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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: nort on Sunday 20 March 05 12:25 GMT (UK)
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Hi
My grandmothers brother was killed in WW1 and I had a look at his medal card he was in the Northumberland Fusiliers but he has two different regimental numbers for that regiment .How would this happen,any ideas.
nort
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Hi Nort
The soldiers were often moved around/changed numbers.
There are a number of different reasons. Sometimes if there had been a lot of casualties in one battallion/battery/section then they moved some around or just moved them into different sections for other reasons etc. etc.. My gt grandad had three! One of them was the number that he had had when he was previously in the army prior to WW1.
You might find the Great War forum useful - there are a lot of knowledgable people on there:
http://www.1914-1918.org/forum/index.php
Best wishes
Casalguidi
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Thanks for that Casalguidi.It had me puzzled I thought once given your number you would keep it unless you changed regiments.
cheers
nort
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Hi nort,
In 1917 the Army Council instituted a renumbering regime for the Territorial Forces, which is the likely reason for your man having multiple regimental numbers. You'll find an informative article here:
http://www.1914-1918.net/TF/TF_renumbering_index.htm
Regards,
Swampy
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Hi Swampy
Thanks for the reply.He was KIA in 1917 so that could well be why he had two numbers on his medal card
cheers
nort
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nort,if your man was a territorial then he was most likely to have been renumbered during the war,you say he was killed,for some daft reason,the army renumbered men who were either killed or taken prisoner,mack