Help with MIC

[Staffords]

hello there,
I'm a new member to this site and would ask for some help with my Grandfathers MIC
  I know he was in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a territorial and was based in stoke on trent/Newcastle under Lyme before going to France in 1915.
I can't quite decipher the battery he was in according to his MIC, and would like to trace his journey during the wars (I think he was in both of them!!)
his name is Benjamin K Ford
Regiment?numbers on the card are: 356, 313106 and finally 166113
any help would be gratefully accepted.
mark

[MaxD]

Welcome to Rootschat.

The first number is his original number when he joined the TF

The TF was renumbered in 1917 and he would have been given the second number.

The third number is a seven digit number issued first in 1920

The MIC doesn't show his battery, the RGA hieroglyphics are the RGA medal rolls on which he appears.

The medal roll though does show that he started to war in 1915 as a member of 1/1 North Midland (Staffordshire) Heavy Battery RGA - (TF).  Whether he stayed with that battery is not known.  However, as he probably served on beyond 1921, his full record should be still with MOD.  You can apply for them, subject to the conditions,  See:https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records

Only his record will show with whom he served throughout.  May I suggest you get his record and then one can look for war diaries.  There is one for the first battery for the start of his service, downloadable at http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/9c3ac3e1e4c3452baaecd8d0f1d8cb2b for £3.50  There is another for 1917 but I would wait until you see his record.

MaxD

PS the remainder of the mumbo jumbo is just that, administrative stuff which doesn't mean anything now.

[Staffords]

Max,
 Many thanks for that information and so prompt too.
ill take your advice and begin the journey.
Mark

[jim1]

Just to add this is the number allocation for the RGA TF in 1917:
313001 – 314000: 1/1 Staffordshire Heavy Battery, RGA & 2/1 North Midland Heavy Battery, RGA.
So 313106 puts him in one of these in 1917.

This is what the LLT says about the 1/1:
1/1st North Midland (Staffordshire) Heavy Battery
The battery went to France with the North Midland Division, landing at Le Havre on 1 March 1915. On arrival in France, the division was designated 46th (North Midland) Division. The battery first went into action on 23 March. However, artillery policy in the British Expeditionary Force was to withdraw heavy batteries from the divisions and allocate them to heavy brigades (later Heavy Artillery Reserve Groups (HAGs)), so on 18 April the battery left 46th Division and after short attachments to other infantry divisions became part of XIII Heavy Brigade, RGA.
The obsolescent 4.7-inch guns were progressively replaced in the BEF by 60-pounders during 1915-16. The battery was brought up to a strength of six guns on 14 February 1917 when it was joined by a section of 123rd Heavy Battery, RGA.
The policy was to move batteries between HAGs as required, though by late 1917 their allocations became more fixed. From 22 December 1917 until the Armistice, 1/1st North Midland Bty was in 41st HAG, which became 41st Mobile Brigade on 1 February 1918,
As you can see there was a lot of re-organisation of the RGA so don't be surprised when you get his service record as this will reflect these changes.
It won't necessarily be him moving between Batteries but more likely the re-numbering that went on.

[Staffords]

Jim,
thanks for the extra information.
the amount of knowledge on here by the members is extraordinary!
it will help me to narrow down what my grandfather did during the conflict and understand what these 'ordinary people' went through in those extraordinary times.
my mother always told me that he would talk about what he did in the second world war but never about the first world war other than to say he was lucky..... he came home.
 it must truly have been hell on earth.
thanks again
mark