prisoners
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Among the reinforcements are 4 soldiers 'from prison', 2 of them belonging to the Lancashire fusiliers and 2 belonging to the Royal Irish. Was reinforcing the Train a kind of punishment? AWD0003753
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I think they just sent them back to their units. Don't think it was another punishment.
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by
cyngast
moderator
I'm sure there were men who looked at being assigned to a divisional train as a form of punishment, but I don't think it was an official punishment!
Actually, I think this list of reinforcements is not to add personnel to the train at all. I think that this is a list of men that the train was ordered to collect at the railhead and then help them get to their units. In other words, the men were going to the units listed rather than coming to the train from those units. These units were with the 4th Division in May, 1915 (according to The Long, Long Trail website), except for the ones where it's noted the men were sent to the 6th Division.
The four men noted as "from prison" were likely returning to their units after serving a prison term.
I just noticed Marie's comment to the left here. She had the same thought that I did.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
Yes - I agree with Cynthia and Marie. These were men being transferred to other units. Some may have been on leave. Others will have come from the depot. And a few from prison - I wonder what they did.
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