Special Reserve: recruitment

[Muerrisch]

Thank you again. I am deep into finishing work on a very different subject but my next deep dive will be to revisit this excellent thread.

[Keith_history_buff]

Two minor omissions that need correcting with red font.

  That's the trouble with a prior engagement, and a need to skedaddle, with the result that quality time, coupled with diligence, resulted in omissions.

10 hours ago, Keith_history_buff said:

Given there is an underlying interest in line infantry, I thought I would take the time to gather some data, and put it in a table.

 

Year	Category	Element in numbers	Element (%)
1914	AO 295, Special Reserve	64223	85.81%
1915	AO 295, Special Reserve	27188	63.90%
1915	6 years, Special Reserve	5060	52.20%
1915	extension of service,      Special Reserve	1101	94.51%
1916	AO 295, Special Reserve	3012	24.31%
1916	6 years, Special Reserve	378	17.56%
1916	extension of service,      Special Reserve	0	0.00%
1917	Special Reserve	343	10.09%
1918	Special Reserve	85	1.82%

It is of interest that no infantrymen extended their service during the time period 1 October 1915 to 30 Sep 1916. I am unsure as to when that voluntary choice was taken away, but presume this happened with the Military Service Act. [With regard to dates for SR men being discharged as Time Expired] There is a surviving, although badly charred, service record for 10285 Sydney Alexander Bull, Private, South Wales Borderers. [This man enlisted on 12 August 1908] He was discharged, time expired (6 years + 1 year + 95 days) He is recorded as 2/10285 having concluded his military service in Gallipoli with the 2nd Battalion. I believe that he embarked 10 May 1915 and disembarked at Gallipoli on 26 May 1915. [He was medically evacuated to the British isles on 24 July 1915. He was discharged on 13 November 1915.]

Of those enlisting for 6 years service under Special Reserve terms of service, 17.56% were enlisting in the infantry in 1915-16. With the numbers having dropped off, I wonder if there was an informal policy of infantry regiments refusing to enlist new recruits under Special Reserve terms. This was extra red tape, requiring a number from the Special Reserve number block, another entry to add to the rarely used Army Form 359 book. 

As I have mentioned before, both the 1914-15 Star and BWM & VM rolls [for the South Wales Borderers] have Special Reserve entries. I am wondering if whoever was involved with the record keeping had challenges in the past with service number confusion. Had this been the case, then it would make sense to work through the Special Reserve first, accessing the Army Form 359 book, and the associated portfolios of service records grouped by sequential service number. Having performed this element, it then makes sense to thereafter use the Army Form 358 Enlistment book, and the associated portfolios of service records grouped by sequential service number, to compile the rolls for the regulars, then the New Army, then conscripts.   

Were those 85 infantrymen who enlisted in 1917-18 all in the same regiment, I wonder?

The GARBA data creates more questions than it answers.

 

[Keith_history_buff]

One point of interest when the Silver War Badge was announced by Army Order 316 of 1916, published 12 September 1916

 

'3. Action to be taken by Officers i/c Records dealing with application

...When claims have been approved...A receipt will be obtained in each individual case and a record of the issue will be made in Army Book 358 in the cases of soldiers of the Regular Army, or in Army Book 216 in the cases of soldiers of the TF.'

 

No mention whatsoever of Special Reserve ORs and their details in the Army Book 357. 

[Muerrisch]

I am certainly not up to speed on the matter, but recall that members of the SR  and members of the New Armies were deemed to be regulars on "irregular" terms of service.

Thus all SR and all New Army would be treated as regulars for many [all?] purposes.