1/3 (Lowland) Brigade RFA

[danlyon]

I am trying to track a Glaswegian Territorial Officer who served with 1/3 (Lowland) Brigade RFA : his papers are not at National Archives because he remained in the Army for many years after the Armistice, so I have been hoping to find the unit’s War Diary. This Brigade served with 52 (Lowland) Division at Gallipoli, and then in Egypt and Palestine. Just to make life difficult, it was re-designated 262 Brigade in May 1916, and just to make life even more difficult the re-designation was in Latin : CCLXII (III Lowland) Brigade RFA. 52 (Lowland) Division was relieved by 7 (Meerut) Division at the end of March 1918 and promptly departed for France, but it left its artillery units behind, so 262 Brigade remained in Egypt and served with the Indian Division until the Armistice. I have found a Forum post which raised my hopes, identifying the requisite War Diaries which were said to be available to view online :-  

52 (LOWLAND) DIVISION

WO 95/4599 Commander Royal Artillery 1916 Mar. - 1918 Mar.

WO 95/4600 261 (1/3 Lowland) Brigade Royal Field Artillery 1916 Feb. - 1918 Mar.  

However, while the National Archives search engine does flag them up, it says they have not been digitised. I have then tried the Ancestry search engine, using every permutation I can think of (including Latin) but I simply cannot find them. Can anyone flag up a link that actually works, please ?!

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Dan

 

I don't think that the War Diaries for Egypt and Palestine have been digitised yet, and I am fairly certain that Ancestry haven't got them anyway. You will need to visit Kew to consult the originals.

 

You might also like to try this file:

WO 95/4601 262 (1/4 Lowland) Brigade Royal Field Artillery 1915 Dec. - 1918 Mar.  
or these, for its time in the Meerut Division:

WO 95/4708 261 Brigade Royal Field Artillery 1918 Apr. - 1919 June  
WO 95/4708 262 Brigade Royal Field Artillery 1918 Apr. - 1919 May  

 

The official designations of artillery brigades always used Latin numerals at this period: TNA's catalogue renders them in Arabic numerals for readers' convenience.

 

Ron
 

 

[alantwo]

Danlyon

 

This may or may not help but there is a note in the 52nd Lowland Division CRA War Diary for 3rd November 1915 that on that day the 3rd Lowland Brigade RFA were at Dunfermline.

 

Regards

Alan

[danlyon]

Thanks Ron - you've confirmed my pessimistic suspicion ! I live too far from Kew to do it myself, and the small details I am after are not worth deploying a researcher to plough through several years of Diary page by page. I do know that my man left a very long diy autobiography, which should have all the answers I need, and that his grandson's wife has transcribed the lot onto disc. So all I have to do is persuade them to let me see the disc ...

 

And thanks Alan - it all mounts up, although I am hoping that it gets more interesting when the Division gets to Gallipoli and beyond.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dan

[michaeldr]

20 hours ago, danlyon said:

I am trying to track a Glaswegian Territorial Officer who served with 1/3 (Lowland) Brigade RFA : his papers are not at National Archives because he remained in the Army for many years after the Armistice, so I have been hoping to find the unit’s War Diary. This Brigade served with 52 (Lowland) Division at Gallipoli, and then in Egypt and Palestine. Just to make life difficult, it was re-designated 262 Brigade in May 1916,

 

 

Thompson's history of the 52nd Div. suggests that the 3rd (Glasgow) Brigade were renumbered as the 261st [rather than as the 262nd]

 

 

 

 

The re-numbering is also given thus in Farndale

Edited 4 November , 2019 by michaeldr

[alantwo]

Just add to Michael's post with the War Diary entry I mentioned above.

 

Regards

Alan

 

[michaeldr]

Dan,

 

When looking for a particular officer, then the NA is your best bet

The 52nd Divisional history which I quoted previously can only help in very general terms 

though the Appendix III is useful regarding their time with the Indian division

but again, it is background only

 

 

Good Luck

Michael

 

[danlyon]

Thanks Michael, although you've brought on that headache again ! I'm away from my desktop at the moment, so I can't check where I got the idea that 3rd Lowland Brigade became 262 Brigade rather than 261 Brigade, but looking at Chris Baker's Long Long Trail he has obviously looked in the same place : he includes in 52 Division's artillery "CCLXII (III Lowland) Brigade RFA" - if I remember my Latin aright CCLXII is 262, not 261. Then the National Archives use modern numbering to render the War Diary reference as WO 95/4600 261 (1/3 Lowland) Brigade Royal Field Artillery, so now indeed 261, not 262. Like I said, here comes that headache again.

 

Apart from the need to get these things right the point is a little academic at the moment, since I can't deploy a researcher to read the Diaries at Kew, and they don't have my man's service papers because he stayed in uniform long after the Armistice. So the family's own disc with his DIY biography remains my best hope, but they are being a bit quiet at the moment which with Dad in his mid-90s suggests some unhappy drama going on - this may not be a tactful time to go barging in with my size 10s. I'll have a look in my desktop when I can access it and come back if I can add anything more, but otherwise I think this will have to go on the back burner for a while …

 

Dan

[danlyon]

On 04/11/2019 at 17:31, alantwo said:

Just add to Michael's post with the War Diary entry I mentioned above.

Regards

Alan

Thanks Alan - please see my reply to Michael ! Dan