ASC Agricultural Companies

[Mamalulu]

Can someone please explain how soldiers were assigned to these companies? Why would a man still be there in 1919?

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Michael Young lists an unnumbered "Agricultural Park ASC", formed October 1918, disbanded June 1919 in Salonika, engaged in agricultural work, employing Bulgarian and Turkish POWs.

Also mentions (again, no number) an agricultural company in Archangel, Russia.

[Moonraker]

Hi Mamalulu

Welcome to the Forum. There will be members more knowledgeable than I who can answer your questions, but in the meantime Google "invisionzone agricultural companies" ( a way of searching that some of us find easier than using the Forum search engine) and you'll find lots of background information.

Moonraker

[Mamalulu]

Hi Mamalulu

Welcome to the Forum. There will be members more knowledgeable than I who can answer your questions, but in the meantime Google "invisionzone agricultural companies" ( a way of searching that some of us find easier than using the Forum search engine) and you'll find lots of background information.

Moonraker

Thank you Moonraker

I am new to this and still finding my way around. I'll take your advice and see what I can discover.

Mamlulu

[Mamalulu]

Michael Young lists an unnumbered "Agricultural Park ASC", formed October 1918, disbanded June 1919 in Salonika, engaged in agricultural work, employing Bulgarian and Turkish POWs.

Also mentions (again, no number) an agricultural company in Archangel, Russia.

Hi Dai Bach I think "my man" stayed in this country and served until 1919; being a farm worker previously I can understand why he was kept working on the land.

Thank you Mamalulu

[rolt968]

Hi Mamaluk

If I am reading "No Labour No Battle" correctly, the ASC Agricultural Companies became Labour Corps Agricultural Companies in June 1917. Men in the Labour Corps were normally (if only temporarily) unfit to serve in line regiments. (Although apparently there were attempts to transfer men who were unwanted in regiments for other reasons.)

It have recently been researching a Labour Corps Agricultural Company man who was discharged in February 1919 because he had pleurisy.

RM

[Moonraker]

... Why would a man still be there in 1919?

Given that there were only eight weeks or so of 1918 left after the Armistice, it follows that most service men and women were still in uniform in 1919. Demobilisation continued into 1920, with much debate about who should be returned to civilian life first. I think that it was eventually decided that those on active service should be given priority, and it may be that members of agricultural companies, in Britain anyway, were a long way down the list. In any case, their services would still have been useful well into 1919 pending the return of prewar workers to farming.

Moonraker

Edit; Terry Reeves pointed out almost ten years ago in post 3

here

that agricultural workers (in civilian life) were high on the list when it came to be demobilised, but it still would have taken a while for them to be processed. I'm happy to be corrected, but I think that many members of agricultural companies had no prewar experience of farming but were unfit for combat soldiering.

[Gardenerbill]

In my experience there were two reasons why men were transferred to the ASC; if a man had a particular skill, in my Grandfather's case he was transferred from the Infantry to an ASC company due to being an electrician, alternatively fit men in the ASC were exchanged for men no longer fit for front line duty.

Agriculture was particularly important in Salonika, supply was difficult due to the U boat threat in the Mediterranean so the BSF set about growing it's own food.

Demobilisation on the Salonika front started in February 1919 and continued right through to the summer months.

[kenf48]

The Agricultural Companies were formed in 1917 from men who were in physical category C2 or C3. In February 1917 farmers were told by the Government, 'the war comes first...you can have women workers, you can make what you can of C3 men or partially disabled soldiers and you can have German prisoners. Out of this mixed pack you should do your best to get effective work."

The impact of the war on farming was, as with most studies of the conflict constantly changing and evolving through the war. The declaration of war coincided with the harvest and in general terms the percentage of early volunteers from rural areas was far fewer than those in towns and cities. Soldiers were released from training to assist with harvest and later ploughing and planting, often they did not know one end of a cow from another.

Then in March 1916 came conscription and men were graded as shown at post 7 of this earlier thread http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=154834

C2 fit for Labour at home, C3 fit for sedentary work at home, in other words they were conscripted but not even considered fit for Home Defence. One downside of this was that with fresh air and exercise health often improved and as the demand for manpower increased the medical teams caused considerable disruption and at harvest in 1917 they were asked to suspend their work until the harvest was over.

The ASC had forage companies but I'm not sure about Agricultural Companies which were not formed until early 1917 and incorporated into the Labour Corps. Most men were not demobilized until early 1919 and in any event this would coincide with the ploughing and seeding season so they would want, at least to get the crops in the ground before disbanding the labour.

A little more information might help to be more specific.

Ken