Service records
If you are fortunate enough to locate the service record of a man who served with the Royal Field Artillery, it is likely to provide rich and detailed information regarding his time in the army.
Especially for a man’s time in his initial training at home, or if he returned to duty after a period of medical treatment, it helps if you understand the typical way in which a man was progressed through depots and training units.
Typical progress of a man of the Royal Field Artillery
Although there were many variations in the way an individual soldier may progress through his time with the Royal Field Artillery, I am going to illustrate the common possibilities by describing three cases. You could expect to see something similar with most men who were not commissioned officers.
Case 1: typical of pre- or early war voluntary enlistments into the regular army
Key stages:
- Recruit would usually enlist local to his home
- He would be sent to a Depot for him to be clothed and equipped, and given basic training and initial instruction
- He would then be posted to a unit to develop his training in gunnery or another specialisation.
- He may be posted onto other units, either at home or overseas, as he progressed.
Case 2: typical of Group System recruits and men conscripted into the regular army during the Great War
Key Stages:
- The man was either voluntarily attested (Group System) or deemed to have enlisted (under the 1916 Military Service Act). He was then placed into Section B Army Reserve.
- He received a call-up notice and was mobilised, being ordered to proceed to a training unit, which could be a Depot, or a Territorial Force training school.
- Typically, after a few months he would be named as part of a Reinforcement Draft for overseas.
- He would first arrive at a Base Depot in the theatre of war and would then be posted to a unit.
Case 3: typical of pre- or early war voluntary enlistments into the Territorial Force
Key stages:
- The man would attest and be accepted for service.
- He would attend preliminary training, and after that a minimum number of training drills and (if possible) attend training camps.
- Soon after declaration of war and general mobilisation of the army in early August 1914, he would be embodied (go onto full-time service). For war time attestations, this would usually be as soon as enlistment was completed.
- Men enlisting early in the war may at first have been posted to their unit’s reserve battery in order to carry out their training.
Common RFA acronyms and abbreviations
| BAC | Brigade Ammunition Column |
| Bde | Brigade |
| BEF | British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders |
| Bmr | Bombardier (a rank) |
| Bty (sometimes Batt) | Battery |
| Dvr | Driver (rank of an ammunition column horse driver) |
| Gnr | Gunner (rank) |
| MEF | Mediterranean Expeditionary Force |
| W | Letter prefix before a man’s number, implying enlistment into a RFA unit of the 38th (Welsh) Division |
Campaign medal records
In many cases, the man’s service record no longer exists and his story can only rebuilt by reference to fragmentary detail from other sources. A common source for this is the issuing rolls of the campaign medals, but sadly for most men of the RFA the rolls add no useful detail concerning their units. The exception to this is for those men who earned the 1914 Star, for the rolls of that medal usually state a unit.
Regimental enlistment book
For men who continued in service, re-engaged or re-enlisted after the war, the books can be of great value although they tend not to add too much detail in terms of a man’s postings to units.
