Enlisting away from home areas

[Guest perkins]

Dear All

Would anybody have any suggestions as to how a lad (my Granddad) living in Shepards Bush London, managed to enlist in the South Staffordshire territorals?

He was only 16 when enlisting.

Thanks

Andrew

[AndrewThornton]

Andrew

Do you have his regimental number and approximate date of enlistment?

Andrew

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Dear All

Would anybody have any suggestions as to how a lad (my Granddad) living in Shepards Bush London, managed to enlist in the South Staffordshire territorals?

He was only 16 when enlisting.

Thanks

Andrew

Perhaps he was like my wife's grandfather. He ran away from home, in Sussex, in August 1914 at the age of 15 and hitched a lift on a cart to Aldershot, where he enlisted into the 11th Hussars (he liked horses). The feeeling must have been mutual because his parents did not make any attempts to claim him. Even if they had he enlisted using his middle name and surname.

Ian

[enoch beard]

while researching a local man pte samson gideon hill mm of the 4th worcesters

who was kia in oct 18 aged 20. he landed in gallipoli in oct 15 making him 17 when he landed.

the problems started when i tried to find him on the cenus.he had also swapped his forenames around when he enlisted , so his real name was gideon samson hill

he could have enlisted in his home town (old hill) but enlisted in stourbridge ,a short train journey away

enoch

[CROONAERT]

Would anybody have any suggestions as to how a lad (my Granddad) living in Shepards Bush London, managed to enlist in the South Staffordshire territorals?

He could simply have enlisted in a regiment (not necessarily local) that was recruiting locally. For example, the 8th East Lancashire Regiment was raised in Codford and recruited locally, many of it's early recruits coming from London and Bournemouth rather than Lancashire.

Dave.

[Tom Morgan]

Dear All

Would anybody have any suggestions as to how a lad (my Granddad) living in Shepards Bush London, managed to enlist in the South Staffordshire territorals?

He was only 16 when enlisting.

Thanks

Andrew

How sure are you that he did enlist with the Staffordshire Territorials, Andrew?

There are lots of examples of men enlisting with one regiment, only to be transferred to another when their training was over and it was time to proceed overseas. If often happened when a particular battalion had recently suffered heavy casualties.

Tom

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Dear All

Would anybody have any suggestions as to  how a lad (my Granddad) living in Shepards Bush London, managed to enlist in the South Staffordshire territorals?

He was only 16 when enlisting.

Thanks

Andrew

How sure are you that he did enlist with the Staffordshire Territorials, Andrew?

There are lots of examples of men enlisting with one regiment, only to be transferred to another when their training was over and it was time to proceed overseas. If often happened when a particular battalion had recently suffered heavy casualties.

Tom

Or even to arrive in France and be drafted into another regiment..............

Ian

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

My Maternal Grandfather Walter George Drake,Ran away from his Clare Suffolk home @ the age of 16 to enlist in the 1890s in the Northamptonshire Regiment,His reason~7 Sisters!!!Need I say more!!