help in interpreting service record abbreviations

[thomasgatherer]

can anyone tell me what the entries in the 2nd to 4th lines of attached scan mean.

[MaxD]

3 CLY is 3rd County of London Yeomanry.  The heroglyphics underneath are the serial number in 1944 of the record,  Embarked UK disembarked North West Europe.
Another 3 CLY entry recording him going to 37 Reinforcement Holding Unit 21 Army Group on the X 4 list which in this case means he was being "held" to be sent somewhere other than his unit. The date, 5 8 44 should be found on another sheet somewhere and should clarify what that was. 

MaxD

[MaxD]

Missed a line.  The entry in the first column is again a record (Part two Order), with its serial number made by the unit he was in on the date given.  It is his admission (adm) to the hospital.  I would not like to guess what the initials in the first column are but as before, it is likely that his posting record or his medical record will have a clue relating to the date given.
Just an observation, when interpreting records it is almost always better to see it all as one has to look often at more than one sheet to get the answer.  If my thoughts haven't clarified those lines, post the posting and medical record.

MaxD

[thomasgatherer]

THanks for that Max. I have no other sheets with his service record. I know that the 108 BR Gen Hosp was in Brussels and I would like to find his medical record and date of admission. Any pointers as to how or where? I assume that the date 24/8/45 is his discharge from Hospital.

On the 2 lines below are thae dates his move to the 256 ADS and what do the X4B and X18?A signify?

Tom

[MaxD]

4 8 45 is his admission date.

X4B and (badly written XL (L for list my interpretation - there was no X18) 8 A are both administrative categories on the X List.  X 4 for men fit but not yet posted to a unit or ready for posting back to a unit and X 8 for men about to be discharged.  These categories can really only be fully related to a person's career by seeing the rest of his record which you do not have unfortunately.

It looks like (and without other sheets, this must be educated guesswork) that he was "put on the books" of 256 ADS for two weeks or so before being fed into the discharge system.

There are some papers related to 108 Gen Hospital at the National Archives.  I would say, from experience, that they do not records for individuals.

Are there no other entries on the document you have scanned?  It would usually have some distinct record of discharge 


MaxD

[thomasgatherer]

HI Max,

The only other record is the one below the ADS lines. The next col has a stamp saying he was released to class Z  Royal Army Reserve 27/2/46 ( Class A release). I also have Notification of release form stamped  "Military Dispersal Unit Edinburgh 30/11/45" and overstamped  " Cavalry & Royal Armour ?? barnet herts 3/12/45".

Regarding the 37 RHU am I correct in thinking this was part of 3cly and that after the breakout from Normandy he would just rejoin the 3cly and then 3/4 cly when they were amalgamated.

Tom

[MaxD]

The discharge entry dovetails nicely with the X 8 entry above.

What he did after disembarkation is a puzzle.  The last 3CLY entry sends him to the holding  unit which was something completely separate and was for men from all sorts of units waiting to be posted somewhere. There is no entry posting him back to 3CLY or to anywhere else.

The problem is we (I at least) don't know for sure which unit then, over a year later, made the entry of the hospital admission.  What he was doing between the RHU and that admission can only be speculation.

I am a tad surprised that this is all you have. Did you get this as a result of your own application to Glasgow or has it been passed on from someone?

MaxD

[thomasgatherer]

hi Max

many thanks for that info . The only records we have from our application for his service record and the only details of his postings are what I posted. However we do know that he was in the Brussels area in Aug 45 as he was befriended by a Belgian family and his daughter (my wife) is named after their daughter.  There is a story that his being in a hospital saved his life but from the record he was in the 108 after the war ended.  He was not wounded but we think he suffered from an ulcer.

I suspect that we are not going to get any medical records so will never know exactly what happened.

Many thanks again for your help.

Tom

[MaxD]

A final bit of (educated) guesswork is hopefully permitted.

The entries working up to discharge in the bottom line are made I believe by E Office/dept of the RAC and Yeomanry (RACY) Records, specifically, Yeomanry E.  This means he was still in the Yeomanry and thus would support your earlier thought that he went from the RHU to what by then was 3/4 CLY.  It was normal for a man to spend time at the RHU waiting for a reinforcement draft to be put together and sent all together to the new unit.   That return is undocumented on this sheet.  The regiment though was well past Brussels by January of 1945 although perhaps admission to 108 Gen Hospital in August was at the end of a long evacuation chain from somewhere in Germany which they reached later?
Rather too much speculation!

These will be of interest I am sure:

http://www.warlinks.com/armour/3_cly/3cly_45.php
http://www.warlinks.com/armour/4_cly/4cly_44.php

MaxD