Thomas Christopher RGA

[Lootenant]

First post here..and hoping for some answers about my ggrandfathers war service.

Gunner 132795 Thomas Christopher served with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

I've found his discharge documents at the National Archive, these provide some information but raise a new set of questions.

He enlisted 28/12/14 in Liverpool and served in France between 16/09/16 and 09/10/18.

December 1914 to Sept 1916 seems to be a long time before he went to France, is this normal and what would he have been doing in England? Surely it wouldn't take this long to train gunners.

His unit is given on his discharge papers as 'C' Bty No 2 SARB Royal Garrison Artillery. I'm guessing that 'SA' is Siege Artillery, but what is 'RB'? Does anyone have any information on where this battery was in action?

He was discharged 16/02/19 'disembodied' as result of an injury sustained in an accident in a gunpit 01/08/18. During the war he was 'attended by' a number of hospitals

54 General Hospital - what looks like "Aubengue"

New Zealand Hospital - St Omer

35 General - Calais

3 Northern - Sheffield

My father remembers him as having breathing problems becuase he was gassed but with the number of hospitals he was treated by he must have been wounded a couple of times. Do records from any of these hospitals still exist?

A lot of questions I know but I'll be grateful for any help.

[barrieduncan]

Try getting his Medal Index Card from the National Archives online, its £3.50 for each download.

You can find some info on the field hospitals on the Long Long Trail website, the link is at the top of this page. There you will also get some good starting points to get on with your research.

All the best and good luck,

Barrie

[KONDOA]

Siege Artillery Reserve Brigade, Home forces.

Unusual to have C Bty as an RGA unit. Does his discharge papers not show this as a previous unit??

Roop

Edited 4 January , 2006 by KONDOA

[joseph]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum,

"December 1914 to Sept 1916 seems to be a long time before he went to France, is this normal and what would he have been doing in England? Surely it wouldn't take this long to train gunners."

The RGA manned the coastal defences and the Anti Aircraft sites throughout the UK. The number could suggest an Anti Aircraft Company.

Regards Charles

[Lootenant]

Thanks everyone for such quick replies, I think I'm going to using this forum a lot...

I have obtained the MIC but it only shows his corps as RGA and entitlement to the Victory medal. The info on the hospitals is interesting, still not certain which the 'New Zealand' hospital is though.

I've checked again and the discharge papers say 'Unit' rather 'Previous Unit'.

[KONDOA]

Strange that he recieved only the victory medal but was attended to by hospitals based overseas which would mean he should have two medals.

Can you post images of any docs you have??

Roop

[Lootenant]

Yep, I'll scan them this evening. I can't guarantee the quality since the discharge papers were printed out from a microfilm reader at the National Archive. The MIC should be ok.

Thanks

[Lootenant]

This should be the MIC..

Having looked at it again I realise that the lines under the Victory medal probably indicate "ditto" and that he was also awarded the British War Medal..am I correct?

[Lootenant]

And this is the main page of the discharge documents, there are a number of others but they are either barely legible or contain very little extra information.