Royal Lancashire Regt at Oswestry

[sdapeze]

We are trying to find out what we can of my wife's father's army record. We have this picture of him at Xmas 1917 at Park Hall, Oswestry and we know it is of the RLR. Can anybody tell us anything else about where to go from here. We understand that he was gassed in the trenches and survived. It sounds strange but we know he was Percy but are not sure whether he was Davies or possibly Ward. He never talked about his early life.

[SteveE]

A quick search of the online Medal Index Cards throws up three possibilities for a Percy WARD or DAVI(E)S who served in the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment), they are:

Ward, Percy R

Royal Lancaster Regiment 18146 Private

Royal Lancaster Regiment 18146 Corporal

Ward, Percy

Royal Lancaster Regiment 3981 Private

Lincolnshire Regiment 42546 Private

Leicestershire Regiment 42805 Private

Davis, Percy

Royal Lancaster Regiment 3rd Battalion 22203 Private

I was hoping that there would only be a single possibility but things are never that easy

Hope this helps for starters.

Steve

[sdapeze]

Thanks Steve for the help. But why would a private have three different regiments? He was a train driver after the war so would an engineer or a driver have moved about between regiments?

[SteveE]

why would a private have three different regiments?

It was a common enough event for a soldier to be transferred between regiments depending on the circumstances at the time. Battalions would invariably need replacement troops to bring them back up to strength so troops would be posted in from other Battalions/Regiments as fitted the circumstances.

For example, a soldier with 'Ashire' regiment may have been wounded, convalesced and returned to the front with a posting to 'Bshire' regiment. Troops were being moved around all the time.

IMHO his post war occupation as a train driver would have had no bearing whatsoever on his moving/not moving between regiments.

Regards

Steve