Identify WW1 army unit from Photos of uniform

[David P]

These are pictures of my grandfather taken between 1916 &1920 can anyone help me identify the army unit he was in ?

[FROGSMILE]

Royal Welsh Fusiliers (hurrah!).

 

He is a marksman (crossed rifles), has been wounded twice (two small vertical stripes) and completed 2-years service without disciplinary infringements (chevron on left cuff).  His rank was ‘private’.

 

The photo on horseback relates to earlier service in the yeomanry (part-time cavalry).  The cap badge is three PoW feathers, which was worn by numerous units, but in this case my guess would be either Denbighshire Hussars Yeomanry (plain feathers badge), or Pembroke Yeomanry (with scroll).  Do you know where he came from?

 

Generally speaking cavalry units tended not to fare well amidst the machine guns and artillery fire of WW1, but there was invariably a shortage of infantry due to attrition rates and so many individuals were compulsorily transferred.  Also entire units were converted to infantry, usually retaining their yeomanry lineage via a secondary title (in parentheses) to their new infantry one.

 

Edited 10 June , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Pat Atkins]

What was his name?

[David P]

Thank you Frogsmile for a very informative reply and way quicker than I dared hope for. Now for some research into where he served,I recall him mentioning the Dardanelles but I'm not sure if I remembered that correctly.

His name was James Richards, born in 1894 Rowley Regis Staffordshire, later moved to Yardley in Worcestershire, married in 1916 in Axbridge Somersetand died in 1976 in Nottingham

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, David P said:

Thank you Frogsmile for a very informative reply and way quicker than I dared hope for. Now for some research into where he served,I recall him mentioning the Dardanelles but I'm not sure if I remembered that correctly.

His name was James Richards, born in 1894 Rowley Regis Staffordshire, later moved to Yardley in Worcestershire, married in 1916 in Axbridge Somersetand died in 1976 in Nottingham

With regards to the yeomanry connection both, the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade (which included the Denbigh’s), and the South Wales Mounted Brigade were sent to Egypt in March 1916, but were quickly merged to form a ‘dismounted’ brigade that 11-months later converted wholesale into a series of infantry battalions in order to create a coherent infantry formation.  As part of this reorganisation the Denbigh’s became the 24th (Denbighshire Yeomanry) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers.  It seems to me likely that that’s what occurred with your grandfather given his mention of the Middle East.

 

The odd aspect is that as with all part-time soldiers yeomanry units were formed and trained local to where the men lived at the time and it’s not readily apparent why a man from Worcestershire would be in a Welsh yeomanry regiment.

 

 I enclose the badges of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire yeomanry regiments and as you can see they do not appear to be the badge seen in the photo of your grandfather on horseback.  My conclusion has to be that at the beginning of the war he was living and working in Wales and became an auxiliary soldier with a local yeomanry unit there.
 

Edited 10 June , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[David P]

James's grandfather was from Pontypridd Glamorgan,and later moved to Staffordshire so that is the Welsh connection, . I can't find any record of James going back to Wales but its entirely possible.

Edited 11 June , 2020 by David P

[FROGSMILE]

3 hours ago, David P said:

James's grandfather was from Pontypridd Glamorgan,and later moved to Staffordshire so that is the Welsh connection, . I can't find any record of James going back to Wales but its entirely possible.

 

That seems quite significant, as the Glamorgan Yeomanry was yet another of the units that used the PoW feathers as a principal feature of its cap badge.  It seems conceivable that James might have served with them, but until we know more about his movements it's impossible to know which of the yeomanry units he served with, as the photograph is not clear enough and the similarity between badges does not help.  It's also important to note that as with the yeomanry units mentioned earlier in the thread the Glamorgan Yeomanry deployed to Egypt (in their case as part of the South Wales Mounted Brigade) and, like the others, was dismounted and converted into infantry.  As well as the 24th Bn RWF, the 25th Bn RWF was also formed from yeomanry.  In theory all the yeomen came from one particular unit, but in reality some yeomanry units were stronger than others and so provided surplus men for other infantry units than that formally affiliated to it.

Edited 11 June , 2020 by FROGSMILE