Service Numbers

[Foston]

I have two uncles:

A) Pte 16/31049 16th Bat. POW West Yorks Regt. Enlisted 14th August 1915

Pte 16/1677 thought to have enlisted Post October 1914 (Listed in Spen Newspaper as circa November 1914).

Were service numbers simply issued on a randum basis? If not, how did Pte 31049 manage to enlist before Pte 1677?

Also Pte 31049 was discharged in October 1919 aged 22. The disability code was "P29" and the disability is shown as "DAH Attrib".

Can anyone advise what P29 and DAH Attrib actually mean?

Foston

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

A) Pte 16/31049 16th Bat. POW West Yorks Regt. Enlisted 14th August 1915

Pte 16/1677 thought to have enlisted Post October 1914

Just a guess but possibly 16/31049 was actually 3-1049,ie in the 3rd Reserve Bn,in 1914 & then posted to the newly created 16th Bn,& then given the prefix 16,as basically those enlisting "straight off the street" would be numbered as they come,1~upwards,for these units.

[Graham Stewart]

Foston,

I think you'll find it simply a clerical error and 31049 has been posted to the 16th West Yorks and for the sake of administration the clerk has added 16/ to the number, where in reality it should have simply remained 31049.

The War Establishment for Pals units was 1100 all ranks, but recruitng over establishment was allowed to cover wastage i.e. men who were usually discharged due to ill health/sickness or natural/accidental death. This was later offset by the recruiting of a "5th(Depot) Company" per battalion, each company to have an establishment of 250 men(ACI 13 of 2/12/1914). This brought the W.E. to 1350 per battalion.

Under the same ACI a "6th(Depot) Company" was to be formed not later than two months before the unit took to the field. This brought the W.E. to 1,600 per battalion. These Depot Companies would later go onto form the nucleus of locally raised(Pals) reserve battalions.

Graham.