed in France 1/1917, over a year of gunnery training.

My Great-uncle signed up at Leonard Street in the City so he would of immediately entered 2/2 London Brigade but maybe only got his Battery allotment when they moved to Heytesbury in mid 1917?

Rob,

You seem to be getting your dates in a muddle. I assume you meant he enlisted in October 1915. He had to be placed somewhere as each battery and brigade had to maintain establishments. So he would be in what became A, B or C battery, the Brigade Ammunition Column (BAC) or Headquarters, all of which had a fixed set of gunners, drivers etc.. There may indeed be a posting around the time of moving to Heytesbury (late Summer 1916) but that might be coincidence. It could be that he was initially sent to the 3rd line training school before taking his place in the 2nd Line unit.

If you say who you are referring to, together with his regimental number(s), I may be able to add more detail.

LLT = Long, Long Trail = www.1914-1918.net

[Mumbles1]

Thanks David

I was referred to my great uncle, Hylton Rodney Jolliffe (931411), he enlisted in October 1915, moved to Heytesbury summer 1916, took a one way ticket to France with 291 Brigade January 1917

Rob

[David Porter]

I see he enlisted in the 3/3rd London Brigade RFA on October 25, 1915 and was given the number 2677. This 3rd line depot unit should have been formed at Finsbury but was affiliated to a training school at High Wycombe to where he would have been sent at some stage. Out of No. 4 Artillery Training School TF, as it was called, came a new No. 6 Artillery Training School TF which moved to Kettering. All 3rd line London brigades were moved permanently to this Training School on December 16, 1915 but it was redirected from Kettering to Luton on January 5, 1916. At this stage 3/3rd London Brigade RFA consisted of 14 Officers and 250 Other Ranks.

Your great uncle was then transferred to 2/9th County of London battery, 2/3rd London Brigade on February 12, 1916. This brigade, which had been at Framlingham, appears to have been broken up/disbanded soon after being numbered (it became 292nd Brigade). Your great uncle is then shown to have been transferred to 291st Brigade RFA on September 1, 1916 and somewhere along the line his number changed to 2776. I take this to be the date that the batteries of 292nd Brigade were absorbed by the remaining brigades. I can find no official information available to tell me what actually happened here. The other brigades were at Heytesbury by September 18, 1916 to prepare for going to France. When he was killed he was in C/291 battery.