James. L. Miller

[Guest R P Miller]

I have been trying to find James Littleton Miller service records.

My search as revealed a James L Miller and on Medal Index Card has in the RFA 333.

I have looked up in the Medal Book and it give's this information.

915048 Bdr. Miller James L. RFA. T. 333 Bdr.

I have looked for service records in WO 363/ 364 No documents.

There was another James L Miller but that turned out to be a James Love Miller.

Can anybody tell me what RFA.T. & Bdr means?

[Stebie9173]

Medal card of Miller, James L

Corps Regiment No Rank

Royal Field Artillery 333 Bombardier

Royal Field Artillery 915048 Bombardier

RFA T = RFA Territorial.

Bdr. = Bombardier - a unique Artillery rank, similar to a lance-corporal (except the artillery had those too), a "One-striper"

333 = His first number before the TF RFA was renumbered in 1917.

915048 will be allocated to a specific brigade. But, I don't have a list of those...

If it's your man's "local" brigade then it improves the chance that it is him.

A number that low (333) is likely to be a pre-war territorial, and therefore probably local to the Brigade's Drill Hall.

There is of course the option that he is just listed as James, or J L, unfortunately.

Steve.

[Guest R P Miller]

Does anybody Know what area 333 would be or where I can find out?

[Stebie9173]

I think I've mislead you a little:

I should have said that "he would have been local to the Brigade's Drill Hall". It reads like the number was local to the Drill Hall. Sorry!

333 was his number, allocated to him somewhere between 1908 and 1916.

These numbers were allocated by the local TF artillery brigade, and not from a central "pool". There were probably the best part of a fifty men with the number "333" in the Territorial Force Artillery by 1917.

In 1917 it was decided to rationalise the TF numbers and allocate each TF brigade a range of numbers. The Brigade that James was in would have had a range of numbers that covered, say 910000 to 920000. Those people with a list of allocations of numbers will be able to narrow down a brigade, at least at the date of early 1917.

The Artilleryman would have kept this number until the end of the War.

(Army numbers which a soldier took with him to whatever unit he served in came in after WW1)

So if we're looking for a number by "area" it's 915048 were looking at not 333.

Steve.

[Guest R P Miller]

Sorry I got that wrong.

Can anybody tell me about the 915048 number or where to look etc.

[Stebie9173]

It was me that got it wrong, not you!

Steve.

[Simon R]

Appendix 183 (see ACI 2198)

New Series of Regimental Numbers to be Allotted to Soldiers of RHA and RFA (TF)

Home Counties Division-

1st Brigade Sussex TF Assoc. 900001-905000

2nd Brigade Sussex TF Assoc. 905001-910000

3rd Brigade Kent TF Assoc. 910001-915000

4th Brigade Kent TF Assoc. 915001-920000

Div. Ammo. Col. Sussex TF Assoc. 920001-925000

915048 puts him in 4th bde. of Kent RFA as part of Home Counties Div. - you'll be able to find further divisional refs. including numbering from the Long, Long Trail.

This doesn't tell us what battery he served with though. There are alphabetic and alphanumeric 'runs' in these numbering sequences that do appear to relate to specific btys. and if we assume 4 btys. per brigade (A to D btys) there should be 1250 numbers allocated per battery. This doesn't always work and you can get some very odd discrepancies which don't seem to have any logic behind them. But sometimes it works a treat and I hope you can work it out!

[rflory]

As Simon R indicates 915048 falls in the range of the Home Counties Brigade, RFA

TF (915001-920000). Two RFA TF units were formed from men within this range:

338th Brigade, RFA TF which remained in England and was broken-up in March 1916 and the 27th Divisional Ammunition Column that went to France on 21 Dec 1914. This said, recognize that this is only the unit that he was in when the TF numbers changed in 1917/1917. He may have served with the 27th Divisional Ammunition Column, RFA TF; he may have served with 338th Brigade, RFA TF and transferred to another unit when it was broken-up; or he may have transferred to another unit before going overseas. Regards. Dick Flory

[Guest R P Miller]

There has been a story told, which has been passed down the generations that James L Miller fought in the Somme would have a RFA TF unit have been invovled within this battles.

He claimed he had lost an eye in this battle and would have great fun in removing it to entertain the children. But he was a great story teller so this could be untrue.

Whether he fought or not he was great man.

[Simon R]

Very many TF btys. fought on the Somme in 1916, there weren't just 1 or 2 which you could narrow it down to. I think you need to see if his service record survives at the National Archives now.

[Guest R P Miller]

I have looked for Service Records but sadly his must have been in th 75% that got destroyed by german bombers in the London Blitz.

[Simon R]

Oh yes, sorry, scanned it, didn't read it: bad habit.

In that case, it would be worth looking at the units rflory suggested above.

Just a thought: it's not 333rd bde not bdr no. 333 is it? Just eliminating the obvious...

The order of battle for the Somme 1916 will show you TF divisions that served there/then, but that's still a lot of field batterys, ammunition columns and trench mortar btys. But at least it'd narrow it down - if the story of fighting on the Somme in 1916 is true (as opposed to fighting on Somme in 1918 etc....).

Also: where was he from? Particular towns raised particular units (obviously) with strong battery associations - try going local to see what you can find.