Army List - copies at Kew?

[Muerrisch]

Yes, it b*ggers the back!

[John_Hartley]

Folks

I've started to have a look at my photos and immediately have a couple of queries.

Firstly, against each name there is a date. Is this the date that the man was promoted to that rank?

Secondly, there's a symbol (a cross inside a circle) which has an explanation of "Signifies that Imperial Service obligations have been undertaken by the regiments, brigades, battalions, etc against the titles of which the symbol appears". In the proverbial "words of one syllable", what does this mean? Looking at some of the names who have the symbol and some who don't, my guess is that it means they are on active service overseas (and, therefore, those who don't have the symbol must be with the reserve battalion).

[rflory]

John: The date after each man's name is the date he was promoted to that substantive rank. Often a temporary or acting rank (indicated by an 'x' in a circle) with effective date is shown in parentheses after the name. Prior to the Great War Territorials were not obligated for overseas service but where asked to sign an Imperial Service obligation that allowed them to be posted overseas - there was a badge authorized to indicate that this obligation had been assigned.

[David_Underdown]

A couple of words of explanation for others who might be interested in using these. As published works, the Army Lists (and equivalents for RN and RAF) form part of the library collection at TNA, rather than being accessioned public records. As such they are listed in the library catalogue, not in Discovery eg the Army Lists' entry is http://tna.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=11031&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20army%20list. Most are on open access, but as noted in the catalogue, occasionally the original has been withdrawn and replaced by a facsimile (due to the age and condition of the originals).

Sometimes there were two versinos of the list, the public one which remained on general sale, and the confidential one which wsa only available "in-house" as it were. Second World War Navy Lists fall in this category - the confidential lists (which include details of actual postings to ships or shore establishments) are accessioned material (and are listed in Discovery I think), but don't need to be ordered as usual as they are on shelves just past the security desks where you enter the Document Reading Room area - so while you don't need to order them, you do need a reader's ticket to enter that area.

[John_Hartley]

There was one or two months missing. A third was separately parcelled up marked "fragile" and I decided to not bother with that one (Sod's Law means that will prove to have had critical information).

[themonsstar]

John which one are you looking for as I will have a look for it this week.

[Muerrisch]

I recall that September and perhaps October 1914 do not exist?

[rflory]

If one is trying to compile a complete list of officers in a particular battalion or regiment who went overseas the easiest method is to consult the medal rolls for the BWM and VM that are available on Ancestry or at TNA. There are separate rolls for the officers of each unit and they are usually listed by rank. The rolls can be downloaded page by page on Ancestry.

Dick Flory

[rflory]

David wrote: "Sometimes there were two versinos of the list, the public one which remained on general sale, and the confidential one which wsa only available "in-house" as it were."

The 'confidential lists' are officially named The Monthly Army List Security Edition. I have the issues for August 1939 and September 1939. Do not know whether they were published throughout the war.