Service numbers RNVR & recruitment

[MJS]

Hi all, I'm keen to understand why service numbers could be quite a way apart from two people who joined within a day or two from the same area? I would've assumed they were sequential but that doesn't seem to be the case from my research, considering RNVR specifically. Also, in 1915 would there have been local recruitment drives or would it have simply been people volunteering to sign up at the local army office or a combination? Am researching a family member and trying get a broad understanding of whether they joined up on their own or with ither locals/friends. Of course we'll never know the full story but interesting to look into. Thanks

 

[horatio2]

Just now, MJS said:

considering RNVR specifically.

As a gneral rule RNVR Official Numbers were issued in date order by Division.

Can you give specific example(s) of exceptions please?

Recruitment was by a combination of the methods you suggest but I doubt the "local army office" would have been much interested in recruiting for the Navy.

[MJS]

Fair play, my lack of thought on that one!

My great Grandfather's brother, Gabriel Bird, has the date of entry on his records as 15-08-15 Tyneside Z/6544.

I was intrigued as to whether he may have joined alone or with others, maybe from the colliery he worked at. The closest numbers around didn't suggest this was the case. However, a local war memorial lists others from the area who also died. I checked their records and their records showed they lived in the same village, both were miners, but their date of entry was a day earlier (14-08-15). However, their service numbers are z/6654 & z/6655, As you can see it all seems a little mixed up.

It will be interesting to hear what you know to unravel this.

Thanks

[horatio2]

The implication is that Tyneside Division RNVR recruited, through an unknown number of recruiting offices, well over 100 men over the weekend of 14 and 15 August 1915. This is not unreasonable given that he average Tynesiderecruitment rate in the year Sep 1914 to Aug 1915 was about 25 per day but ramped up greatly in 1915.

More "mix-up" is probably the result of individual Tyneside Division recruiting centres being allocated different batches of numbers which were used up faster or slower than average. The general rule of chronological order still applies even if numbers were not allocated in strict date-order.

Edited 15 September , 2023 by horatio2

[MJS]

Thanks for this information & depth of knowledge. So, all  three signed up over the same weekend, and only being just over 100 apart (service number) that could easily be linked to a vast influx of applicants etc over the weekend. Fascinating. Thank you