daimic Posted 18 April , 2018 Share Posted 18 April , 2018 (edited) I would like to see the War Diaries of the 4th Hussars. My grandmother's father served the entire war with them. I understand from this researcher that they exist and have been digitised: http://www.researchingww1.co.uk/4th-queens-own-hussars I have a subscription to Ancestry but when I go to their special search page for the War Diaries and put in 4th Hussars as regiment I can get no results: https://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60779 I emailed "support" at ancestry but get no response (I gather this is normal). Can anyone here explain what the problem is? Edited 18 April , 2018 by daimic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 18 April , 2018 Share Posted 18 April , 2018 Hello daimic WO 95/1134 4 (Queen's Own) Hussars 1914 Aug.- 1919 Apr. You can download it from the Kew website for £3.50, or free on Ancestry. On the latter, omit "WO95/" and add /1 after 1134. (There are other diaries in the same box.) Your mistake may have been the very common one of putting "th" after 4. Good hunting! Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorke Scarlett Posted 20 April , 2018 Share Posted 20 April , 2018 What was your relative's name? - I am studying 3rd Cavalry Brigade (which 4th Hussars was part) during the First Battle of Ypres in 1914. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 25 April , 2018 Author Share Posted 25 April , 2018 (edited) Thanks, Ron, but I still can't find it. I try "4 Hussars", no result. I try "4 (Queen's Own) Hussars" and get several hundred pages of results starting with some Kent regiment. Is there a simple direct link I can get the whole thing in one go from Ancestry? I am on the very of just getting it from Kew but it seems stupid when I am shelling out to these people at Ancestry every month. He was Thomas Doyle (4783). I found his medal card and a record (which I now see thanks to Ancestry I have no proper archival reference for) which I think comes from the pensions side. It is not one of the burnt series of records. The document I saved had miuk1914a_084208-02616 as a title. He was in the 8th Hussars for a twelve year service from 1900 and found in South Africa and was then in the reserves. He was called up again in 1914 but the 8th were in India so he joined the 4th who were at the Curragh at the time. He died in 1949 when my mother was twelve. She doesn't remember much about him and the army. Edited 25 April , 2018 by daimic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 26 April , 2018 Share Posted 26 April , 2018 (edited) 14 hours ago, daimic said: Thanks, Ron, but I still can't find it. I try "4 Hussars", no result. I try "4 (Queen's Own) Hussars" and get several hundred pages of results starting with some Kent regiment. Is there a simple direct link I can get the whole thing in one go from Ancestry? I am on the very of just getting it from Kew but it seems stupid when I am shelling out to these people at Ancestry every month. I can't really help you any further, I'm afraid. I don't use Ancestry. You may have fallen foul of the "fuzzy match" syndrome which most search engines use: the Kent regiment you mention would be the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (in which, incidentally, one of my grandfathers served). Is there a search option on Ancestry "exact match only"? Alternatively, leaving out the brackets might work, or just put in "1134" as the keyword. Better luck next time! Ron Edited 26 April , 2018 by Ron Clifton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 26 April , 2018 Author Share Posted 26 April , 2018 I tried it just with 1134 and it gives 550 results. They do start in 1914 and end in 1918. But it is mixed together "16th (The Queens) Lancers, 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars, 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers" in the field box. Do they have a common war diary? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 26 April , 2018 Share Posted 26 April , 2018 Not a common diary, but they are all in the same box: WO 95/1134 3 Cavalry Brigade WO 95/1134 4 (Queen's Own) Hussars 1914 Aug.- 1919 Apr. WO 95/1134 5 (Royal Irish) Lancers 1914 Aug.- 1919 Feb. WO 95/1134 16 (The Queens) Lancers 1914 Aug.- 1919 Mar. Try 1134/1. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 15 May , 2020 Author Share Posted 15 May , 2020 I just gave up on the war diaries. So much for paying Ancestry for a subscription! But as downloads from the National Archives at Kew are free while they are closed I thought I might try again via the official site. Coming back to my great, grandfather's service papers I am wondering if he really did serve with the 4th Hussars for the entire war. It isn't really clear. It just says he was transferred in 1914. But perhaps at a later date he rejoined his old unit. I don't have great confidence in the record which in his case is detailed but seems fragmentary. The only thing I did notice was that he was sanctioned for being absent from roll call in June 1918. On that occasion a report was made by Sergeant A. Page and recorded by Captain B. Evans. I think this is the only way I can see to be sure if he stayed in the 4th the duration of the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlaamse Verhalen Posted 15 May , 2020 Share Posted 15 May , 2020 The war diary for the 4th Hussars starts here on Ancestry (just click the link for the box's covering document, then browse forwards from there) The final page is here (numbered as image no. 213. Anything past this page is for the other units within the same Brigade) Their indexing is horrible & terribly inaccurate in a lot of cases, especially with any units that don't fit the "typical" county nomenclature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlaamse Verhalen Posted 15 May , 2020 Share Posted 15 May , 2020 2 hours ago, daimic said: I just gave up on the war diaries. So much for paying Ancestry for a subscription! But as downloads from the National Archives at Kew are free while they are closed I thought I might try again via the official site. Coming back to my great, grandfather's service papers I am wondering if he really did serve with the 4th Hussars for the entire war. It isn't really clear. It just says he was transferred in 1914. But perhaps at a later date he rejoined his old unit. I don't have great confidence in the record which in his case is detailed but seems fragmentary. The only thing I did notice was that he was sanctioned for being absent from roll call in June 1918. On that occasion a report was made by Sergeant A. Page and recorded by Captain B. Evans. I think this is the only way I can see to be sure if he stayed in the 4th the duration of the war. I'm pretty sure that he served the entire duration of the War with the 4ths. I think the "transfer" in question is to the Reserve, in 1912, at the end of his original service with the 8th Hussars. He's on the Corps of Hussars' medal roll, for both his '14 Star & the Victory medal etc., as having only served with the 4ths, and nothing contained within his surviving records suggest he went to another unit. The only other mention i could find for him was his admission to a field hospital, for boils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 15 May , 2020 Author Share Posted 15 May , 2020 Strange, you seem to have manage to find records I have not. I didn't think to look at medal rolls though, just went to the medal cards. Where did you find the field hospital records? On his service history, it shows he was called up in 1914 and then posted to the 4th Hussars who were then in Ireland. As you seem to be an expert can you tell me what the "bounty" mentioned is? Sounds like something I would more expect from the eighteenth century navy ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 15 May , 2020 Author Share Posted 15 May , 2020 2 hours ago, Vlaamse Verhalen said: The war diary for the 4th Hussars starts here on Ancestry (just click the link for the box's covering document, then browse forwards from there) I gave up on Ancestry. It is largely a waste of money. In case you don't know downloads from the National Archives website are free (up to fifty a month). The normal cost £3.50 a document so it seemed the moment to try and do my research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlaamse Verhalen Posted 15 May , 2020 Share Posted 15 May , 2020 17 minutes ago, daimic said: Strange, you seem to have manage to find records I have not. I didn't think to look at medal rolls though, just went to the medal cards. Where did you find the field hospital records? On his service history, it shows he was called up in 1914 and then posted to the 4th Hussars who were then in Ireland. As you seem to be an expert can you tell me what the "bounty" mentioned is? Sounds like something I would more expect from the eighteenth century navy ... There's a previous thread on here which explains all about the bounty payments, for certain soldiers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 16 May , 2020 Share Posted 16 May , 2020 14 hours ago, Vlaamse Verhalen said: I'm pretty sure that he served the entire duration of the War with the 4ths. I think the "transfer" in question is to the Reserve, in 1912, at the end of his original service with the 8th Hussars. He's on the Corps of Hussars' medal roll, for both his '14 Star & the Victory medal etc., as having only served with the 4ths, An observation: I have never seen a British cavalry regiment referred to as '4ths' before. Save yourself some typing and stick to '4th' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daimic Posted 21 May , 2020 Author Share Posted 21 May , 2020 Thanks for the hint, Steven. I can't actually find anything apart from this single document when I search for "war diaries 4th Hussars" on the Discovery search engine: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13265500 Any idea where I can find them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Underdown Posted 21 May , 2020 Share Posted 21 May , 2020 you need to search for 4 Hussars rather than 4th - it's here https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7351481 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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