The King's Own ( Royal Lancaster Regiment )

[AngieToton]

I have a certificate saying my Great Uncle was disabled in WW1 and I would like to find out where he served in WW1 and would like to know how he was injured and where.

On the certificate it says:

Private George Henry Mann - 41130 - The King's Own ( Royal Lancaster Regiment ) having previously served during the War in the Notts & Derby Regiment.

Can anyone help me please ?
Thanks

[MaxD]

His service record seems to have been among the 60% or so of Great War records that were lost to fire during the second war.
His Silver War badge tells us he enlisted on 15 August 1917 and was discharged with a disability on 30 May 1919.  His medal roll says he served in 8th Battalion.  They have a war diary that covers up to end April 1919.  You can download it for £3.50 from the National Archives:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352095  It is unlikely that he will be mentioned but it would give a sense of the war that battalion went through.  The diary is on Ancestry if you have a sub??  His service in the Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters) was in UK as it doesn't appear on his medal records.

The date he was discharged suggests that he had some sort of problem that allowed him to soldier on but when assessed on discharge it was confirmed that it was attributable to his army service, he would then receive a pension of some sort.

From a military record point of view, that is about it.

MaxD

[AngieToton]

Thanks, my Mum said he had an injury to his arm. Probably won't find out where he was injured, if his records were destroyed. 

I've looked up the 8th Battalion and it says it was part of the 25th Division, 76th Brigade - is this correct for him ? don't want to start off with the wrong info.

[MaxD]

Up to September 1915 76 Brigade was in 25 Division.  From Sept 1915 the brigade moved to the 3rd Division so in his case the latter is relevant.


MaxD 

[AngieToton]

So I'm looking at the 76th Brigade, 3rd Division, 8th Battalion, The King's Own ( Royal Lancaster Regiment ) ??

[Gwil]

He is on a War Office Daily Casualty List dated 2 12 1918 (link below) of wounded KORL men.

The date is the list date. It is generally regarded that there is about 4 to 6 weeks from event to list (not a hard and fast rule though) so wounded towards the end of the war.

The list is quite a big one and, if you have the time, researching some of the other names on it might bring in a pattern of 8th Bn men wounded on a particular date.



FindMyPast link    https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0001953%2f19181210%2f013

[Gwil]

Looking at his Medal Roll entry and I see he is in a block allocated to 8th Bn KORL ranging from
41078 Ernest Bryan to 41166 Reginald Newton.

The whole block (apart from last three) are in alphabetical order and this together with the fact that there seem to be similar blocks either side allocated to other KORL Bns suggest the whole block he is in was allocated on the same day. (experience in researching into countless other similar scenarios show this to be usually the case)

Looking for surviving records of others in his block should show the pattern.

I have done one which is George James Kirby 41117. In brief he was called up 15 9 1917 to 13th Training Battalion, Training Reserve. He eventually ends up 52nd Graduated Bn, Notts & Derby when, on 9 5 1918 he is posted to an Infantry Base Depot in France. There, on 12 5 1918 he is allocated to 8th Bn KORL and given his 41117 KORL number (He will have had other numbers whilst with the units in UK i.e the Training Reserve and Notts and Derby)
You might want to look for some more records to firm up if this is the pattern for your man (in terms of when he went to France especially***) but I'd say this is highly likely his scenario as well.

If you have downloaded the Diary as suggested by Max upthread then have a look to see if there's mention of reinforcements on or shortly after 12 5 1918. His 'block' was roughly 88 men.
(Some of the others on here are dab hand at drilling down into the relevant diaries on Ancestry. I'm lacking in that skill)


*** we can get bogged down with the complexities of training units in the UK given there was a lot of reorganising going on resulting in moves and redesignation of units. The important bit from this exercise I'm proposing is that a bunch of Notts & Derby men were sent to France May 1918 and dished out to fighting battalions from a base depot there.

[Gwil]

Exactly the same query on the Great War Forum where the replies come to the same conclusion re his overseas service and wounding.

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/262979-private-george-henry-mann/