Edwin Reginald HONE - Military Records (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 19:17 (4865 days ago) @ m p griffiths

Hi,
I've done some basic research of ancestors from WW1.
Yes they certainly did move between Regiments, especially during this hugely attritional war where complete units could-be and were decimated so the lucky (?) survivors could quite possibly be transferred to other Regiments. Also as the War dragged on the lesslikely Units, plus less likely soldiers for that matter, were drafted from all across the Empire to satisfy the demand at the Front. By 1918 this awful War had truly drained the World of fit, able men from all sides.

I see Edwin was RGA, thats Royal Garrison Artillery. This was initially a UK based Coast Defence Artillery for guarding major ports etc. However it expanded vastly during the War as it became part of the Siege Artillery based in France bombarding the lines from the rear. This website is great for WW1 research:

http://www.1914-1918.net/cra.htm

That said, older (33 ?) or less able(wounded so disabled) soldiers were quite often moved to less demanding Units. eg maybe after harrowing experiences & possible injury with a conventional field Artillery unit in France, he could have been moved into the RGA in a fairly "safe" battery overlooking Portsmouth Harbour for example.
Of course this is guesswork and I'm NOT knocking him in any way regardless of where he was garrisoned.

The National Archives website is also useful for Military Research.
I'll try and look him up later, my pc is suffering internet connection problems at the moment !?!

This might help, Searching RGA have got 80 names.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/searchresults.asp?fldLettercodeRef=WO&...
Please note the NA search engine is a fussy beast in my experience, you need to be patient and dont feed too much info into it at once as it seems to reject info that later it accepts.
Good luck !

ps this is best link for Army records http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?