War Diaries Talk

Special reserve

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    What is Special Reserve? And those officers who join, are they from the Special reserve of the Connaught Rangers or from the 10th Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (I see three names I tagged in the war diary of the 10Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers)?

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    There is a Special Reserve Article on this link: http://www.1914-1918.net/reserve.htm

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    The Special Reserve was a battalion based in the UK of men who were trained and ready to move to active duty when they were needed. The Connaught Rangers had two reserve battalions http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/connaught-rangers/ It looks like these officers were from the Connaught Rangers Special Reserve but had already been posted to the 10th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before being sent to join the 8th R. Innis. Fus.

    From what I've seen in the diaries I've tagged, it seems to have been fairly common in these Irish regiments that officers and men moved from one battalion to another within the regiment. For example, these officers moving from the 10th to the 8th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. I'm working on my second Royal Irish Rifles battalion and the same thing occurs. The O.R. service numbers for the Royal Irish Rifles often start with the battalion number, then a slash, then the individual's number, such as 8/12345, so it is easy to identify when a man has moved from a different battalion.

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