2 x Service Numbers in RFA

[Stirrick]

I have a Gunner in the RFA who has 2 Service Numbers associated with him.

#860670 (T) - I believe this places him with the 3rd Wessex Bde, RFA (T) in 1916.
Looking at closely matched Service Numbers suggests that he transferred from Territorial Force to the Regulars in January,1917.

#281560 - would this have been his re-issued Service Number on joining the Regular Army ?

He qualified for the award of the BWM & VM.

This all sort of fits, but I'm really not sure.

[ALAMO2008]

Corrected- his Rolls Medal Card on page 45621 for Mutt and Jeff - Albert Thomas Bailey Green - show they were Inscribed with his TF 860670 number A T B Green
All TF numbers were renumbered in 1917 - he was Demobbed under 281560

[AllanUK]

I have found a surviving service record for a Harold Benjamin Mills who served with the 3rd Wessex Brigade RFA (T) .....

His Attestation shows that he attested on 11/12/1915 into the 3rd Wessex Brigade RFA (T) (part of the 217 Brigade) and given a service number of 2305.

In 1917, the Army renumbered all Territorial Force soldiers, Harold Mills was renumbered to 860679 (a block of numbers, 860001 to 865000 was allocated to the 217 Brigade)

However, he was transferred to the Regular RFA and given a new number of 288041 and he retained this number for the rest of his service.

Your man, Albert T B Green, would have followed the same path. On enlistment he would have had a four digit number just like Mills, then renumbered in 1917 to 860670 but by that time he had been transferred into the Regular RFA and given a new number of 281560.

Snippet images courtesy of Find My Past

[Stirrick]

Cheers guys, very helpful.

I found a few servicemen with numbers around Albert's #860670, but got a bit confused by the scatter of dates at which they enlisted. Some had served with 3rd Wessex Bde (T) pre-war, and at least one enlisted direct in April,1916. The renumbering would explain that.

#860671 & #860679 both transferred to the Regular Army in January,1917. Which I presumed would also be the case with Albert.

However, consulting the wonderful longlongtrail website, the TF re-numbering took place in c.March,1917. So if they transferred to the Regulars in January,1917, wouldn't they have by-passed the TF renumbering ?

Or, as I've come to believe, is the situation more complex than it seems ? ;-)

[ShaunJ]

Looking at the surviving records for Thomas Gumbrell (281559 and 831865), both numbers seem to have been used interchangeably in early 1919.

[Stirrick]

I've found a partial record for this man online, though I've no idea of its provenance.

This gives:
10 Dec 1915 - Volunteered
10 May 1916 - Called up for Service
3 Jul 1917 - Transferred from 1st Wessex Bde RFA to B Battery 227 Bde RFA in Trowbridge
21 Jan 1920 - Transferred to Army Reserve

If correct, and it looks valid, this suggests that our man stayed with a TF unit even after transferring to the Reguar Army.

Looking again at the longlongtrail explanation, this states that a man's Service Number would only change when he was actually transferred outside of his Corps. So presumably our man retained his TF number until it was updated in c.March,1917. He would then have changed to a Regular Service Number when he was moved to 227 Brigade, RFA.

That all looks to work.

As I understand it, 217 Brigade, RFA was the 1/3rd Wessex Brigade, RFA (TF) component. While 227 Brigade, RFA was the 2/3rd Wessex Brigade, RFA (TF) component. Continued references to the 3rd Wessex Brigade, RFA (TF) would therefore actually refer to the 3/3rd Wessex Brigade, RFA (TF) component.