Files in Both WO 363 & WO 364

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

I found a very interesting case today at the NA of a soldier who had a file in WO 363 and also a file in WO 364. Has anyone else come across this before?

Ian

[Terry_Reeves]

Ian

I had exactly the same experience just three weeks ago. In fact the man had three sets of service papers. One in WO 363 and two sets in WO 364. It took me a while to understand why but it is a bit of a long story...

Terry Reeves

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Terry,

Can you elaborate and summarise?

Ian

[Terry_Reeves]

Ian

I can certainly elaborate, keeping it simple is a little more difficult.

The sapper I have been researching was entitled to the Territorial Force War Medal, BWM and Victory Medals. In addition he also received the India General Service Medal (Clasp Afghanistan NW Frontier 1919) and the Territorial Efficiency Medal (Geo V1). I am fortunate to have his medals and the medal index confirms his entitlement, all to the RE.

An examination of WO 363 showed several men of the same name, but none that served in the Royal Engineers. W0 364 however revealed my man. He had originally enlisted in 4th Bn Cameron Highlanders (F Coy) in 1910 for 4 years. On 5th August 1914, he was

embodied and on 28 September 1914 he transferred to the Div Sigs Coy of the East Anglian RE. The 4th Cameron Highlanders were at Bedford during this period so his transfer is not difficult to explain.

He served at home until mid - March 1916 when he was discharged time served. Tacked onto the end of his WO 364 papers was another set of papers which had several alterations mainly to his service numbers of which there were three. Included in the 2nd set of WO 364 is request for documents from the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, dated 30.3.1938

Re-visiting WO 363, I found his original set of Cameron Highlanders papers, but with no mention of his RE service.

There are some conumdrums here I must admit. He must have re-enlisted some time after March 1916 to qualify for his war medals, but there is no mention of this in any of the sets,which I can' t explain.

The reason for three sets of documents it seems is (i) his initial enlistment into the TF in 1910 (ii) his transfer to the RE in 1914 and (iii) his continued service after the war.

As you can see there are some gaps. The 2nd set of WO 364 papers seem to indicate a claim to some sort of pension, hence his inclusion in this series, but why is there no mention of his re-enlistment? Incidentally, his RE service number is the same through to the 1930's.

As I said, it is a long story.

Terry Reeves