Soldiers

[RMF]

Would anyone know if a Regimental Number could give some indication as to when a particular soldier enlisted. For instance, if a soldier had a lower Regimental Number than another whose date of enlistment is known, could it be assumed that the soldier with the lower number enlisted before the date of the other soldier whose date of enlistment is known. Another way of putting the question is whether Regimental Numbers were normally allocated in ascending order based on date of enlistment.The soldier I am researching joined a Service Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers during the Great War.

Bob

[Annette Burgoyne]

Hi Bob

As a rule I can tell if a man was a pre-war Soldier or a Kitchener and so on with K.S.L.I. numbers. For example a chap with Regt. No. 8865 was pre-war, a chap with Regt No. 12336 was a Kitchener and one with 35776 would be a conscript. This should be the same for the Royal Munster Fusiliers and yes you should be able to get an idea of when a chap enlisted if you know the date of enlistment of a man near the chap you are looking into ie if a chap with Regt. No. 9543 enlisted on 18.06.08 then one with No. 9504 would have enlisted a few days before hand.

Regards

Annette

[Jock Bruce]

With my pedantic head on I think you need to be careful -

I would say it is reasonably safe to assume that within the same number series a man with a higher number joined the regiment after a man with a lower number. But that's not the same as enlistment. E.g. man enlists in the Blankshires on 1.1.16 and is allocated No. 9999, man transfered to Blankshires from the Loamshires (in which he enlisted in 1908) on 2.1.16 is allocated No. 10000. In this case the man with the higher number had actually enlisted in the Army long before the one with the lower.

This becomes more common as the war progresses.

Jock

[Annette Burgoyne]

Hi Jock

I agree with you that you need to be careful. What I mention above can only to be used as a rough gide, I used have pointed that out. There are some sets of numbers where I can not tell when they joined the K.S.L.I.

Regards

Annette

[trooper]

According to an MA thesis written by Martin Staunton on The Royal Munster Fusiliers During the First World War the 6th and 7th RMF the senior service battalions of the regiment were originally allocated numbers in the range 1-3999.

Trooper

[CROONAERT]

One thing to watch out for, especially on ID tags, is WW1 "style" numbers being re-issued in 1939.

During WW2, genuine "regimental blocks" of numbers were used (eg. the Manchesters used the block 3511001 to 3589000), but WW1 style numbers (ie 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 digits) were allocated to the RASC (1 to 294000), Household Cavalry (294001 to 309000), Cavalry of the Line (309001 to 721000) and the Royal Artillery (721001 to 1842000).

You can occasionally come across ID Tags on places like ebay that list a "WW1 Dog Tag", showing a 5 digit number, when it's actually a WW2 RASC one. Similar mistakes can easily be made on other pieces of kit that show names and numbers.

Dave.