No I didn't send the PM. The following will help answer the questions:
Yes the company had many horses as well as vehicles including motor cycles. As he has two offences relating to horses I would say he worked with them almost all the time.
For info of others. Originquest was unable to post scans of Harry's records so I looked at them via email. Here is my "translation":
Images 003 to 005 record his misdemeanours prior to deployment to France.
Image 003 (at Bulford two miles away from me!) 3 days Confined to Barracks for disturbing the peace of the barrack block at night - fined 2 days pay.
Image 004 overstays a pass home, 14 days CB and 1 days pay fine.
Image 005 links with 004. On the date in question he was still on his 14 Days CB from the absence and would have to parade at the guardroom a certain number of times a day. Late for the 5 30 am parade, ticked off.
001 records him joining in Sep 14, as a volunteer, and confirms his unit and arrival with them in France on 8 July 1915. Between the two dates he would have been in training, the conduct sheet entries have Bulford and Marlborough at different times.
It shows two short hospital stays and two offences. Drunk in charge of a horse for which he gets 28 days Field Punishment No 1 in close arrest. Field Punishment Number 1 consisted of the convicted man being shackled in irons and secured to a fixed object, often a gun wheel or similar. He could only be thus fixed for up to 2 hours in 24, and not for more than 3 days in 4, or for more than 21 days in his sentence. This punishment was often known as 'crucifixion' and due to its humiliating nature was viewed by many Tommies as unfair.
He is later convicted of missing the 6 30 am stables parade and awarded 2 days confined to camp.
The 1918 entry was made at Crowborough at the end of the war and is his medical category A3 which meant a man back from the BEF fit but who would need a bit of conditioning if called upon to fight again.
004 is self- explanatory I think. Another absence, a spell on leave to UK, a spell in hospital then a spell related to gas*, first in the local FA, Field Ambulance, then to No 6 General Hospital in France from which he goes to UK by 7 Aug 18. The next entry is him going to the dispersal centre for discharge in Mar 19. However, the November 1918 entry at Crowborough when he is pronounced A3 suggests he was discharged already so it is unlikely that he was in hospital all that time, there is no exit date from hospital.
*The dates of the gas incident are I think a bit misleading. The record seems to be saying that it is on 3 August. The company diary is very good with detail and there is nothing in the diary that day and on 3 August 45 Field Ambulance was actually moving. It also seem unlikely that he would be in a forward FA on 3rd Aug and have passed through 6 General Hospital and on the way to UK by 7th Aug. Far more likely is that he was one of the 21 wounded by gas during a shelling and gas attack on 26 July. They were obviously out of action as the diary records their work being taken over by other people and later, in early August, reinforcements coming to the company to replace them. The attack took place in the vicinity of Missy-au-Bois, to the south west of Soissons. The Division were under the command of the French Corps at the time as were American troops. This is well worth reading:
http://batmarn2.free.fr/15thdivi.htmand a Youtube to show what the area looked like then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_ZcF5dNEMAre there any other sheets?
MaxD
