labour corp. ww1?

[jue]

hello,during research of great grandad,i have found he has 3 army numbers ,one for the lancs.fus.,one for army service corp.,and one for the labour corp.,has anybody any idea what the labour corp. did or why he would be included in it?

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Jue,

I found this by Googling "army labour corp":

The Labour Corps, formed in February 1917, is generally regarded as a predecessor of the Royal Pioneer Corps.
In WW1 the British had no organised Labour system at the start of the war, depending on civilians supplied by the French Government. As the war progressed demands for Labour increased as armies grew in size and at the same time less Frenchmen available to assist. The British started to send labourers to France in 1915-1916 to work in docks etc. In April 1917 they were formed into a Labour Corps which was to reach 325,000 British soldiers, 98,000 Chinese, 10,000 Africans, 6 Battalions British West Indies Regt, 300,000 PWs and contingents from Egypt and Fiji all serving in France in Nov 1918. They also included non-combatant Coys and Alien Coys. Among its ranks were a number of labour units, originally formed as Battalions of Infantry Regiments. These were of two types, Works Battalions and Labour Battalions. When these were transferred from the infantry to the Labour Corps in the middle of 1917, the Works Battalions were (rather confusingly) re-designated Labour Battalions, while the original Labour Battalions were broken up and reformed as Independent Labour Companies.

Source: http://www.royalpioneercorps.co.uk/rpc/history_main1.htm

Hope it helps. There are lots of other hits, which may help add to this.

[jue]

thanks for that,it answers a question, ;Djulie