"Joining" the battalion

[John_Hartley]

Was there a formal procedure to be gone through before an officer could be deemed to have "joined" the Bn - -although he might already be physically present?

The guy I'm researching is a 2nd Lt P H H Davis who died of wounds on 9/11/18 and is buried at Busigny Communal Cemetery. He is listed by CWGC as serving with the 3rd Manchesters (which, of course, is the training Bn).

When I posted an original query about him many months back, Paul Reed suggested that he was probably actually serving with the 2nd Mancs who were in this area at the right time. My further research tends to agree with Paul (the only other Mancs being buried at Busigny being from the 21st Bn and he is not on their roll of honour).

However, my difficulty is that I've read through the 2nd Bn's War Diary (it is the only one held by the regimental archives) and it makes no mention of Davis anywhere - either joining or becoming a casualty.

So, is it possible that he might have arrived at the Bn and been somehow wounded before being taken on strength. Or wounded travelling to join the Bn? Or something else? Any thoughts about this and/or what i might do next?

John

[Muerrisch]

I have a very few "ghost" officers who I know for certain served in 2RWF but who do not "arrive" in the War Diary. One is Robert Graves! First of his three arrivals was ignored. Two or three others are not properly recorded: this is out of about 250 who served at some time or another.

So "ghosts" are uncommon but not rare, and a lot depended on the quality of the book keeping.

[John_Hartley]

David

Record keeping in the 2nd Mancs doesnt seem to have been their strongpoint. War Diary for 4/11/18 records them as being in billets. Touch different from an attached report describing trying to cross the Ors Canal!. My suspicion has been that my man was wounded in that action (five unnamed officers were) and died a few days later at the CCS.

John