Pre-war Regular questions

[westkent78]

I recently purchased a QSA to a 5418 Pte. E. Baker of the Royal West Kents. (Another indication of the power of this forum as somehow I had remained completely ignorant of Sewell Medals until they were mentioned on a thread- great service by the way .)

On the off chance that he had served in WW1 I checked the MICs online and duly found a L/5418 Pte. Ernest Baker 1/RWK entitled to 'Mons Star', BWM and Victory who was discharged in 1916.

Am I correct in assuming that these are probably one and the same person? I seem to recall that the L prefix was used for pre-war regulars in the Home Counties regiments.

When were these prefixes instituted?

Thank you for any help.

Matthew