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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: JanPennington on Saturday 21 October 17 02:57 BST (UK)
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Hi
Frederick Edward Woodley is not exactly a relative of mine - he is the brother-in-law of my step-grandmother by her first husband. I get easily side-tracked.
Frederick enlisted in Aldershot in March 1899 as a Driver in Royal Army Service Corps and died in Bloemfontein in Feb 1902. I have found 10 pages of records on Find My Past from WO 363. They appear under records for 1914-1920 - not sure how or why.
I have a couple of questions.
Does 'driver' mean horse drawn vehicle not motorised at that date? He was a groom prior to enlisting.
The documents say the enlistment was a "special " enlistment and Form 203 had to be used. What is a special enlistment?
When the records say he was in "Pom Pom Bty" when he died What was this?
He was awarded the Queen's medal with two clasps. Is this the normal medals awarded for service in South Africa?
I would appreciate any help and suggestion for where I can read more about this type of thing online.
Jan
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Driver of horses - yes
Special enlistment meant there was some reason why he didn't comply with all the requirements for enlistment and his enlistment had to be specially looked at and authorised. The form 203 is in his docs, the reason was that he was, believe it or not, half an inch over the height requirement for a driver (think jockeys!).
ASC man were often attached to another unit. It seems that he was at the time attached to an artillery unit equipped with a pom pom http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Pom_Poms.php
The medal was the Queens South Africa medal for which there were certain criteria. The clasps on the ribbon were for the particular engagements/places he was involved in
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/medals/queens-south-africa-medal
MaxD
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Bit more from the medal rolls. He was with 5 Company ASC and the clasps he earned were Paardeberg and the Relief of Kimberley (the link above will expand on them).
The anglo-Boer war site has this on the ASC
https://www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/imperial-units/531-army-service-corps
The Boer War is covered here quite well
http://www.britishbattles.com/great-boer-war/
MaxD
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Thanks Max.
I had noticed he was half inch over height but not appreciated the significance.
I will look at all the links mentioned. My knowledge of history is limited, particularly outside UK.
Jan
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Jan
Try as I might, I can't see the reference to Pom Pom Battery on his docs??
MaxD
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I found the mention of Pom pom Bty on a document called "effects of Frederick Edward Woodley" on ancestry. My attempts to attach the document have failed twice.
I found it attached to family tree on ancestry.co.uk and the citation says it is from the National Army Museum, Chelsea, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929.
I will attempt to save he page as a smaller file and try to post it again.
I found a similar document for his brother George who died in 1916 at the Somme.
By the way I was away from home earlier today and did a google search on pom pom battery and got some strange results for battery chargers with pom poms on them, until I added Boer War and then I got lots of pictures of the guns.
I will now look at the links you gave me earlier.
Jan
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OK Jan - I am very familiar with the Effects register, just omitted looking there! It confirms what I thought earlier that he was attached to one of the artillery batteries manning the pom pom guns (I thought I had linked this before http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Pom_Poms.php
We can perhaps get a bit closer to what he did in the war. We know he was at Paadeberg, the British Battles link has a good piece on that battle. His role would have been bringing up the ammunition to the guns. The relief of Kimberley is covered here http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_relief_kimberley.html
May be able to get more.
MaxD
PS Was George Woodley the Royal Hampshire man?
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George Woodley was the one who married Amy who later became my step-grandmother. he was in the Hampshire Regiment. His number was 15281.
A third brother Arthur William Woodley was listed as one of the next of kin to Frederick and it said he was in the East Lancs. I found a document that says he re-enlisted in 1906 in the Marines and became a musician and I think went to France twice in 1916 and in 1918.
My grandfather George Henry Toms and his bother Frederick Charles were also in the Hampshire Regiment. They must have enlisted on the same as they have consecutive numbers 30700 and 30699.
My cousin says that George went to India and that he had a tattoo of a tiger on his arm - that on the Hampshire Crest?
Yes you did send the link to the memorial site. I'll check out the History of war on noe.
Thanks
Jan
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Both the Toms were in 1/7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment that sailed for India on 9 October 1914 and remained there until January 1918 when they moved to Aden.
MaxD
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Hi
Thanks for all the help. I feel I have a bit better understanding of the army and Boer War, I hadn't appreciated what the Army Service Corps did. I have other relatives in the Army Service Corps in World War 1.
I have a few photos of soldiers, but I am not sure who is who, as I was given them as a child with two postcards albums, because I collected old postcards. The photos are now mixed up, and as the albums belonged to two different people I cannot be certain who they are. I will post them on this site when I have had a chance to scan and enhance them as some are very faint and hopefully someone may be able to identify the uniforms.
I am off to the UK later this week and am hope to talk my mother and uncle who may also have some memories hat will help me add to the details of my tree.
Jan
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Glad to be of assistance - have a good trip!
MaxD