Raising a Battalion

[SteveE]

Showing my complete ignorance here but would the raising of a battalion (for ww1 service only) be subject to, or listed in, Army Orders?

[SteveE]

Just bringing this thread back to the top in the hope that someone may have an answer.

[Graham Stewart]

Steve E;

As I'm new to the GWF, I hope I'm pressing all the right buttons. Anyway in reply to your question you'll find that notices regarding the formation of some New Army units can be found mainly in War Office Instructions. This usually gives you the title of the unit, it's raiser, place it's being raised and the number of battalions, but more importantly the War Office file Number i.e. W.O.20/Gen/???. Each new unit was given a file number for the purpose of correspondence between the War Office and the units raisers.

For example W.O.20/Gen/585 was the file belonging to the 'North Wales Bn, Royal Welsh Fusiliers'. While W.O.20/Gen/3362 was the file of the 'Cambridgeshire Bn, Suffolk Regt' and so on. Sadly it is unknown if any of these files survived the move from the Ministry of Defence to the Public Record Office.

When doing my research for the book Tyneside Scottish many years ago, I enquired with the PRO if they had any of these files, but the reply was they had so many General W.O. Files that only a personal search might uncover what I required.

Army Orders also mention new formations, but not to the extent of W.O. Instrucutons, but they do list all new Divisional formations, which in some cases includes lists of units attached to Divisions for training and termed 'Army Troops'. Army Orders for October 1914 give a good example which include 11th(S)Bn, Kings(L'pool Regt) attached 14th Division, 6th(S)Bn, Bedfordshire Regt attached 9th Division and so on.

Through my time as a researcher I've found that both Army Orders and War Office Instructions and Kings Regulations for 1912 are possibly the most under used primary sources when studying the Great War.

Anyway do hope this answer is of some use to you. I only hope I press the right button to have this posted.

[Graham Stewart]

Steve E,

Forgot to mention that W.O.Instructions became more commonly known as 'Army Council Instructions', and they cover everything from the raising of units to the disposal of manure from horse lines.

The Territorial Force extracted all Instructions relevant to them and reproduced them monthly in booklets entitled 'Circular Instructions affecting The Territorial Force and County Associations'. These are extremely rare but I do have a few copies for 1915 and a copy of 'War Establishments - Part V, 1915' for Reserve Units and Depots.

Graham.