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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Royal Garrison Artillery 3rd Army Pool


dorrie

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Hello

Can anybody shed any light on what the 3rd Army Pool Is please. Iam reseraching a fellow named Gunner Horace Palethorpe and his CWGC record shows he was a part of the Royal Garrison Artillery 3rd Army Pool

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The nearest unit likeness I can think of is that of the reserve brigades. These essentially were brigades where soldiers returning after injury / illness were posted before allocation to a battery.

Roop

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Folk posted overseas as a part of a replacement draft (these could either be volunteers, men attested under the Derby Scheme or conscripts, or as Roop has mentioned soldiers returning from convalescence) would often be initially posted in a Reserve Army Pool or Army Pool. The 'pool' essentially being a reserve of men ready for posting on to a unit. Until such a time, men in the reserve pools could be detailed any tasks as and where needed (e.g. pioneer work such as road repairs etc.). On medal rolls this if what is referred to as 'Base Details'.

For example, my grandfather (also a gunner in the RGA) was in a Reserve Army Pool after arriving in France in mid October 1916, but it wasn't until the beginning of March 1917 that he was posted to a Siege Battery.

Cheers

Steve

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Don't know if this'll help you at all, but these are the details of the chaps immediately adjacent your man's grave in Feuchy British Cemetery:

Plot II.E.10: Battery Serjeant Major H H West, "A" Battery 51st Brigade RFA

Plot II.E.11: Gunner Robert Henry Oxtoby, "B" Battery 51st Brigade RFA

Plot II.E.12: Gunner P Kennedy, 8th Siege Battery RGA

Plot II.E.13: Gunner Horace Palethorpe, RGA, 3rd Army Pool

Plot II.E.14: Gunner H Dryden, "B" Battery 51st Brigade RFA

Plot II.E.15: Gunner Frederick Gupwell, "B" Battery 51st Brigade RFA

Plot II.E.16: Acting Bombardier S W Martin, "B" Battery 51st Brigade RFA

They all died the same day (16/5/1917). If these are anything to go on, although speculative, your man could conceivably have been temporarily attached to either 8th Siege Battery RGA or 51st Brigade RFA when he died, whilst still offically part of 3rd Army Pool. The grave of another chap from 3rd Army Pool (RGA) elsewhere in this cemetery, Maurice Lloyd (died 13/5/1917, buried plot II.B.6), is associated with graves of men from 102nd Siege Battery RGA.

cheers

Steve

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  • 2 years later...

Hello Dorrie, I know you posted this some time ago but it may still be relevant. Horaces brother Jim was also killed, his records are now available via ancestry and make interesting reading as he too was a Retford born lad. These men are from a branch of my family name.

Mark

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