Liverpool Regiment - Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

[Allan1892]

Whilst researching a man in the 7th Battalion, KLR I found that he had been transferred into the 2nd Battalion RIF. The transfer must have taken place after the TF re-numbering in 1916 as his medal rolls entry shows his KLR new number. I noticed from the pages before and after his entry in the medal rolls  that there were many men from the KLR being transferred into the 2nd Battalion, RIF -- does anyone have any knowledge of this event?

[RussT]

If you wish to share some examples - numbers/names etc I'm more than prepared to take a look.

Russ

[Allan1892]

Thank you Russ, I have attached images of a couple of pages from the medal rolls (images courtesy of Ancestry)

[RussT]

They are men who previously belonged to a whole variety of former KLR Battalions (not just TF ones) - immediately noticeable from numbers belonging to different TF Battalion blocks of 6-digit numbers. There are also 5-digit numbers probably from the Regular series that also would have been used for war-raised service Battalions.

Evidently all transferred together and re-numbered to the RIF. "Interestingly" the men were not re-numbered in surname alphabetical order - there was no requirement to do so - it's just a very common observation.

There is a dearth of Service Records that might have told us where and when the transfer occurred. My money is on a transfer of recovered sick/wounded at an IBD probably sometime in 1917/1918 - something that was happening very commonly in moving men from where there was a temporary surplus to where men were needed most at that moment in time.

Regards

Russ

 

[Allan1892]

Thank you Russ -- 

1 minute ago, RussT said:

There is a dearth of Service Records that might have told us where and when the transfer occurred.

I was surprised that I couldn't find at least one surviving record that could give me the answer.

 

2 minutes ago, RussT said:

My money is on a transfer of recovered sick/wounded at an IBD probably sometime in 1917/1918 - something that was happening very commonly in moving men from where there was a temporary surplus to where men were needed most at that moment in time.

Your conclusion is something that I was thinking on as well.

Looks like one of the many questions on WW1 that can't be answered