Units
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First line: do I read here 3 different units: 13th Infantry Brigade, Home Counties England and Cyclists?
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by
cyngast
moderator
Yes, there are three different units: the 13th Infantry Brigade, the 2nd (Home Counties) Field Company Royal Engineers, and the 5th Company, Army Cyclist Corps. All three of these units are from the 5th Division. http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/5th-division/ The Home Counties Field Company later became the 491st Field Coy. RE.
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On the 9th another few untis: (Northamptonshire? is part of 5th Division) Yeomanry, Highland ???? Heavy Battery (only Argyll and Sutherland Highalnders in 5th Division), Coy Army Service Corps M.T. (= Motor Transport?) and 14th Divisional Ammunition sub-park. And what do those figures (116 and 636) between some units mean? I can't find those units in http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/5th-division/
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Erik –A little bit of information for you:
Highland (Fifeshire) Heavy Battery RGA Link: http://thaneofife.org.uk/rga-ww1.html
Also 636 ASC (Army Service Corps) – 636 is a Coy.
Northamptonshire Regiment, part of the 17th Brigade of the 5th Division
ASC MT = Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Link:
PS The number 116 could possibly be the number of Coy also - some parts of your page are very faint to read.
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by
cyngast
moderator
Okay, this is what I come up with. I think that first unit after the 13th I.B. might be a squadron of the North Irish Horse in the 51st (Highland) Div. rather than Northamptonshire. There's a definite upper-case H there.
Next, I think it says 116 & Highland Fife Heavy Bat., meaning the 116th Heavy Battery and the Highland (Fifeshire) Heavy Battery, also from the 51st (Highland) Div.
I can't locate a 636 Company in the ASC (your author may have the number wrong) but yes, MT would be Mechanical (or Motor) Transport--basically a lorry rather than a horse-drawn wagon. It may have been part of the 14th Div. Ammunition sub-park.
It seems that the 13th Field Ambulance is in an area where it was accepting patients from several divisions. It is hard to read some of this. If you're still waiting to tag these, don't worry if some are too faint to make out. Just tag what you can.
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But what about the "yeomry" after the H?
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by
cyngast
moderator
A yeomanry unit is similar to the territorial forces of the army. It was a locally raised unit of horsemen, like a cavalry unit, but not part of the regular army. I think, if that unit on your diary page is the North Irish Horse, that the author used the term yeomanry in that sense, even though it wasn't an official part of its name.
There is now a Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry regiment, although they tend to use motorized vehicles rather than horses these days.
All this is what I put together from searching through The Long, Long Trail's list of yeomanry regiments, the fact that the Highland (Fifeshire) Heavy Battery was from the 51st Division, as was a squadron of the North Irish Horse in March of 1916, http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/51st-highland-division/ and that very clear upper-case H just before the word Yeomanry in the diary. I may be wrong, but I can't read what comes before the H clearly.
Why do you think it was Northamptonshire? Were they mentioned previously in the diary? The field ambulance seems to be treating men from several different units.
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by
erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be
in response to cyngast's comment.
Because the only yeomanry in the 5th division was C Sqd of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry. But you may be right about the Irish Horse because I can't make out which letter(s) stands before the H. Sometimes I think it's a D and sometimes I see a N. And the scrawl in front of the H looks like a lower case o but maybe the scrawl between my D or N, isn't a seperate scrawl but makes a elegant N with my N (or D). And if it should be a N then you read N.H. yeomanry or Northamptonshire. But all this is far-fechted.
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by
cyngast
moderator
I forgot the Northamptonshire Yeomanry was in the 5th Division! I looked at so many pages trying to sort out all those units, that slipped my mind.
Yes, it is all conjecture on our parts.
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