Tom Tulloch-Marshall
Military Genealogy & Operational Records Of The Great War

The British Army 1914 ~ 1919

Other Ranks Service Records ~ some examples

The following are examples of the type of information which may be found in the "burned" and "unburned" series Other Ranks Service Records held at the Public Record Office, London. It should be borne in mind that the overall success rate of searches of these records is somewhere in the region of 40%, and that the content of the files can vary enormously.

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The "Burned" Series
< click here for Pte Charles Bennett ~ 17th Bn Notts & Derby Regiment (Sherwood Foresters) ~ Attestation ~ family background ~ home postings ~ sent to 12th Battalion in France ~ another child is born ~ transferred to 17th Battalion ~ killed in action ~ his effects are returned ~ a pension is granted ~ burial.  
< click here for Pte George Tulloch ~ 2nd Bn Durham Light Infantry ~ Attestation ~ physical description ~ next-of-kin ~ addresses ~  births of children ~ marriage ~ UK postings ~ offences ~ posting to BEF ~ sentenced to 1 years' hard labour ~ wife tries to trace ~ sentence suspended ~ Kia ~ pension for widow & children ~ medals issued.
< click here for Pte William Batty ~ Army Service Corps (Motor Transport) ~ "Corps men" can be difficult to research ~ records of death and burial ~ some detail of enlistment, personal matters, and his service history ~ taken prisoner ~ and, a rare and specific reference to the circumstances of his death.

The "Unburned" Series
<click here for Pte Herbert Newsome ~ 3/6th & 1/7th Bns West Riding Regiment and 1/6th & 15th Bns Durham Light Infantry ~ enlistment ~ to France ~ transferred ~ "wounded" ~ absconds ~ Court Martial ~ the sentence ~ prison ~ sentence discharged ~ rejoins unit ~ "FP No1" ~ to 15th Battalion ~ "wounded", again ~ to hospital ~ discharged ~ disability assessment. 

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Private 7316 / 25544 Charles Bennett
17th Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment
(Sherwood Foresters)
(Burned series record)

Thirty three year old Charles Bennett attested  for the "duration of the war" at Worksop on the 20th of April 1915. He  was 5ft 2 ins tall, weighed 146lbs and had a chest range of 36-38 inches. He had married Rebecca Edith Vincent at Worksop on the 29th of March 1905, was employed as a  coal miner, and lived at 43 Baker Street, Creswell, near Mansfield. At the time of his enlistment he and his wife had four children; John Edwin had been born 21/7/05, Clarise Evelyn 2/8/06, Eileen 20/11/09, and Edith Ada 1/3/14. There was to be another addition to the family some time later.

Charles was posted to 15th Bn Notts & Derby Regiment on enlistment and transferred to the 19th Bn on the 18th of August 1915 - all of this service was at home and in fact it would be a considerable time before he finally went abroad. Appointed unpaid Lance-Corporal 18/5/16 and given paid rank 27/6/15, he was then posted to 3rd Bn as a Private 26/8/16 and again raised to paid L/Corporal 4/9/16, making Acting-Corporal on October 28th. His service papers give a first overseas posting to France as 1/2/17 when he was posted to the 12th (Pioneer) Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment, but he was quickly posted on to the 17th (Service) Bn as a L/Corporal on February 25th. Meanwhile, on the 9th of February 1917, Rebecca gave birth to the couple's fifth child, Norah Joyce Bennett.   

Charles was killed in action on the 27th of March 1917 whilst the Battalion were in support positions near Sanctuary Wood on the Ypres Salient. On the 15th of April  1917 two month old Norah Joyce succumbed to gastro-enteritis and convulsions and died in the house of a neighbour, Lucy Pearson, of 39 Baker Street. Two months later Rebecca received Army Form B.104-126 from the records office at Lichfield  detailing Charles's personal effects and asking for confirmation of her forwarding address.
These effects consisted of "3 Discs, Correspondence, Notebook, Matchbox cover, Photo, Relig book, Tin box cont watch & leather guard, Scissors, 1 Pencil." On October 4th 1917 she received notification from the Ministry of Pensions to the effect that she and the four children were to be granted a pension of 28 shillings and 9 pence a week from October 15th.

The post war receipt for Charles's British War and Victory Medals bears Rebecca's signature. Charles is buried in Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery, near Ypres.

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Private 8396 George Tulloch
2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry
(Burned series record)

The "Burned" series papers for George Tulloch were found whilst making a general search of this surname, for fairly obvious reasons. He is not related, however the file is a fairly typical example of the material to be found in the series, and it is a record which exhibits some of the difficulties which may be encountered when records have been fire and / or water damaged. Also, in passing, you will not find any record of George in either the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) or Soldiers Died In The Great War (SDITGW) records if you search for him under his true name, - he appears in both as "Tullock", - a common (English!) transcription error  with Scots place or proper names ending "ch". The following are relevant extracts from his papers:-  
George attested for six years in the Army Special Reserve on the 16th of May 1912, aged 18 years 10 months. He had elder siblings John and Elizabeth, was a blacksmith by trade, and had not resided in his father's house continuously for the past three years. He was 5ft 6ins tall, weighed 106lbs, and his chest expansion range was 31.5 - 33.5ins. Physical development is noted as "good". 

An initial entry gives his next-of-kin as his father (who is also named George) of 4 Eynis Street, Millfield, Sunderland, though a later note amends this to his wife Mary Jane (nee Archer, formerly a spinster) of 48 Wear Street, Southwick-on-Wear, Sunderland. The wedding took place on the 27th of December 1913 and the witnesses are named as Matt Butchers and an I.Sanderson. There are entries on the A&D Papers showing children as "Mary Ann (Archer)" born 15/10/11 and "Martin (Archer)" born 25/6/13. Both children are noted as illegitimate, but there is a later declaration on file in which Mary confirms George as the father of both. There are also births noted as "Alice May 4/9/12" and "John 12/9/14", but no further reference to these two who might be assumed to be infant deaths, though that assumption would have to be checked elsewhere. 

George's "Postings" are shown as Newcastle-upon-Tyne 16/5/12 until 15/7/12; Strensall (Yorkshire) 14/6/13 till 13/7/13; Barnard Castle (Durham) 14/7/13 till 9/8/13 and again from 15/6/14 till 11/7/14. George was then  embodied 5/8/14 and sent to join his Battalion as part of the British Expeditionary Force on the 1st of November 1914 (the record confirms no overseas service prior to 31/10/14). Regimental Conduct Sheets show that he was "absent" from 6:30pm on the 17th of August 1914 until 11am on the 20th, for which he was awarded five days confined to barracks, repeating this offence between 9:30pm on the 29th of August until 11:30am on the 31st, this time getting away quite lightly by being "admonished"; but again repeating the offence between 9:30pm on the 11th of September and not reappearing until 9:30p[m on the 15th. This last occurrence won him a seven day spell "CB".

For reasons which are not at all explained amongst the surviving papers which are readable (investigations of Judge Advocate's returns might resolve this) George was sentenced to one years' hard labour on the 17th of March 1915. An undated letter from wife Mary to the War Office asks which prison he has been sent to as all letters which she has sent to George during the past five weeks have been returned as undeliverable; "I received your letter you sent to me and was very sorry to hear of what he had done", but she throws no light on the conviction leading to George's imprisonment. (None of Mary's letters are dated, and in this instance the War Office received stamp is unreadable). There is a second letter from Mary to the WO on file, this bearing a partial date stamp for May 7th (it must be 1915) and saying that she has not heard from George for two months and her letters are being returned as undeliverable. Both letters were probably written within a short space of time.

George was released from prison on suspension of sentence in accordance with the "Army Suspension of Sentences Act" on the 10th of June 1915, this being confirmed by the DAA & QMG Branch of the 6th Infantry Division, with Officer Commanding 18th Infantry Brigade setting the date for reconsideration of suspension as the 9th of September that year. The review date was never reached however as George was Killed in Action on the 9th of August 1915 when the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry led the 18th Brigade's attack on a crater position at Hooge, south of Ypres. (The Battalion lost 5 Officers and 144 OR's Kia or Dow during this attack).

Further correspondence on file relates to the granting of a pension of 18 shillings and 6 pence per week to Mary and the two children, whom the War Office now accept as being George's, and there are exchanges re the issue of George's service medals, - the 1914 Star being issued to Mary on the 8th of May 1919, the British War Medal on the 3rd of January 1921, and the Victory Medal on the 10th of September that year.
An (again undated) letter from Mary to the War Office, now giving her address as 26 Wear Street rather than the earlier 48, queries entitlement to the "Aug-Nov" Bar to the 1914 Star. The War Office issued the Bar during May 1921, the relevant date stamp being only partially readable. George has no known grave and is named on the  Menin Gate Memorial To The Missing, at Ypres. Again, he is incorrectly named there as "Tullock".

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Private M2/100749 William Batty
497 Company Army Service Corps
("Burned" series record)

Research into the service of "Corps men" can tend to be particulary difficult and the results are often unrewarding, - the "anonimity" and often seemingly tedious work of these large conglomerate elements of the army (coupled with the often uninformative content of the medal rolls and service records) often leads to an end result which is not very   informative. However there are exceptions, as the case of William Batty demonstrates.  

At the outset little was known about William other than the fact that he had been in the Army Service Corps and had not survived the war, however the first check in the SDITGW database immediately put a "slant" on his case as he is listed there as having "Died" (an implication of natural causes) on the 16th of October 1918, and the Theatre of War is given as Germany. An imediate indication that he "must" have been a prisoner of war. This was reinforced when the CWGC records were searched, these giving the same date of death and the place of burial as Niederzwehren Military Cemetery, one of the four cemeteries in Germany into which all British and Dominion Pow burials were concentrated post 1924.

Fortunately a search of the "burned series" service records for William's papers yielded a result, - it's not the most comprehensive record which I have seen by any means, but it did fill in some essential information which would allow research of his service locations and actions to be completed (though that is not a matter relevant here) and it did provide some very specific information regarding the circumstances of his death, although in one important respect this did contradict the SDITGW and CWGC records.

William enlisted on the 26th of May 1915 at Pontefract, giving his address as 104 Old Mill Road, Barnsley, and his age as 24 years and 196 days. A Motor Driver by trade, he declared that he had no previous military service and that he was married with three children, the eldest of whom was just over three years old and the youngest a mere eight months. He was 5 feet 7 inches tall and had an expanded chest measurment of 36 inches (3 inches expansion) and appears to have been accepted as "fit". His wife's name was Edith and they had married at Barnsley on the 30th of October 1911, the birth of their first child  occuring the following March.

Following enlistment he was allocated "Service in Reserve" until the 12th of February 1916 when he was called up to the ASC, serving in the UK until the 21st of May 1916 when he joined No 497 Company ASC in France. Appointed Acting Corporal on the 6th of March 1916 he reverted to Private at "own request" (quite a common find in service records) on the 7th of May 1917, continuing to serve with 497 Coy until the 25th of March 1918 when he was taken prisoner during the early stages of the German "Spring Offensive". A good "clean" service record opening the door to researching William's overseas service, which would not have been possible using the medal records alone.
But there is one further piece of information noted in the papers which is not mentioned anywhere else, - a matter which may open yet more doors  for research amongst the various Prisoner of War and prison camp records. The following statement appears in the summary of service section - "Killed while endevouring to escape from Alsace to Switzerland by coming into contact with the electrified wire fence. ... Night of 5/6th Aug 1918." - An obvious contradiction with regard to the date of death, but what else may be hidden away in the records ?

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Private 5911 - 5810 - 250806 Herbert Newsome
3/6th & 1/7th Battalions West Riding Regiment
&
1/6th & 15th Battalions Durham Light Infantry
(Unburned" series record)

Herbert was born in Barrow in Furnace and was working as a Farm Labourer when he was conscripted into the 3/6th Battalion West Riding Regiment  as Private 5911 on the 14th of July 1916. A medical examination at Huddersfield that day records his height as 5ft 1ins, weight 112 pounds, chest 33.5 to 35.5 inches expanded, vision 6/6 both eyes, physical development "fair" and medical status "A", with a note of slight signs of varicose veins on his legs. He declared his age to be 32 years and 330 days and religion C of E.

Posted to the 1/7th Battalion West Riding Regiment as Private 5810 on the 13th of November 1916 and embarked  Folkstone - Boulogne the same day, arriving at the 34th Infantry Brigade Base Depot at Etaples on the 14th, where he was immediately transferred to the 1/6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry as Private 250806. The next  file reference to Herbert shows him being admitted to the Military Hospital at Ripon on the 11th of December 1916 with what appears to be a superficial gunshot wound to his left hand, - he didnt stay here for long though, absconding on the 18th.

Apprehended on the 20th he was then held in confinement until the 21st of January 1917 when he appeared before a Field General Court Martial; the charge is unclear but it seems to have been "desertion", - Herbert being found guilty and sentenced "TO SUFFER DEATH BY BEING SHOT". (There are no details of the trial on file).

This sentence was confirmed by authority of "Army Commander, IVth Army" on the 6th of February 1917 but was commuted by the same authority the same day and a sentence of Five Years Penal Servitude was substituted. Herbert duly arrived at No 1 Military Prison in Rouen on the 22nd of February 1917, and a further note for that date shows the sentence being again reduced, on authority of the Prison Governor, to Two Years Hard Labour. Herbert was released from prison on the 15th of March 1918 with the remainder of his sentence being discharged. He rejoined his battalion on the 16th of March. 

There are a series of notes for the period following this, however they are very indistinct and it is impossible to make complete sense of them, however it does seem that Herbert was in trouble again quite quickly as he was awarded twenty-eight days Field Punishment No 1 at the Etaples Base Depot on the 15th of July 1918. More unreadable entries follow, but it appears that detentions continued until the 18th of September 1918 when Herbert was posted to the 15th Battalion DLI, actually joining them on the 21st.

He now seems to have again been "wounded" on the 7th of November, though there are contradictory notes about the nature of this wounding, some references being to a shrapnel wound to his left leg and others to a gunshot wound. He was admitted to No 65 Field Ambulance on the 8th of November ("GSW") and then embarked on the hospital ship "St Patrick" on the 13th and was admitted to the Scottish General Hospital at Stobhill, Glasgow, on the 16th of November (again shown as "GSW" left leg).
It appears that this wound was superficial and no operation was required, Herbert being released for discharge on the 24th of January 1919 and formally discharged to "Class Z Army Reserve" (the active reserve, liable to recall) on the 13th of March. A medical assessment at the time of discharge declared him to have a non-permanent disability of less than 20% and awarded him a "final" gratuity of three shillings and sixpence for twenty-six weeks from the 14th of March.     

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