WW1 uniform I.D please ~ Liverpool soldier

[ZED]

Hi All ~

This is my late grandfather William Herbert Greaves in his WW1 army uniform. I know that he fought in France (and returned safely home to Liverpool), but I would like to know to which regiment he belonged (fingers crossed that there are sufficient clues to this in the photograph!) I'm certain it would have been a NW (most likely Lancashire?) regiment.

Thank you in anticipation 

[neil1821]

Not a county regiment, but the Royal Artillery.
The "L" on his right arm is the badge of a trained gunlayer.

[ZED]

Thank you SO much neil1821 ... hopefully I'll be able to trace his war-time postings now that I have that information!

[forester]

Hello Zed,

There is only one William H Greaves with Artillery connections, that I can see, on the medal index cards (TNA and Ancestry), but if you know he fought in France, I'm not convinced that he is yours.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/04ze/

I've also had a quick look at the Pension and Service Records, looking for his full name only, but nothing stands out.

Phil

[ZED]

Many thanks for searching forester ... much appreciated.

There is a photo of him with his regiment(?) battalion(?) (I have no knowlege of military structure - yet!) complete with their cannon, in a town in France. I'm just trying to find out which member of the family has it.

[scrimnet]

Well...He has the soft trench cap on...so no earlier than 1916...

And we would LOVE to see the big pic!

They are most welcome on here!

Artillery groupings are there to confuse the unwary...In the infantry  x2 regular battalions would make up a Regt, but in the Artillery, a Regt is the lesser of the sizes being made up of batteries...(groups of guns)

[ZED]

Hi scrimnet ~

Here is the photo! As you see, it's in pretty bad shape, but I'm going to ask the photo-restorers to work their magic on it and then I'll re-post.

Written in pencil on the back in my grandfather's rather flamboyant  handwriting is:
"21/12/18"
 Then there's a word I can't decifer - 'signal' perhaps? Battery. Carvin. France.

My grandfather is the second man standing on the right hand side of the photo.


 

[ZED]

Gosh, the restoration photographers have made absolutely stunning repairs to the photo ... I'm SO delighted    Here's just one example:

[neil1821]

Then there's a word I can't decifer - 'signal' perhaps? Battery. Carvin. France.

Siege Battery perhaps? Not signal anyway 
Where is Carvin exactly?
Look at the building behind the left hand gun, it seems to say something in German on the sign - "Offizier _____ haus" at first reading. Shame the middle bit is obscured by the gun.