WW1 ASC MT 116th - Sidney Cooper 053139

[S Hughes]

Hi,

I have been researching my Great Grandfather's service in WW1 for many years, and have only through Ancestry have we located his attestation paper and solved the mystery. The Army had him listed as Sydney Cooper, when his name is Sidney Cooper, as he signed on the paper. His service number is 053139, and it looks like his regiment was the 116th MT of the ASC, but I can't find anything else about him. My Father recalls being told he was gassed during the Somme offensive, but there's no record of him on the CWGC site. I got a little bit of info from the longlongtrail website which said the 116th was part of the 12th Divisional Train ASC.

Is there anywhere else I should be looking? I have a photograph of a unit from my Grans collection, but no way of knowing if it is his unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[George Rayner]

From his attestation form there is a discharge date of 1919 and evidence of marriage and also promotion and demotion I think although it is difficult to read. CWGC would only have him if I died-do you know that he did?

M2/053139 is his number-those extra bits at start make a difference. Although you need more knowledgeable people to tell you what!

 

George

[BillyH]

His medal index card and the medal rolls show that he arrived in France on 26th March 1915.

He was demobbed on 15.6.1919 and placed on the Army Reserve, Class Z. Qualified for a 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal.

Search on Ancestry for these using the service number of  M2/035139, but his christian name is spelt as Sidney not Sydney on MIC and rolls.

M2 prefix is explained on the Long Long Trail website here :

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/letter-prefixes-to-british-soldiers-numbers-in-the-first-world-war/

 

BillyH.

Edited 25 April , 2019 by BillyH
prefix info added

[Ron Clifton]

The M2 prefix denotes the Mechanical Transport section of the ASC (and this is confirmed on one of the papers) but 116 Company was a Horse Transport Company, as were all Divisional Train companies. He must have been transferred between companies at some point.

 

Edit: there were a handful of motor vehicles with a division, such as staff cars, and these would have had ASC MT drivers. It is possible that, for administrative purposes, they were attached to one of the HT companies.

 

Ron

Edited 25 April , 2019 by Ron Clifton

[S Hughes]

Thanks for all your help and insight. I know he was a Motor Engineer from his census records, so it makes sense that he would be involved with mechanical transport as they transitioned from horses to vehicles. Word that he died was from his Wife Beatrice Mary ( my Great Grandmother) telling my Father as a child. Other than that, she apparently never spoke much about him according to my Father. My Fathers Mother, Beatrice Margaret, (listed as a child on another record I found) passed passed away when he was only 12 yrs old, so there is no other link to Sidney.

    We have suspected that it is possible he survived the war, but until the 1921 census records come out, we won't know for sure. My Father just turned 81, and this mystery has confounded him for many decades, so I would love to help solve it for him. He was thrilled that I found his attestation papers, and thought we were onto something, but the trail seems to have gone cold again. It's a shame so many records were destroyed by German bombing, I'm just glad enough of his survived to at least get his service number and unit. I'll try searching your suggestions.

 

Thanks again.

Steve

[Neale1961]

There is a Sidney Cooper registered as died in the December quarter of 1923 in Birmingham ( DOB 1888).

It might be worthwhile investigating this record.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

His records are quite badly burnt, but we can perhaps do something with them.

His discharge certificate from 1919 does indeed have the number 116 on it , but I think it says 116 AT. MT Coy

 

 

 

 

So I don't think this means 116 Coy ASC, but maybe 116 Auxiliary Company ASC.

According to Michael Young's book,  there was indeed a 116 Auxiliary Coy whose proper title was a 116 Auxiliary (Petrol) Company.

OK, perhaps the abbreviation should be 116 A(P) Coy ASC? I don't know.

That company's real ASC number was 1074 Coy ASC.

They were in Italy during the war, disbanded 1920.

The Theatre of War is partly burnt off on the form, but do I detect 'gyp'  [Egypt]?

[Ron Clifton]

I think you are right that it refers to 116 Auxiliary (Petrol) Company, aka 1074 MT Company ASC.

 

Ron

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

I happened to notice when I was browsing his record that M2/053138 was an Arthur Cooper.

S Hughes - were they related?

[S Hughes]

Possibly, he had a younger brother named Arthur Cooper born in 1899 and died in 1957. But we know nothing of him joining the military as he would have only been 14 or 15 at the start of the War.

[S Hughes]

Thanks for all your insight. Interesting you spotted the possible theatre of War, I never really looked closely at it.

 

Do you know if that stamp above "18 May 1919  Fovant" is the date he was granted 28 days furlough?