525 H/S Employment Company

[Allan1892]

John Depear (baptised John Joseph Depear), born 23 June 1867, Holbeach, Lincolnshire, served in the 1st Battalion York and Lancaster (service number 2928) regiment from 11 February 1891 to 10 June 1902 seeing action in both Boer Wars.

Although he was 46 years of age, he enlisted on the 11 January 1915 and appears to have been placed in the Lincolnshire Regiment (see image below). He was then transferred into the 525 H/S Employment Company on the 30 June 1917 and then the 477 Agricultural Company on the 30 October 1917. I can not find an MIC for him, I wasn't surprised as I doubt that he would have gone overseas due to his age.

As he transferred into the 525 H/S Employment Company, am I right in assuming that he would have been in a similar role with the Lincolnshire's? The attached image shows a service number of 14865, I assume this was his number with the Lincolnshire's. He then has a service number of 280901 which in turn was crossed out and replaced with 14865. To complicate things, his pension card show another number of 55777 (image attached)

I have failed to find out anything about the 525 H/S, can someone tell me anything about them or point me in the right direction.

Image of extract of service courtesy of Find My Past.

Image of Pension Card courtesy of WFA

[MaxD]

HS is Home Service.  HS Labour Companies were used for duites in garrisions and command HQs as for example batmen, cooks and the like.  525 Emp Coy was based in the Lincoln Area.  The men were those of the lowest medical category releasing fitter men for overseas.

He was transferred to 477 Agricultural Company to work on the land, again around Lincoln.  

Source for the above is thesplendid No Labour No Battle by Starling and Lee - highly recommended.

 

MaxD

Edited 25 July , 2021 by MaxD

[MaxD]

The number 280901 is a post early 1917 number allotted to 13 Battalion Lincolns which was a home service battalion so whatever his job was, it was in UK Lincolnshire Regiment – The Long, Long Trail (longlongtrail.co.uk)

 

MaxD

[Allan1892]

18 hours ago, MaxD said:

HS is Home Service.  HS Labour Companies were used for duites in garrisions and command HQs as for example batmen, cooks and the like.  525 Emp Coy was based in the Lincoln Area.  The men were those of the lowest medical category releasing fitter men for overseas.

He was transferred to 477 Agricultural Company to work on the land, again around Lincoln.  

Source for the above is thesplendid No Labour No Battle by Starling and Lee - highly recommended.

 

MaxD

Thank you once again MaxD -- just been on Amazon and have ordered a copy of No Labour No Battle -- I have several ancestors who ended up in the Labour Corps after illness / wounds, I'm sure that this book will be of help.

 

17 hours ago, MaxD said:

The number 280901 is a post early 1917 number allotted to 13 Battalion Lincolns which was a home service battalion so whatever his job was, it was in UK Lincolnshire Regiment – The Long, Long Trail (longlongtrail.co.uk)

 

MaxD

Thank you for coming up with this number allocation.

Allan