2nd Lt T.J.L. Mann
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At first I couldn't find this soldier in Lives of the 1st World War, but I did find a Lt. Theodore John Lewis Mann in The National Archives. His Corps however was the Canadian Forestry Corps. Searching for Lt. Mann I did find him in Lives of the 1st World War. How did he get in the British Army as a Lt. at the R.F.A.?
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cyngast
moderator
I tagged this page a couple of days ago and wondered the same thing. So I looked it up. The Canadian Forestry Corps was created in November 1916 as a way to supply all the wood needed on the Western front, like timber for shoring up trenches and dugouts, duckboards, etc. The idea was that Canadians knew more about cutting down forests than anybody else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Forestry_Corps
This doesn't really explain how or why he went on the Roayl Field Artillery, but at least we know now what the Forestry Corps was!
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ral104
moderator, scientist
There was also a Women's Forestry Corps, which I think was part of the Land Army. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205077117
Looking at 2nd Lt. Mann's records on Lives, it looks like he must have transferred from the Canadian Forestry Corps (where he was a L/Cpl) to the RFA. Ordinarily, I might have guessed he had emigrated to Canada before the war, but the address for his wife on his CWGC record is in the UK, so...I really have no idea.
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David_Underdown
moderator
One of my relatives started off in the Canadian Expeditionary Force but was commissioned into the (British) artillery, so it certainly happened.
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