'A' Battery, 154th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

[tiswot]

Hi

Can anyone point me in the direction of a history of this Brigade, or where I can find more detail about 'A' Battery? I have been given a photo showing Henry Charles Gale 11953, who was a Farrier Sergeant. I've picked up a lot from Ancestry, but would love to know how a farrier from a country estate in Dorset ended up being part of this Brigade.

Liz

[sotonmate]

Liz

154 Brigade RFA (New Army) was part of 36 (Ulster) Division's Artillery complement. The Division first landed in France in Oct 1915 but the Artillery didn't until Nov 1915. A page here from the Long Long Trail, at top left of this page,shows the deployments of 36 Division:

http://www.1914-1918.net/36div.htm

There is also a downloadable War Diary for the first year or so from the National Archives Discovery website:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353996

There may be a specific part of the WD covering A Battery as all three Batteries didn't always have the same specific orders, but only up to Aug 1916,after which it was likely in an Army Brigade and a different Diary.

Your man first landed in France on 27 Nov 1915. It might have been good sense to place a man familiar with horses into such as an RFA unit as they needed horsemen to move/position the weapons. From his rank of Sergeant/Farrier from the outset he may well have had the skills already.

[tiswot]

Awesome, thank you so much.

Liz