Understanding RHA records - The Long, Long Trail

Service records

If you are fortunate enough to locate the service record of a man who served with the Royal Horse Artillery, it is likely to provide rich and detailed information regarding his time in the army.

*Figure A:* Extract from a document in a man’s service record. This is from an Army Form B103, the “Casualty Form – Active Service”. It describes his movements and postings to units, and as such is one of the key documents for those wishing to determine a man’s story in detail. The entries are not always written in strict chronological order. It is usually a good idea to extract the information one row at a time and recreate his timeline, before interpreting the entries.

*Figure B:* Typical column headings from the same type of document: note the word “casualty”. The army used the word to describe every time a man left a unit as well as when he became a casualty in the sense of being wounded, becoming sick, or killed. The report date, seen on the left, was often a few days or even longer afterwards. So for example, using *Figure A* above, the soldier was appointed as an Acting Saddler on 9 October 1916 and a report of this was received by higher command on 1 November 1916. The man was serving with the Nottinghamshire RHA (Territorial Force), which was with the Western Frontier Force in the deserts of Egypt at teh time.

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 Horse Artillery

Although there were many variations in the way an individual soldier may progress through his time with the Royal Horse 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.

A pre-war example of enlistment. John William Booth joined the regular army in Birmingham in September 1908, agreeing to serve for twelve years. It was to be made up of six years of full-time service and then six years on reserve. He was made Gunner 52114.

At the beginning, his story is typical. He proceeded after enlistment to the RHA training depot at Woolwich, until on 26 October 1908 he was posted to L Battery. John remained with this unit until 5 August 1914 when mobilisation was taking place and he was posted to the headquarters of VII Brigade RHA (under whose command L Battery came at the time). It may have saved his life, for on 1 September 1914 L Battery suffered serious losses when fighting its most famous action at Nery. John was returned to the battery in October 1914 and later served with it at Gallipoli. He also saw later service in Mesopotamia and before war’s end was transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery.

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.

A classic example. Bob Berry joined the army via the Group System, also known as the Derby Scheme. This is rarely explicitly stated in a man’s service record, although the box marked “Card No.” is often a clue.

The greater clue comes from the fact that Bob had separate attestation and mobilisation dates. In between, he was a member of Section B Army Reserve and was mobilised after being called up from that reserve. He attested in Guildford on 25 November 1915, which is within the period when the Group System was open for recruits.

Bob was mobilised from reserve on 20 March 1916 and proceeded to the 7th Royal Horse Artillery (Territorial Force) Training School at Avington Camp near Winchester. On 4 September 1916 he was posted overseas to join the 1/1st Nottinghamshire Battery.

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.

In this example, James David Adams attested in Southampton on 8 July 1912, joining the Hampshire RHA as Gunner 417.

He attended the summer camps in September 1912, August 1913, and July 1914. He had only just returned home when war was declared and he was embodied for full-time service on 5 August 1914. In March 1917 he was returned home and transferred to Class W Reserve for munitions work as a ship’s engineer.

Common RHA acronyms and abbreviations

AC (sometimes Am Col)	Ammunition Column
BAC	Brigade Ammunition Column
Bde	Brigade
Bmr	Bombardier (a rank)
Bty (sometimes Batt)	Battery
Dvr	Driver (rank of an ammunition column horse driver)
Gnr	Gunner (rank)
HAC	Honourable Artillery Company
MEF	Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
WFF	Western Frontier Force

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 RHA 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.

The RHA medal rolls are generally organised by numeric sequence of the man’s number.

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.

These are three sample typical entries from the Royal Artillery enlistment book, but for illustration examine the last one: 1040150 James Sherratt. He had re-enlisted at the Woolwich depot on 20 October 1919 …

… the columns continue. He died of malignant malaria at Ludd in Palestine on 29 June 1921. There is no detail of his unit, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives him as being with B Battery RHA at the time. The book says that John had served with the Royal Field Artillery during the war with number 695333, and at re-enlistment became 293800. His 1040150 was issued when all men were renumbered in 1920. The book is valuable in that it gives his age, place of birth and the name and address of his next of kin.

Links

Researching the men of the Royal Horse Artillery

How to find RHA records

Numbering the men of the Royal Horse Artillery

Royal Horse Artillery depots and training units

Batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery (regular army)

Batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery (Territorial Force)