Returning families of 2nd East Lancs from Cape 1914

[Guest]

In October/November of 1914, the 2nd Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment was redeployed from their garrison duties in Wynberg, Cape Town to the front in France.

 

What happened to their families? Did they accompany the battalion on the troop ship, did they remain for the duration of the war, did they make their own way back to the UK or did the government provide transport on another ship?

[sotonmate]

Welcome to the Forum !

The National Archives hold ledgers of shipping which carried military passengers/cargo. Ordinarily units and numbers of servicemen are shown. It may be that families are shown also, particularly as the Battalion landed here in Southampton on 30 Oct 1914 and prior to deployment to France. The file you seek for 1914, which needs to be read at Kew, is:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4400395

the ledger bunches together shipping forms in date sequence for each vessel sailing and lists all relevant items for the voyage.

If there is no data on the families they didn't sail on the vessel with the military. In this case you would have to try to match civilian liner movements in the BT26 series from South Africa, these are online at Ancestry UK and searchable by name and year.

Edited 8 December , 2018 by sotonmate