How to tag Signals diaries?
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by
deehar
Has anyone any suggestions about tagging these diaries? Up to three sections of the unit dash around the countryside laying and rolling up telephone lines to many different fighting units. I think that means tagging lots of "Other units" and "Places" with very little info about the Signals unit themselves. Is this OK and how should their activity be tagged - Working Party or Construction or not at all?
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ral104
moderator, scientist
I would definitely tag the places - it's a quirk of these sorts of units that they would be more widely spread geographically than an infantry battalion, at least for the most part. It makes the timeline a bit difficult to interpret, but not tagging them would probably be less useful.
However, for signals-specific activity, there's no real need to tag anything. In the same way as the veterinary work a mobile veterinary section carried out, we can assume this is what the unit is generally engaged in. Obviously, if they do something different, it's worth tagging that.
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cyngast
moderator
I thought it had been decided to tag laying cable as Construction.
I've been tagging a signals diary, too, possibly the same one as deehar as it sounds like the same description. There are a lot of places named, but where I am in it, it is only October 1914 so the army is still moving a lot. Some of what the unit is doing involves cutting down trees and using them as poles for the lines.
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ral104
moderator, scientist
Yes...if you are going to tag them, then construction is definitely the tag to use. But as with Erik's earlier question, it's only really necessary to tag the first instance of the activity for each day, unless it changes.
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by
deehar
OK thanks @cyngast and @ral104. I am working on the 4th Division Signals Coy and it seems I am not wildly deviating from the norm here. This unit was only laying cables and winding them up again so I haven't bothered to tag that activity. I have been tagging all of the places even if they are just mentioned as names of a route and weren't actually being visited on that day.
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cyngast
moderator
That's the same one I've been working on.
Tagging the place names of a route is also a good thing because we always want to capture as much information as possible. Even if a unit only passed through a village, they were there for a short time.
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David_Underdown
moderator
If it's a divisional signal company typically you had (for an infantry division) one section with divisional HQ and one each with each brigade HQ. Later in the war you may see sub-sections with the division's artillery too.
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