Wives 'on the strength' of Battalions

[alf mcm]

I am  currently reading Andrea Hetherington's book: British Widows of the First World War - The Forgotten Legion. She mentions that, at the start of the war, only women 'on the strength' of a unit were eligible for a widow's pension if their husband was killed in action or died of his wounds. This raises a number of questions;-

1. How many wives would be 'on the strength' of an infantry Battalion?

2. Would there be quotas for rank i.e. a set number of Sergeants wives?

3. I assume cavalry and artillery units would have wives on the strength, but what about smaller units such as Royal Engineers or Royal Army Medical Corps?

 

Regards,

Alf McM

[ss002d6252]

18 minutes ago, alf mcm said:

I am  currently reading Andrea Hetherington's book: British Widows of the First World War - The Forgotten Legion. She mentions that, at the start of the war, only women 'on the strength' of a unit were eligible for a widow's pension if their husband was killed in action or died of his wounds. This raises a number of questions;-

1. How many wives would be 'on the strength' of an infantry Battalion?

2. Would there be quotas for rank i.e. a set number of Sergeants wives?

3. I assume cavalry and artillery units would have wives on the strength, but what about smaller units such as Royal Engineers or Royal Army Medical Corps?

 

Regards,

Alf McM

 

In August 1914 the 'on-strength' family was kept low by design. From 5 Aug 1914 the arm,y rapidly expanded the support and Separation Allowance was paid to unmarried wives. The entitlement to a widows pension from August 1914 was a moot point as the first widow' pensions were not paid until February 1915, by which time the distinction had really disappeared.

 

In the 1914 Kings Regs a transfer to the AVC, APC, ASC, AOC and RAMC required that a man be unmarried, so if they did have an establishment they were trying to keep it as low as possible.

 

Craig

[alf mcm]

Craig,

  Thanks for the information on King's Regs. Very interesting.

  I'm not sure about pensions not being paid until February 1915. What did the widows of 1914 have to live on? As I understand it, widows 'on the strength' received 5s. per week at the start of the war, rising to 7s.6. in October. I think you may be referring to the majority of war widows, who were of course not on the strength.

 

Regards,

Alf McM

[Airshipped]

With thanks to TNA AIR 1/1220/204/67/5 here's an example from the RFC regarding men who enlisted for the duration of the war, i.e. were supernumerary to married establishment.

 

Officers were encouraged to ascertain the woman's 'character', and to discourage newly-enlisted men from marrying unless they were certain to be 'good'.

 

 

[alf mcm]

Thanks Airshipped,

  It is interestingb to note that men enlisted for duration of war didn't actually need permission to marry.

 

Regards,

Alf McM

[ss002d6252]

On 18/06/2021 at 05:39, alf mcm said:

I'm not sure about pensions not being paid until February 1915. What did the widows of 1914 have to live on? As I understand it, widows 'on the strength' received 5s. per week at the start of the war, rising to 7s.6. in October. I think you may be referring to the majority of war widows, who were of course not on the strength.

 

Separation Allowance continued to be paid for the first 26 weeks following any death, only after that did a widows pension kick in. This means that Feb 1915 was when the 26 weeks passed before any wartime widows pension could be paid. In Nov 1914 the minimum widows pension was 7s 6d but, although the scheme was in place, the 26 weeks period intervened and not many would have received it at this rate as the rate went up to 9s minimum in 1915 (Edit- the rise to 9s appears to have happened in 1914).

 

As of Nov 1914

 

 

Craig

[alf mcm]

Thanks Craig,

  I understand what you are saying now.

 

Regards,

Alf McM

[MaureenE]

Online article

"‘Delicate duties’: issues of class and respectability in government policy towards the wives and widows of British soldiers in the era of the Great War" by Janis Lomas Women's History Review, 9:1, 2000, pages 123-147.

 

Maureen

[alf mcm]

Thanks Maureen,

  It's extremely interesting to read.

 

Regards,

Alf McM

[ss002d6252]

An interesting read but it still falls in to at least one error along the way. such as assuming the payment of widow's war pensions in 1914.

 

A good example is 9226 Booth, who was killed on 23 Oct 1914. This was widows case #23 for the DLI (at that time each regiment had a separate numbering run for pensions).

The Class V pension was paid with effect from 2 May 1915, Separation Allowance having been paid until 1 May 1915 - the 26 weeks was sometimes just under and sometimes just over by the time the award was sorted . The initial pension form is date stamped 18 Nov 1914.

Craig

[alf mcm]

Thanks again Craig,

   This reinforces what you said previously.

 

Regards,

Alf McM