National Army Museum post war Irish regimental books

[museumtom]

For the past four months I have been going through the post war ledgers online from the National Army Museum. Trying to get a handle on exactly what we have here. Each unit has four 'ledgers,' two of 1000 men each, one of about 4 to 500 and the last for transfers which must have about 200 men in it. They appeared to cover the post war records of the Leinster Regiment, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Royal Munster Fusiliers, Connaught Rangers and the Royal Irish Regiment. 2/5ths of the CWGC post war deaths are contained in the ledgers which indicates that this collection of post war books are incomplete and some books are missing. Of the 97 post war deaths in these ledgers 2 thirds of them (11/11/1918 to 31/12/1922) are not in the CWGC. There are deaths after 1922 that I ignored. Deaths are from Malaria, accident, pneumonia, tuberculosis, suicide, murder and execution.

Total names in the ledgers are 11,946.

 

Kind regards.

 Tom.

Edited 18 December , 2018 by museumtom

[Open Bolt]

Excellent work Tom, a mass of information. A mere hop and a skip to scan, OCR, correct and publish them! Only joking.

[museumtom]

OCR might be difficult as it is all hand written. Some of the writing is a disgrace and almost unreadable which might indicate it was done by an officer as if it was a lower rank I am sure the unreadable scrawls would not be tolerated. If the soldiers had previous service during the war or enlisted before the war the details, numbers, dates and locations are all there. Lots and lots of desertions, but most were discharged under Kings regulations, time expired, reductions of the size of the army or at the disbandment of the Irish regiments. Some are listed as having left to join the Irish National Army, some bought themselves out for £20, others deserted en route to join their unit. I have seen some listed joining the R.A.F. during WW2 in there, so these ledgers were used over a long period. The most important part of these records is they give enlistment place, birth place,m NOK address (and childrens births and locations) also the address to which they were discharged. It also notes if they did not have war service, and if they were entitled to medals all that is in there.