Depot Dorsetshire Regt - Location & Records

[Guest Simon Bull]

I am researching a soldier called Percival Cramp who died on 24/11/1916.

SDITGW says he was in 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment. CWGC describes him as "Private 7024 Depot, Dorsetshire Regiment".

He died in Brecon of TB.

Was Brecon the Depot of the Dorsetshire Regiment?

Whether or not Brecon was the Deport, did the Depot keep any records akin to a War Diary?

Simon Bull

[Marc Thompson]

Simon,

The Depot for the Dorsetshire Regiment was at Dorchester. As far as I am aware the Depot would not have been obliged to maintain a war diary.

Private Cramp is recorded as died of wounds in the regimental history so I would imagine that he died in hospital and was buried in the local churchyard, Battle (St. Cynog) Churchyard, Brecknockshire. He was most likely transferred from 1st Bn to the Depot prior to his death.

If the NA/PRO fails to provide any clues you could try the regimental museum.

Regards

Marc

[Guest Simon Bull]

Thanks for the help. This seems to be one of those cases where the official records are, on the whole, wrong, as the death certificate clearly gives disease as the cause of death. However, whether it was disease or wounds that brought him there, it is plain from the location of the depot that Percy Cramp died in hospital, rather than at the depot.

Thanks again.

Simon Bull

[Myrtle]

Simon

Interested when I saw the mention of Brecon so looked up SDGW and noticed that although you mentioned that he died from TB, SDGW has him listed as DoW.

[Muerrisch]

The Depot for the Dorsetshire Regiment was at Dorchester. As far as I am aware the Depot would not have been obliged to maintain a war diary.

War Diaries were not required of Depots. The distinction Depot/ 3rd [special Reserve] battalion is often blurred: the Depot seems increasingly to have become a place rather than a body of men.

Units required to maintain a War Diary were "unit" size or above [equivalent to battalion, battery etc] and some begin when stepping ashore overseas, some on mobilization.

I have never seen a regulation stipulating who should keep [and when] a Diary and would be glad of a steer.

3RWF kept an informal longhand journal-cum-scrapbook which is mine of information, as the officers and men go from it, join a combat unit, and return to it later.

[Greenwoodman]

Simon, just to clarify the use of Depot here, this is the unit of the Dorsetshire Regiment to which Pte Cramp was posted, in much the same way he could have been described as 7th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment.

It is likely that, if TB is the cause of death, he contracted it in the trenches. He was obviously sent to hospital, and as he was likely to have been long-term sick, posted to the Depot, which became his administrative unit.

Brecon was either the site of his hospital, or his home town, (still administered by the Depot) and there he died. Cause of death from a disease caught and no doubt exacerbated by his active service, sufficient to be perceived or written down as died of wounds.