Volunteer Training Corps (VTC) Uniform Query

[Westinghouse]

Good afternoon/evening everyone. I've just joined this forum having been reccomended it from over on WWIIReenacting where I posted much the same thing and was advised to ask it here for a better response!

So this is my great grandfather. He was a butcher in the 1911 census and - I am informed that as it was a 'reserved occupation' - he was a starred man and therefore had his conscription deferred. However - as this photo shows - he joined up in the Volunteer Training Corps - apparently with the Essex Yeomanry. Though everything online says they wore the GR armbands with their Lovatt Green uniforms - however the armband he's wearing here is more in the style of the Derby Scheme Armband. Perhaps there were surplus!

Anyway - as these cropped pics show - his cap badge identifies him as Essex Yeomanry

But does anyone know what the rank was? Shown here along with the M (Marksman) sleeve badge.

[Westinghouse]

As a follow up - In 1918 at the age of 37 he joined up (Was butcher no longer a reserved occupation? Did they relax the age limits? I don't know) and joined the RAMC.

.....just in time to go to Russia with the Russian Intervention in 1919...!

[Sepoy]

Hi Westinghouse

Firstly, it is not the Essex Yeomanry cap badge, which has the arms of Essex within a circlet surmounted by a King's Crown.

Your Gt Grandfather was a member of the Essex Volunteer Regiment (see King and Kipling "Head-dress of the British Army" Fig 1617).

He was a Platoon Sergeant which is marked by the two plain rings and a disk. Also being worn, on his right pocket flap, is the standard Central Association Volunteer Training Corps proficiency badge.

I cannot comment as to why he is wearing a Derby Scheme arm band instead of a GR arm band. May be he had attested under the Derby Scheme and was wearing it to show he had attested.

A copy of the official regulations for the Volunteer Training Corps can be downloaded here
https://archive.org/details/officialregulati00centrich

Great "Russian Intervention" photos!

Hope this helps

Sepoy

[Westinghouse]

Ah wow - thank you! I'd assumed the three scimitars was the Essex Yeomanry - my bad!

Thats an excellent document you've linked to there - just reading it now. Fascinating stuff.

I can't begin to thank you for your assistance. My father (his grandson) is into his geneology and will be very interested to know his history.

[Graham Stewart]

Hi Westinghouse

Firstly, it is not the Essex Yeomanry cap badge, which has the arms of Essex within a circlet surmounted by a King's Crown.

Your Gt Grandfather was a member of the Essex Volunteer Regiment (see King and Kipling "Head-dress of the British Army" Fig 1617).

He was a Platoon Sergeant which is marked by the two plain rings and a disk. Also being worn, on his right pocket flap, is the standard Central Association Volunteer Training Corps proficiency badge.

I cannot comment as to why he is wearing a Derby Scheme arm band instead of a GR arm band. May be he had attested under the Derby Scheme and was wearing it to show he had attested.

A copy of the official regulations for the Volunteer Training Corps can be downloaded here

https://archive.org/details/officialregulati00centrich

Great "Russian Intervention" photos!

Hope this helps

Sepoy

A later armband was adopted for the Volunteer Force, which was an adaptation of the Derby Scheme armband in that the addition of the letter's 'G' & 'R', in scarlet cloth, were placed either side of the crown. Or as you have suggested he may actually have enlisted under the Derby Scheme and was then transferred to Class 'B' of the Army Reserve, enabling him to enlist into the local Volunteers.

[Snorbens]

I will have a go at answering your questions about exemptions for butchers but, before I delve in to the complexity of exemptions, can you confirm his year of birth and also if you know more his occupation. e.g. did he own a shop? did he have slaughterman's skills?

Some other comments...

Be wary of your terminology in this area. In your OP you indicate he is wearing a Derby Scheme armband indicating that he had attested under that scheme which ran in late 1915 into early 1916. If so, then he is not deferring 'conscription' as you suggest as the Derby Scheme was voluntary in its ethos rather than having the compulsion of conscription introduced under the Military Services Act in March 1916. You might suggest I am being a pedant. I am perhaps but don't forget there is a clear difference in your ancestor's motivation between attesting under the Scheme as opposed to waiting for conscription, something that your ancestor may well have been keen to have remembered.

As to why he is wearing a Derby Scheme armband, I'd guess it was more important for him to show that he wasn't a 'shirker'.

I am involved in an extensive project looking amongst other things at the tribunal system in St Albans. Several butchers were granted exemption by the city's tribunal for 6 months conditional on their joining the local Volunteer Training Corps. Was this the case with your ggf?

Lastly, as we have found in St Albans, reports of tribunal hearings in local newspapers were often extensive. Have you the checked the relevant newspaper for any reference to your ggf's hearings? They may at least throw light on why he joined the VTC.

Jon

[ss002d6252]

Attesting under the Derby Scheme would have then allowed him the option to apply for deferment from future service if he was in a starred occupation (some occupations were automatically given a deferment if a man attested under the scheme) - in order to ask for deferment at that stage he had to have attested first. Although it was pre-conscription there's no doubt some people saw it coming and would apply as appropriate to get their deferment.

Craig