"....Retained at various home stations on important duties

[mofid42]

Hi
I am hoping some wise owl may be able to enlighten me.

My Great Grand Uncle Charles James Nugent b 1884 London served as a private with the Northumberland Fusiliers. This info is from the National Roll of the Great War. His service record doesn't seem to have survived, although I have found his medal index card.

The info from the National Roll of the Great War states he joined in 1916 and fought at Arras & Ypres but shortly afterward became ill and was invalided home to hospital. On recovery was "retained at various home stations on important duties"

I am wondering exactly what does that mean?

I have found a record on FindMyPast of a C J Nugent enlisting in the Royal Air Force in 1917 and serving as a steward/batman.
Also the London Electoral Roll for 1918 has him listed as an Absent voter, although there are no details about any force he maybe serving in.

There is no indication other than a coincidence of initials to say this might be my Gt grand uncle in the RAF but was hoping someone may know if it was a common occurrence that a soldier unfit for active service was transferred/volunteered to serve in the RAF instead?

[km1971]

If the medal card does not mention the RAF then they cannot be the same man. As his unit, rank and number on 11th November 1918 went on the BW and VM.

The information on the National Roll of the Great War was provided by the man himself, or the family of the dead. So we will never know why he choose these words.

Ken

[IMBER]

Certain phrases and descriptions appear in the National Roll over and over again. One of these phrases is "important duties" and it may be that the compilers assisted those who submitted entries or suggested wording where persons, perhaps with limited education etc, were struggling.

Imber

[jds1949]

His pre-war occupation may provide a clue as to what he was doing. I have seen records of men who who clerks and who were enlisted in the army and spent their entire time in uniform working as clerks. Ditto platelayers [railway] and engineers. The army was a massive undertaking, it needed clerks, builders, railway engineers, transport staff, catering staff, etc., etc. There were a substantial number of men who were in uniform and never fired a shot in anger. Men who after wounding or sickness were re-classified as unfit for front line service were still of use to the army and were re-allocated to where their skills could be of use.

jds1949 

[mofid42]

Thank you for all your replies.

To KM1971
The medal card doesn't mention anything other than the Northumberland Fusiliers. I have included a snip of the section about the medals as there is something written in the remarks section that I can't work out the meaning.

To IMBER.
I have a copy of his marriage cert from both the GRO and the London PR's on Anc. The one from Anc shows that he signed his own name. The signature is clear and well formed so appears to have been written by someone who had a reasonable standard of education.

To jds1949
His pre and post war occupation was that of a painter and decorator. He ran his own business and seems to have had a yard and store in seperate premises to where he lived. Adverts for his business can be found in trade directories.
Charles was killed in 1940 aged 56 due to enemy action. One of his son's followed him into the business but as his son had the same initials I am not certain if he took over the business before or after Charles died.

As his service records have not survived I guess it will remain a mystry what these "Important Duties" would have been.

[jds1949]

The comment in the Remarks section is AR [Army Reserve] Class "Z" - see here for more info:

http://www.1914-1918.net/reserve.htm

scroll down the page until you find it.

jds1949

[mofid42]

Thanks for the explanation of the remarks and the link, jds1949, bookmarked link for future reference.

So it would appear he was held as a reserve but according to your link that would not have been until after 1918, so its the two year gap between 1916 and 1918 that remains a mystery.

He doesn't seem to have been awarded a Silver War Badge, so I am curious about the nature of his "illness", which was bad enough for him to be sent home but not to stop him from being in the army altogether.