Kasauli Signal School

[ddycher]

All

 

Following on from separate thread,

Can anybody tell me anything about the Kasauli Signal School. I show men from the Devons training there through out the war but have little / no information on it.

 

Regards

Dave

Edited 19 June , 2019 by ddycher

[ddycher]

There was three schools on the establishment at the end of the war. The other two at Lucknow (which also comes up in the ref's I have) and Bangalore (which doesn't). Lucknow and Bangalore were commanded by Capt's from the 31st Div'l Sig.Coy. which was headquartered at Rawalpindi.

 

Kasauli (sometimes referred to as the Northern Command Signal School) was commanded from October 1915 by Henry Shoulder of the Liverpool Regt. Shoulder was commissioned into the Kings, from RQMS in the 2nd Royal Fusiliers, and seconded to the Indian Signal Service on the 20th October 1915, promoted to Lieut in November 1916 and to temp.Captain in April 1917. He was subsequently awarded the MBE retiring with a gratuity on the 10th June 1920.

 

Still not finding anything on the school itself though.

 

Regards

Dave 

Edited 23 June , 2019 by ddycher
Detail on Henry Shoulder updated.

[ddycher]

Now have a ref showing the Signalling School at Kasauli existed as early as 1898. Ref's for Instructors being appointed also for 1905. So my original thinking that this was a wartime establishment not correct.

 

No takers ?

 

Regards

Dave

[ddycher]

Got my first real insight from Oswald Early's "The Messenger" :

 

Instructor Courses ran for 3 months. 100 men at a time. Men were billeted in bungalows. 5th Devons ref's show 14 men in a room. The station was garrison by the 1/7th Hants which starts to explain the postings in the Wireless Signal Squadron thread.

 

Instructors ref's include Adams, Ossling and Martini.

 

Finals included :

 

Small Flag Test

Buzzer sending

Lamp reading test.

Telephone exchange test

Large flag sending

Telephone tracing faults

Map compass and protractor tests

Buzzer reading

Helio sending

Helio reading

Hello setting up and aligning

and exam papers on signalling, telephony, map reading and squad flag drill.

 

Regards

Dave

 

 

Edited 23 June , 2019 by ddycher

[MaureenE]

Interesting to read Dave.

 

Do you have a reference to the time of year.?  Kasauli was a hill station, so more a summer place. Some of the instructional schools seemed to have two locations, one of which I suspect was the summer location, the other for the rest of the year, but I have not seen anything definite on this.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[ddycher]

Only course I have nailed down yet Maureen was July ~ Sept ‘16.

 

Can see ref’s from 1/7th Hants who had a detachment there from March ‘16. Now seeing if the 1/5th SLI has any ref’s. I believe they had a detachment at Kasauli from December ‘14 ~ March ‘16. I think Kasauli was manned throughout from the Ambala Bde.

 

regards

Dave

[ddycher]

5 mins after answering Maureen I found a 1897 Navy and Army Illustrated article on what was then known as "the Central School of Army Signalling" at Kasauli. It states that 2x courses were held each year. Shows the Commandant of the time a Major T. E. O'Leary. Will follow this and see what else I can find.

 

Regards

Dave