Master Gunner Frederick Templeton, R.G.A. Singapore

[Rory Reynolds]

Hi all

 

I am trying to research and track down any officers file and information on the above. He served with the 2nd S.D. R.G.A. in the Boer War and then the 62nd Coy, R.G.A. in Singapore - was there in the 1915 Mutiny although I can't find out much about the R.G.A. role there??

 

He was also with the 62nd Coy, R.G.A. in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900?

 

He was a Master Gunner and was commissioned on 26 November 1918.

 

Please assist with any info about him and the units he served in. Could also have been known as Frederick William Templeton.

 

Regards

 

Rory

Templeton 1919 Army List.pdf

[PRC]

May be a coincidence but the 1911 Census of England and Wales records a Sergeant Frederick Templeton, Royal Garrison Artillery at Woolwich Common, Woolwich. I suspect this is a specific barrack or something similar as the other residents of the same page of an institutional return includes other members of the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Royal Field Artillery, Military Foot Police and the Royal Artillery Band. No specific trade \ role or unit is given. He was then aged 30, single and shown as born Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland.

 

His Great War Medal Index Card shows him as a Warrant Officer Class 1 and service number 30107. The National Archive have catalogued him as Frederick William, while Ancestry have him as Frederick - both names are on the MiC. He qualified for the British War Medal as he was serving overseas at Singapore on the 4th August 1914, i.e. the outbreak of the war, but nothing else having not served in a Theatre of War. He was commissioned in the RGA,  as you say, on the 26th November 1918. As an officer he therefore had to apply for his medal, which he did in 1922. His contact address then was c\o Officer Commanding, RGA, Tigne, Malta.

 

As it appears he stayed in the army postwar it is more likely that his service records are with the Ministry of Defence rather than the National Archive.

 

Hope that helps,

Peter

[FROGSMILE]

The Woolwich Common address refers to what much later became known as “RA Barracks, Woolwich” (to differentiate from the Depot AOC, which was also on the common and not far away).

The RGA at Singapore manned the coastal batteries that were expensively updated pre-WW2 only to infamously be facing the wrong way (they could not traverse rearwards) during the Japanese advance down the peninsula.

The RGA officers and NCOs were experts at long range indirect fire at a time when the RFA and RHA were still largely engaging via direct fire.  As such they were technical experts in an art of gunnery that had to be learned by the rest of the artillery quickly.  The Canadian coastal artillery had developed similar expertise and these two bodies of technical excellence were largely responsible for modernising the British and Commonwealth artillery to the highest standards by 1918 and the Last Hundred Days offensive battles.

In the Mediterranean Malta and Gibraltar were bastions of this RGA skill set.  As a technical expert commissioned from Master Gunner this man would have been designated by the term ‘District Officer’, which title marked his status and role.

Edited 15 January , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Rory Reynolds]

Many thanks for the assistance you have rendered chaps. I have found out, via another forum, that the 2nd SD, R.G.A. evolved into the 62nd Coy. R.G.A. - Templeton's Boer War medal was issued to the 2nd SD and his China 1900 medal to the 62nd Coy.

 

In July 1922 he was District Officer in Malta and in 1923, District Officer in Plymouth.

 

There does not seem to be an Officer's file for him at the TNA

 

Regards

 

Rory