Guest John Bradshaw Posted 1 May , 2006 Share Posted 1 May , 2006 Hi All, I'm new to this list so I hope I have directed this to the correct section. I am trying to trace the First World War record of my grandfather James Howard. All we have are a couple of photos of him: The first shows him with 12 colleagues in ASC(?) uniform with a hand painted notice at the front saying "The Roughriders ASC" -- hence this post. The second with 3 colleagues in fatigues at the entrance to a stable. So we presume he was with the section of the ASC handling the horses. Before wading in, does anyone know anything about the "Rough Riders" and could help us perhaps find the official name of his regiment etc before tracing him further. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfh249 Posted 1 May , 2006 Share Posted 1 May , 2006 The City of London Yeomanry are known as the Rough Riders, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_L..._(Rough_Riders) and/or http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/volm.../vcav/LonRR.htm The ASC is the Army Service Corps. Oh, and welcome to the forum! Regards, Neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted 1 May , 2006 Share Posted 1 May , 2006 Hi John - welcome to the Forum not heard of them but I will check the Corps history tomorrow and see it they are mentioned Stephen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirrel Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 Apart from being the name of one of the London Yeomanry units, a Roughrider was a riding instructor and part of his job was to "break" or train horses for riding and other duties. The ASC would have had their own Roughriders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 Have checked the "shorter"Corps history and there is no mention of the Roughriders; there are also 20+ "James Howards" listed in the medial index cards. Do you know whether he had a middle name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Bradshaw Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 No he had no middle name. I had picked up the London Yeomanry connection from Google but had discounted it as he was from Lancashire and was a cotton worker in Nelson before the outbreak of the war. I had assumed (perhaps wrongly) he enlisted in a local regiment. It may be the answer is it was just a generic term picked up by the groups who broke the horses. He had no experience with horses pre-war as far as we know. This is the more 'regimental' picture we have Thanks to all for their speedy and detailed replies. What a great list!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 Ok - so what have we I think we have a section of transport drivers ina wooden camp ; I would guess its an end of course photo But I could be wrong............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoplophile Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 As far as I can tell, the Army Service Corps was responsble for the provision of nearly all of the horses used by the British Army during World War I. (The chief exceptions seem to have been mounts for cavalry regiments, which were probably trained at cavalry reserve regiments at home, and chargers for officers, which were often privately purchased.) As this number was huge, and included a large number of young, untrained horses from various places around the world, the ASC must have employed quite a large number of "rough riders." According to Michael Young, the author of an excellent history of the ASC, some of the men employed by the ASC for this task were reservists who had previously served with cavalry regiments. (Prior to the war, cavalry regiments serving at home trained their own mounts, as well as mounts for the overseas regiment they were "linked" to.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoplophile Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 I've just checked Michael Young's book on the ASC. In an appendix, he provides a list of ASC remount squadrons - units that were responsible for training horses. Each was commanded by a major, consisted of 200 or so men, and trained 500 horses at a time. Squadron Location 34 BEF 35 Unknown 48 Ormskirk 51 Redhill 52 Market Harborough 53 Leicester 54 Arborfield Cross 55 Newcastle on Tyne 56 York 62 York 63 Swaythling 64 Croft Spa 65 Woolwich 66 Luton 67 BEF 96 BEF The list suggests that most of the training of horses was done at home. However, as some horses seem to have been shipped directly from their points of origin (e.g. USA, Canada, Argentina) to France, the BEF had a small capability to train horses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Whippy Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 I agree, the photo has the air of a typical "end of course" photo - looking smart but slightly relaxed and pleased with themselves. Hoplophile - Can you show some details of the ASC book you refer to. I am looking for a good source on the ASC as i have a growing interest in them. The list of training establishments hints at a great deal of lovely little snippets. Thanks JW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delta Posted 2 May , 2006 Share Posted 2 May , 2006 here it is http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...9128222-8763939 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeb Posted 17 February , 2007 Share Posted 17 February , 2007 Have checked the "shorter"Corps history and there is no mention of the Roughriders; there are also 20+ "James Howards" listed in the medial index cards. Do you know whether he had a middle name? hi all, can you help please, Pte 3320 J E Farmer City of london Yeomanry, volunteered 4th aug. 1914. (3 days before his 18th), Later MGC Cavalry 169346. Victory medal, British Medal, Corps of machine gun/102/B7 page 1026. His daughter (my mum!) is 80 this year, l would love to help her know where and what her father did, they share the same birth date. If it helps he had chest problems in later life, l was told he was "gased". I would like to do the research, but dont understand where to start. thankyou for listening, Best Wishes, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tone Posted 26 May , 2008 Share Posted 26 May , 2008 from what i have found the rough riders used to break in new horses my wifes great grandfather was a rough rider with 45th remount regiment, they where in ASC he died in salonika from malaria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate Wills Posted 14 October , 2009 Share Posted 14 October , 2009 What was his name tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dscott Posted 29 February Share Posted 29 February On 01/05/2006 at 17:01, Guest John Bradshaw said: Hi All, I'm new to this list so I hope I have directed this to the correct section. I am trying to trace the First World War record of my grandfather James Howard. All we have are a couple of photos of him: The first shows him with 12 colleagues in ASC(?) uniform with a hand painted notice at the front saying "The Roughriders ASC" -- hence this post. The second with 3 colleagues in fatigues at the entrance to a stable. So we presume he was with the section of the ASC handling the horses. Before wading in, does anyone know anything about the "Rough Riders" and could help us perhaps find the official name of his regiment etc before tracing him further. Thanks in advance I have a trio of medals to a j.howard asc.do you have a service number and I may have the ones you are looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dscott Posted 29 February Share Posted 29 February Hopefully they are the ones he's asking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 29 February Admin Share Posted 29 February Welcome to the forum; unfortunately, John Bradshaw is no longer a member of the forum, as denoted by the Guest prefix. We won’t hold any contact information for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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