Are they Canadian soldiers?

[Winterbloom21]

Thank you John915.   This gets more and more mysterious.     If he had been discharged as medically unfit from a full time regiment, would it have been permissible for him to join the reserves thereafter?

I notice that my man (Con, on the far left) is wearing what look like two service stripes on his arm.   How much time would he have had to do to qualify for those?   And, are they transferable ie can you use them for accumulated service in different regiments?

[jim1]

So the general consensus is RA Territorials on annual training pre WW1.
If a soldier was invalided out he would have received a pension based on his service.
If he was then reassessed at a later stage & deemed fit his pension would stop & therefore I don't see any reason why he then couldn't become a part-timer but his service as a Regular wouldn't count as he'd been pensioned off.
That's my view & if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will say so.
Under other circumstances such as a Territorial being embodied, as a lot were in 1914 then his service would carry over into the Regulars.

[jess5athome]

Hi, just following on from John915's observation regarding the Artillery badge in stones near the men, do I see the letter's "S" and "B" underneath it adding to John915's suggestion that they are a siege battery?

Regards
Frank.

[Winterbloom21]

I think it's highly probable, Jess, that he was in a siege battery, for no better reason that he had brothers who were also in siege batteries.   

How long do you have to do, Jim1, before you earn a service stripe?    I'm thinking that he would have had a maximum of seven years between the time he was 'pensioned off' in 1900 and the time he went to Canada (circa 1907).          Would a 'part timer' have been sent to South Africa for the Boer War?    I've just remembered something else that I was told - that he was part of the 'guard of honour' for Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901.      Whatever about 'guard of honour' they are saying he was in the army in 1901.

I can feel an email to his great grandson in California coming on.......

[jess5athome]

Hi, just coming back in on this, I think (but could be wrong  )
Good-conduct stripes were awarded one for each number of years enlisted as follows

1 stripe for 2 years, then a second stripe after 5 years (3 years after 1st stripe) then 12 years, not sure after that, someone will come along who can tell you for certain.

Frank.

[Winterbloom21]

Thank you, Frank.   If that's the case, then I'm really confused!    Perhaps it's just his doppelganger in this photo and not really him at all!

[MaxD]

Does your man show up anywhere in the 1901 census?

maxD

PS - Another clue to confirming them as artillerymen is that the badge that can be seen above the three stripes of the individual back row centre is, although the pic doesn't allow detailed examination,  certainly the gun badge worn by artillery sergeants (who here is almost certainly the Number One ie commander of the gun sub). 

[Winterbloom21]

No Maxd, he doesn't.  But I've never thought that odd because I have always assumed, because of what I had been told, that he was abroad in South Africa at the time.

[sandiep]

have you looked for his military records? Canadian forces are online for WW1read about them
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/canadian-expeditionary-force.aspx

Ancestry & FindMyPast have what records are left