New recruits Kit List

[Spree Farm]

Good Morning Learned People,

I had a search through the topics and cannot find the information I am looking for. Does anyone have a complete kit list of the clothing and equipment a new recruit would have received on his first visit to the QM during 1917?

[FROGSMILE]

On 06/05/2023 at 08:09, Spree Farm said:

Good Morning Learned People,

I had a search through the topics and cannot find the information I am looking for. Does anyone have a complete kit list of the clothing and equipment a new recruit would have received on his first visit to the QM during 1917?

See enclosed jpeg.

 

 

Edited 7 May , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[ianjonesncl]

On 06/05/2023 at 08:09, Spree Farm said:

Does anyone have a complete kit list of the clothing and equipment a new recruit would have received on his first visit to the QM during 1917?

One thought is he may have only been issued with the basic uniform and essentials (messing equipment / housewife) on his first visit. This would then provide enough for training to commence, with the rest of the kit being issued later once the recruit could at least look after himself.

[FROGSMILE]

2 hours ago, ianjonesncl said:

One thought is he may have only been issued with the basic uniform and essentials (messing equipment / housewife) on his first visit. This would then provide enough for training to commence, with the rest of the kit being issued later once the recruit could at least look after himself.

That’s a really good thought Ian and I feel that you’re almost certainly right for the period from late 1914 through to 1916, when there were a series of problems in obtaining sufficient clothing, equipment, and arms (especially rifles, but also machine guns).  On reflection I think that changed quite substantially in 1917, when the effects of the better organised and centralised Training Reserve began to be felt via a far more methodical and systematic arrangement for the equipping and training of the by then conscript army. 

Edited 7 May , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Spree Farm]

Hi,

This is really interesting and useful advice.  

The reason I ask is, I am tracing the path that my GGF took during his enlistment on 1 January 1917. I have copies of recomended training and the standards require to be deemed competent. I know from his service records that went from Normanton Barracks, Derby to the Rugeley Camp on Cannock Chase, funny thing is we lived there at one stage an new nothing about the camps, including the large German War Cemetery there. I have managed to work out from recent LIDAR scans of the camp there were around 16 to 18 individual barracks each with their own parade square and support buildings. Which would account for the camp size of 20 000 men. There is one point on the information I have concerns about from on the Staffordshire web site is this comment; that "they were responsible for the preparation of their own food", would this have been correct? I would have thought this was impractical. 

[FROGSMILE]

On 08/05/2023 at 00:15, Spree Farm said:

Hi,

This is really interesting and useful advice.  

The reason I ask is, I am tracing the path that my GGF took during his enlistment on 1 January 1917. I have copies of recomended training and the standards require to be deemed competent. I know from his service records that went from Normanton Barracks, Derby to the Rugeley Camp on Cannock Chase, funny thing is we lived there at one stage an new nothing about the camps, including the large German War Cemetery there. I have managed to work out from recent LIDAR scans of the camp there were around 16 to 18 individual barracks each with their own parade square and support buildings. Which would account for the camp size of 20 000 men. There is one point on the information I have concerns about from on the Staffordshire web site is this comment; that "they were responsible for the preparation of their own food", would this have been correct? I would have thought this was impractical. 

Each individual camp usually had its own cookhouse (staffed by army cooks#), from which the men collected their food.  Dining rooms were not common at that time and men instead usually ate in barrack rooms seated on forms at trestle tables.  Sometimes, in good weather, tables were set up outdoors under an awning or roofed platform (open sided).

It was common during training to feed in camp at the start of the day and end of the day, but have the lunch meal elsewhere depending on where training activity was taking place.  The lunch (main) meal might be a simple one of bread and cheese, or corned beef, served with hot tea, or sometimes a simple hearty stew brought out in ‘hay boxes’ (a container that preserved heat and completed the cooking process via insulation).

On rare occasions a mobile field kitchen might be used, especially during battalion route marches, in part to practice the cooks**.  The evening meal back in camp was commonly a more simple affair. The main principle was to provide an absolute minimum of one hot meal a day, but ideally two.  Soup was a staple.

#there was no catering corps and instead regimental cooks (who were trained soldiers first and foremost) were trained at the Army School of Cookery run by the Army Service Corps (ASC) at Aldershot.  Additional, regional cookery schools were set up during the war to cater for increased numbers.

**cooking took place on the march as the kitchens were on wheels and drawn by horses.  They would go ahead and be at way stations where the marching men subsequently arrived to receive a hot meal.

You might find this thread also of interest: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/252797-british-and-empire-tents-and-shelters-of-the-great-war/

 

 

Edited 9 May , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Spree Farm]

Lovely photograph and thank you for all the information. The image is terrain image of Rugely camp 

Terrain Model - Rugeley Camp © John M :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

 

[FROGSMILE]

15 hours ago, Spree Farm said:

Lovely photograph and thank you for all the information. The image is terrain image of Rugely camp 

Terrain Model - Rugeley Camp © John M :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

 

And here’s a group from a Training Reserve Battalion outside their hut in Rugely Camp.  Note their button cap badges.

Edited 9 May , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Spree Farm]

This photo provides a great deal of information. The huts used to accommodated upto 34 recruits so it appears they were split into two groups of around fifteen with two platoon Cpls. The use of a button as a cap badge add details to my scribbling (Book - Finding Wilfred. - 53008 W Lomas. CWGC had his body and lost it, I believed I have found him and the other 6 missing from 10th Bn DLI Dec 1917, He is in Poelcappelle along with three others, with three buried in Passchendaele New British Cemetery). The photo was taken 1 month after he left Rugeley for Folkstone.