Charles R Flower Army Service Corps

[David_Blanchard]

I have just found a relative’s pension record and MIC- I would like to find the War Diary of his unit.

 

ASC 5 Cavalry Field Ambulance - could anyone provide the reference?

 

thanks in advance. 

[charlie962]

This is the 5th Cavalry Field Ambulance Diary. It may be what you want ?

 

Free to download if you register with Nat Archives, so nothing to lose !

 

Charlie

[David_Blanchard]

Just found it thanks! But nothing separate for the the associated ASC?

[charlie962]

I was assuming he might have been attached to FA thus coming under FA Diary, ie ASC providing some of the transport ?. There is possibility he was with Brigade Transport.

 

LongLongTrail Orbat of 2nd Cavalry Division includes:

 

2nd Cavalry Divisional HQ ASC	424 (Horsed Transport) Company, formed 10 October 1914
2nd Cavalry Divisional Auxiliary (Horse) ASC	575 (Horsed Transport) Company, formed 25 September 1915
2nd Cavalry Divisional Supply Column ASC	46 and 413 (Mechanical Transport) Companies. 46 absorbed 413 on 10 October 1916.   Could he be from one of those ?     War Diary for 2 Cav Div HQ ASC here

Edited 15 June , 2020 by charlie962

[charlie962]

The Field Ambulance War Diaries are always full of unexpected detail and are interesting to read for the different light they throw on Bn, Bde and Div activities.

 

The FA war diary has this early marginal note. I don't know for how long it applied:

The light ambulances (6) moved behind the ammunition column or followed the Bde while the 4 heavy waggons and the GS waggons etc went with the Bde transport. The Diary records chiefly the doings of the light section

[charlie962]

What was your man's role ? Was he a driver of a motor ambulance perhaps ?

[David_Blanchard]

Excellent- thanks for this. This is his MIC and I have found a large pension record.

He became a Staff Sargeant- was in South Africa in 1911 census- seems to have left shortly afterwards but enlists again in 1913.

[charlie962]

A wheeler corporal. Suggests more likely with the bigger waggons ?

 

His Service record says he was actually posted to 5 FdAmb on 8/8/14 and remained with them till 22/12/15. So the FA war diary is the right one.

 

You will find that the 5 CFA war diary has periods of detail about individual ORs then nothing. I didn't see a mention of Flower but other ASC men were mentioned from time to time.

 

19th December 1915      3 NCOs and 1 man ASC left Unit for Aldershot for duties with New Army.

 

I think one of these was Flower as it fits with the notes in his Service File

 

Charlie

[David_Blanchard]

Charlie, thanks very much for taking the time out to tell me the details about Charles Flower’s Service. Just contacted relative and she is looking for photographs of him during the war. 
 

There seems to a history within the family of men joining the ASC, his father and at least one brother of members of the unit.

 

BTW when you say service file do you mean found in his pension record?

Edited 16 June , 2020 by David_Blanchard

[charlie962]

3 minutes ago, David_Blanchard said:

do you mean found in his pension record?

Yes, you will see his service papers were included with his pension papers. Ancestry call them Pension papers byt Find my Past call them Service papers !

 

charlie

[David_Blanchard]

This is part of his father’s record- and what a record it is- Zulu Wars, and the Mahdi Uprising in the Sudan.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

This is the link to his Service Record (in the Pension Records) on Ancestry:

Link

 

First page mentions No.4 Coy ASC at the time of writing (1920).

And 876 Coy whilst back in Grantham, UK 1915-1920.

Edited 16 June , 2020 by Dai Bach y Sowldiwr

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Michael Young explains the numbers.

876 Coy was formed 4th December 1916.

It was a HT Training School, based at Grantham, Bordon.

Whether the coy. was, or was related to a Machine Gun Training Centre here isn't exactly clear to me but Young mentions the MGTC.

876 was renumbered 4 HT Coy. on 30th July 1920.