34th Company RAMC -

[HERITAGE PLUS]

I  am aware that the 34th Company RAMC were a Home Service Company.

 

Can any tell me where they were serving in the UK, please?

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Ron Clifton]

In August 1914, according to the Army List, they were based at Woolwich.

 

As you probably know, RAMC Companies were administrative units and did not have a role "in the field".

 

Ron

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Thanks Ron.

 

 

[PRC]

This may not add a great deal , but possibly closes off some avenues of enquiry.

 

A search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database using Geoff's Search Engine shows only two deaths of men serving with this unit. One was Lance Corporal 91965 James Clancy, aged 26, who died on 03/11/1918 and who is buried at Kensal Green, London. The additional information on CWGC is that he was the son of James and Kate Clancy, of 134 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill, London. His wife was the wonderfully named Nancy Clancy ! He was born Guileen, County Cork.

https://www.cwgc.org/search-for-war-dead/casualty/2906022/

 

The other was Quartermaster Serjeant 25368 Leonard Henry Cade, aged 28, who is shown as both 12th Company and 34th Company and who died on the 22/02/1919 and is buried at Nunhead (All Saints) Cemetery, London. He was the son of Herbert H. and L.E. Cade, of 75 Faraday Street, Walworth, London.

https://www.cwgc.org/search-for-war-dead/casualty/381515/

Quartermaster Cade received the Meritorious Service Medal and the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal, so there is a Medal Index Card for him under reference WO372/24/84822

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6324707

 

Now as a company would have normally consisted of about 100 men, to have gone through 4 years of the war without any other deaths from illness, infection or accident seems very lucky, which is a possibility. More likely it was just a small cadre for administrative purposes only. Given the late dates both men died and that they were both NCO's it may even have gone into hibernation for most of the war and may have been resurrected towards the end of the war as part of the demobilisation process. The Army Monthly list for May 1917, for example, lists the companies 1 - 35 at the start of the section on the Royal Army Medical Corps and then makes no further reference to them, while Field Ambulances and General Hospitals are covered in full.

 

As only one of them died during the war its a bit difficult to extrapolate too much from the circumstances of his death. The death of a James Clancy, aged 26, was recorded in the Dartford District of Kent in the October to December quarter of 1918. The Civil Parishes that make up the Dartford District can be seen here:-

https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/dartford.html

 

Unfortunately no Civil Probate, (or Soldiers Will), so can't work out from that whether he died at home or on duty - perhaps the Army Register of Soldiers Effects on Ancestry can provide a clue? Even then, one soldier is a lot to base the movement of this unit on, but at the moment it looks like if the unit started the war at Woolwich they probably ended it there as well.

 

I can't see any surviving Service Records for either man or Pension records for Nancy, but worth a double check, as that may give a clue as to the units whereabouts.

 

Hope some of that helps,

Peter.

 

 

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Peter very helpful and much appreciated.

 

Thanks 

 

Dave