Enlistment place of a soldier

[Keith_history_buff]

I have been looking at the enlistment places of a number of deceased soldiers. It has come as no surprise to me that the recorded enlistment place is the same location as a drill hall or similar.

I have come across a few places that do not appear to be the location of a drill hall. Could this be an administrative error mixing up place of birth & enlistment place? Or, was it possible that a recruiting sergeant could offer the King's shilling in a village, and that would be subsequently recorded as the enlistment place on the attestation?

Below are the exceptions I encountered
 

Abercynon, Pontypridd, Glamorganshire
Aberbargoed, Bedwellty, Monmouthshire
Bargoed, Pontypridd, Glamorganshire
Cwm [Ebbw Vale, Bedwellty?], Monmouthshire
Llanvihangel, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
Newbridge, Newport, Monmouthshire
Pentre, Pontypridd, Glamorganshire
Roath, Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Tonypandy, Pontypridd, Glamorganshire

 

 

Babingley, Frome, Norfolk
Caversham, Henley, Oxfordshire
Chisledon, Highworth, Wiltshire
Hoxton, Shoreditch, London
Lydbrook, Westbury on Severn, Gloucestershire
Pendleton, Clitheroe, Lancashire
 

With regard to Hoxton, whilst I gather the drill hall was in that locality, it would have been known as the Shoreditch Drill Hall

 

I would be interested to see what others have encountered.

 

Thanks

Keith
 

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, Keith_history_buff said:

With regard to Hoxton, whilst I gather the drill hall was in that locality, it would have been known as the Shoreditch Drill Hall

 

    The drill hall in the council ward of Hoxton was part of the old Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch.   There is a little confusion at times as part of the area seems to have been recruiting for 7th Essex but later switched to 10th Londons

 

Edited 5 April , 2021 by Guest

[Keith_history_buff]

Of the "exceptions" that I am looking at, they do not have surviving service records, except....

14976 William Blaydon does have a surviving service record. This does record his enlistment place as Bargoed, and he enlisted on 31 August 1914. It did make me wonder whether "recruiting roadshows" could have been temporarily set up in 1914, to facilitate recruiting in more remote districts.

 4622 Frederick Morris does not have a surviving service record. He does appear in the precursor to the Army Form 358 Enlistment Book, which have survived for the period 1882-1897 for the South Wales Borderers. As may be expected, it documents this man was born in a village in Gloucestershire, but enlisted in Brecon, being a collier by occupation. An administrative error on his SDGW entry in this particular instance.

[Derek Black]

SDGW is not reliable for place of birth in my experience.

Derek.

[Keith_history_buff]

For any pre-war enlistments with unlikely enlistment place recorded, I am going to consider it erroneous, and most probably confused with the place of birth.

[rolt968]

I am researching soldiers from rural areas.

 

I believe that Soldiers Died in the Great War is not consistent in what it records as the place of enlistment. In some cases it records where the solider signed the attestation form while in others it gives the place where he agreed to join up/ gave his name to the recruiter/ took the King's shilling. Places of birth are sometimes wrong, but it may be that the man gave the wrong place of birth himself. (I know of at least one "Native of X" in the insciption on a CWGC gravestone which is wrong! That presumably came from the parents.)

 

RM