Cheshire Regiment

[Guest booklady]

I'm still very confused about my Grandfather and which regiment he served with. I know his service number was 513711 and that his MIC card says Labour Corps on it. I know his discharge certificate says that he was discharged from the Cheshire Regiment in 1919. There is a smaller discharge paper which mentions the Labour Corps on it giving the same dates as the main discharge certificate. I thought the Labour Corps was seperate to the Cheshire's by 1919. My Grandfather was only 4"11 (information from discharge papers) so I presume he was a Bantam yet everything I have read about Bantams seems to imply that Bantams had to be at least 5". Can anyone shed any light? Many thanks for any help.

[BeppoSapone]

I'm still very confused about my Grandfather and which regiment he served with. I know his service number was 513711 and that his MIC card says Labour Corps on it. I know his discharge certificate says that he was discharged from the Cheshire Regiment in 1919. There is a smaller discharge paper which mentions the Labour Corps on it giving the same dates as the main discharge certificate. I thought the Labour Corps was seperate to the Cheshire's by 1919. My Grandfather was only 4"11 (information from discharge papers) so I presume he was a Bantam yet everything I have read about Bantams seems to imply that Bantams had to be at least 5". Can anyone shed any light? Many thanks for any help.

If I were you I would investigate 15th & 16th Cheshires - 'Biglands Birkenhead Bantams'.

There will be some info' on the mother site.

[Guest booklady]

Thanks Beppo. As a result of your post I did a search on "bigland bantams" on google and it brought up http://www.cheshire-regiment.com/recruitment/recuitment.htm. After reading the whole site it has made me more sure that my Grandad was a "Bantam" and I now think (based on the date of his enrolment) that he must have been in the 40th division. This division was suppose to be a Bantam division but did not raise enough short men to fill their quota and so became a more general divison. Perhaps someone more experienced than me could let me know whether they think I barking up the right tree. My Grandad's date of enlistment was 30.9.1915.

[BeppoSapone]

Pleased to hear that it was of use to you.

You might also try the local press if you have access to it. I first read about Bigland and his Bantams while looking for information on my relatives.

My great uncle was from Birkenhead, but in the local TA battalion - 1/4th Cheshires.

[CarylW]

There is a book coming out (not yet published) The Cheshire Bantams: 15th, 16th and 17th Battalions of the Cheshire Regiment

Stephen McGreal

Orders available on Amazon

Here

If you use the link on this forum to go to Amazon and order the book the boss can get some commission

Stephen is a voluntary military researcher for a local radio station (Merseyside), specialising in the Great war

I bought one of his other books

Moreton and Districts Patriots 1914-1919

by Stephen McGreal

ISBN 1901231151

Book contains biographical info, photos, details of service, regiments, newspaper articles and more on the soldiers from this area

Blurb on the back reads

"The tale of a nation at war, focusing on a tranquil village, its war memorials and the servicemen from throughout Merseyside commemorated there on

Caryl

[John_Hartley]

If his MIC records the Labour Corps (and that service number seems to be one of theirs, not a Cheshires), then he saw overseas service with the Corps.

Does the MIC also mention the Cheshires. If so, then as Beppo has indicated he possibly joined one of the Bantams and was subsequently transferred to the Corps.

The other possibility is that he was originally assigned to the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Cheshires. These were all raised as Labour Battalions and subsequently renamed as Labout Corps Companies.

Either way, I suspect that his short stature made him unfit for frontline duties and this is why he ended up inn the Corps.

John