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Remembered Today:

Schools of Instruction for army officers 1915 - predecessors to the OCB system


Charles Fair

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Charles,

 

LG30536 contains a list of ASC subalterns attached to infantry regiments wef 10 Jan 1918

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30506/supplement/1592

 

One of these is Henry Vaughan BERRY, who was to be attached to Som LI.  There's no WO339/374 for him, but there is a WO76 covering his time in the Som LI in Find My Past.  This has him joining 1/Som LI in France on 6 May 1918  It also has him attending a course at 'No 2 School for Infantry Officers, Bedford'.  It gives no dates for this course, but this was presumably what turned him from an ASC officer into an inf pl commander.

 

It may be that following up the other ASC attachments would clarify the process.

Edited by QUEX
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As an aside, which might  come up. The London School of Economics ran "army courses" before the war (from c.1905??) to give instruction mostly to logistics officers, ASC and thereabouts. I believe LSE continued this during the war years and can have a crack at my old college to find out more details, if your are keen :wub:

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On 05/02/2020 at 14:30, QUEX said:

LG30536 contains a list of ASC subalterns attached to infantry regiments wef 10 Jan 1918

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30506/supplement/1592

 

One of these is Henry Vaughan BERRY, who was to be attached to Som LI.  There's no WO339/374 for him, but there is a WO76 covering his time in the Som LI in Find My Past.  This has him joining 1/Som LI in France on 6 May 1918  It also has him attending a course at 'No 2 School for Infantry Officers, Bedford'.  It gives no dates for this course, but this was presumably what turned him from an ASC officer into an inf pl commander.

 

It may be that following up the other ASC attachments would clarify the process.

Thank you for this, this is something that I had not considered.  I will definitely see if I can find some of these men.  I suspect they were A1 men being combed out of roles in the ASC.  I hadn't thought about combing out as applied to officers.  It must have happened, but I haven't come across reference to it.  There may be something on it in Army Council minutes, or if I can find record of the SD3 department of the War Office.

 

I posted a photo of a report on an officer who had attended a course for aspiring company commanders at No 1 School for Infantry Officers, Brockton here: 

 

I wonder if the ASC men attended a different course, more geared towards conversions from other arms?

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As an aside, which might  come up. The London School of Economics ran "army courses" before the war (from c.1905??) to give instruction mostly to logistics officers, ASC and thereabouts. I believe LSE continued this during the war years and can have a crack at my old college to find out more details, if your are keen :wub:

There is a good account of this course in a 2014 volume of essays.  Citation is as follows:

 

Grant, P. (2014). Learning to Manage the Army – The Army Administration Course at the London School of Economics 1907-1914. In: M. LoCicero, R. Mahoney & S.Mitchell (Eds.), A Military Transformed? Adaptation and Innovation in the British Military, 1792-1945. (pp. 99-111). Helion. ISBN 978-1909384460

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13 hours ago, Charles Fair said:

There is a good account of this course in a 2014 volume of essays.  Citation is as follows:

 

Grant, P. (2014). Learning to Manage the Army – The Army Administration Course at the London School of Economics 1907-1914. In: M. LoCicero, R. Mahoney & S.Mitchell (Eds.), A Military Transformed? Adaptation and Innovation in the British Military, 1792-1945. (pp. 99-111). Helion. ISBN 978-1909384460

 

    Thank you very much for this reference- I had heard at LSE years ago that soemone was poking around on this topic but this is the first reference I have seen to the end result.

   I think  you and I will both know- but we will flag it up here- is that LSE has a card index of those  alumni who served in the ear in its archives.

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On 05/02/2020 at 14:30, QUEX said:

LG30536 contains a list of ASC subalterns attached to infantry regiments wef 10 Jan 1918

 

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30506/supplement/1592

 

One of these is Henry Vaughan BERRY, who was to be attached to Som LI.  There's no WO339/374 for him, but there is a WO76 covering his time in the Som LI in Find My Past.  This has him joining 1/Som LI in France on 6 May 1918  It also has him attending a course at 'No 2 School for Infantry Officers, Bedford'.  It gives no dates for this course, but this was presumably what turned him from an ASC officer into an inf pl commander.

 

It may be that following up the other ASC attachments would clarify the process.

 

I have had a dig around the TNA catalogue and found files from 22 or possibly 23 of these men. I will look at some of these in due course.

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On 13/02/2020 at 22:49, Charles Fair said:

 

I have had a dig around the TNA catalogue and found files from 22 or possibly 23 of these men. I will look at some of these in due course.

I had a look at the first three files that I could find on the list of ASC officers.  They all appear to have attended No. 2 Infantry School of Instruction and have an entry like this on their ASC record of service.  (This image from the file of Capt Berkeley ASC WO 339/26611)

 

In due course I will look through the other files and hope I come across a report from this course.

IMG_1042.JPG

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  • 1 month later...

@Charles Fair

 

going through some old notes - Percy Joseph KING (WO374/39734) attended 'No 3 Bristol School' Jul-Oct 1916, then comm 21/Londons 25 Oct 16. Afraid that's all I wrote down - for some reason I didn't copy the file.  

 

Q

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  • 2 weeks later...

Charles,

Interesting one for you. Previously at Sandhurst 1910-11, adversely reported at the end of July 1910 term as not likely to become fit to be an officer, drawing a cheque for £5 knowing he had no funds to cover it, placed under arrest and left the college. Enlisted in 8th Rifle Brigade 11/1/15, lost an eye at Hooge 30/7/15 and was recommended for a commission by Lt. Col. McLachlan after having acted with particular gallantry at Hooge. There is some correspondence about his commission recommendation in the file.

Unable to attend the school of instruction at Chelmsford originally due to an operation on his eye and upper lip.

Later relinquished his commission for unexplained absence and writing a cheque buying a broach for his mother, on presentation of the cheque there were once again problems with it being cancelled and was placed on the Metropolitan Police wanted list.

WO339/45025

 

Andy

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Edited by stiletto_33853
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Thanks for this one Q.

 

Andy, Ponsonby's file sounds interesting.  Lt Col PR Phipps who commanded the Chelmsford School went on to command No. 10 OCB at Gailes in 1916/1917.

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I've been digging around the British Newspaper Archive and have found quite a few useful snippets on these Schools.  It appears that the schools that were unrelated to the University OTCs were more common than has previously been recognised, although smaller than the UOTC schools tended to be.

 

Here are a couple of photos of the Tenby School of Instruction (the only pictures I have found) from the Western Mail. The second course photo was in the Thursday 22 July 1915 edition, and the third course photo Thursday 19 August 1915.  The list of new officers going to Tenby as per the London Gazette in June 1915 (see Mark's post #16 above) must therefore have been on the first course.

 

From the various bits of evidence these courses tended have between 50 and 60 new officers.  I've also established start dates for some of them.  I'll compile a full list in due course and use this to make some estimates of the total number of officers who would have attended one of these Schools.

Screenshot 2020-04-04 10.21.19.png

Screenshot 2020-04-03 23.52.38.png

Edited by Charles Fair
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On 29/01/2020 at 23:27, MBrockway said:

This appointment of an RF Captain as Commandant of a (sadly unnamed) School of Instruction may give you a lead to another one ...

LG Issue 29304 , 21 Sep 1915, pp.9327

 

339924155_SsofI9327.jpg.ce90e08e4d7deac217a751d83a3edada.jpg

 

 

Captain Stead was Commandant of the Stirling School of Instruction. The local press has been particularly helpful on this School. Here are the more useful snippets:

 

Stirling Observer - Tuesday 26 January 1915

OFFICERS’ “SCHOOLMASTER” AT STIRLING.

The Governor of the Borstal Institution, Polmont, Major R. P. H. Monro, Worcestershire Regiment (retired), has been appointed to take charge of the school of instruction for officers, established at headquarters, South Scottish Infantry Brigade, Stirling.

 

Stirling Observer - Tuesday 23 March 1915   (also reported Sat 27th)

General Pole-Carew. Inspector-General of the Infantry for the British Army, visited Stirling last Wednesday, and inspected the Territorial battalions stationed in the district, and also the Officers’ School of Instruction held at the Golden Lion Hotel. He complimented Mr Stevenson of the hotel on the splendid provision that had been made by him for carrying on the work, and giving effect to the military requirements.

 

Stirling Observer - Saturday 03 April 1915

Captain Geo. W. Smith, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, who has been home at Clifford Park, Stirling, since he was wounded in the arm several months ago, has been appointed assistant lecturer at the Officers’ School of Instruction at Stirling. There are now about 60 officer in training, and they are kept “hard at it.” There is drill in the King’s Park forenoon and afternoon, and a lecture in the evening, after dinner, with bed at 10 o’clock.

 

Stirling Observer - Tuesday 01 February 1916

BURNS ANNIVERSARY. LOCAL CELEBRATIONS.

OFFICERS’ SCHOOL OF INSTRUCTION

Burns’ birthday anniversary celebrated on Tuesday evening by the staff and officers attending the School of Instruction, Southfield House, Stirling, and the opportunity was also taken of according a hearty farewell to Major Geo. W. Smith, KOSB, second in command at the school, the occasion his departure for the Windward Islands, West Indies, where he has been appointed staff officer the local forces. Major Stead, commandant, presided over large gathering, which included a number of civilian guests. The menu included the haggis, and other “sic’ like” dishes, followed a fine toast list and a programme of Burns songs and recitations. Amongst the things they had ‘‘tae listen tae” was the toast of ‘'The King,” given from the chair. Major Smith next proposed “His Majesty's Imperial Forces,” whilst Mr David Yellowlees, Victoria Square, in an eloquent address, gave “The Immortal Memory.” J. M. Beattie, in a eulogistic speech, proposed the toast of “The Departing Major,” to which Major Smith suitably replied. Messrs A. T. Dick and J. S. Hamilton played the accompaniments the singers, and bagpipe music was by Piper R. M. White.

 

Stirling Observer - Saturday 04 March 1916

The Officers’ School of Instruction, which was established at Stirling shortly after the war broke out, has been discontinued. The school consisted of about 60 young officers under training, with considerable staff, and has occupied two large villas at Southfield. It is understood that a much larger School of Instruction is to be established at another centre in Scotland.

 

Allowing a few days between courses, some longer breaks for the instructors to get some leave, and that the later courses were probably 5 weeks and not 4 (as was the case at the Cambridge and Oxford Schools) I would estimate 10 courses between Jan 1915 and the end of Feb 1916.  Say 600 officers passing through this school.

 

Charles

 

 

 

Edited by Charles Fair
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  • 2 weeks later...

Stead went from Stirling to be one of the first company commanders of No 9 OCB at Gailes as it was being established in late February/early March 1916.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 year later...

By way of follow up to this thread, I have a chapter on the evolution of the OCB system out of the OTCs and Schools of Instruction in the newly published (Feb 2022) volume of essays edited by Spencer Jones, 1917: The Darkest Year.

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