Albert John COOPER b1895 Mitcheldean; Which Army Unit ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, February 23, 2017, 21:21 (2830 days ago) @ Raging Jester

Hi Alex,
can I ask do you have ready-access to a subscription website ? Also roughly speaking where are you - UK ?, are you in or near the Forest ?. Knowing this will help our advice.

To be absolutely honest I'm NOT an expert altho I have always been interested in military history etc; if you search this forum for "WW1 soldiers" etc, this general subject's often been discussed and there are other members with greater knowledge of the Forest's soldiers than me. Alternatively there are specialist forums online which you can ask, or you may even find it's already been discussed, needs some careful search-engine work perhaps. Probably the best start is here http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/about/welcome-to-visitors-from-the-great-war-forum/

As far as I can understand, a fit & able man could in theory join any regiment, except perhaps the elite Guards or Cavalry units, altho' usually they did initially sign-up for whoever was local to where they lived, as those regiments sent their own recruiting parties around their area. In some cases this did include Artillery regiments, for example this prior thread should help you to understand a bit better;
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?mode=thread&id=34298
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=34322

Browsing the old newspapers via the BNA site has shown me that in the years just before WW1 it was a popular hobby across the UK to join the local militia aka Territorial Army units. In some areas these were Artillery units, or even Cavalry albeit probably rather elitist to join, eg Gloster Hussars at Cheltenham.
There were a few examples of such Artillery units in our area, including one at Newnham,
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=40671

There was also the Royal Garrison Artillery, a large number of which were home-based batteries, defending dockyards and ports etc. As far as I can make out, as the war dragged on the fitter men from these RGA units found themselves transferred to the front line fighting areas (the RGA was also siege & heavy artillery), to be replaced back-home with older or less-fit men such as Reservists. As well as the Long Trail site, this one can be very helpful
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/4698/royal-garrison-artillery/

Logically men who were used to working with horses, whether drivers, grooms or smiths, would join Horse Artillery or other units where their skills would be in demand, altho if course horses were vital throughout the Army. Ideally the Census and Marriage records give clues as to a man's skills. Unfortunately for us, in 1911 Albert was a "labourer" at the cement works, so no real clues there, and certainly nothing to immediately point at a specialist unit. Do you know what he did AFTER the war ? - many chaffeurs and lorry drivers, for example, would have benefited from being trained during Army service.

Similarly the Army Service Corps was a classic example, they needed huge numbers of men to handle the horse and mules which the Army was supplied by, and to a lesser extent the Field Ambulance units. Again, as with most WW1 queries, the Long Trail website helps, for ASC see
http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-army-service-corps-in-the-f...

But this didn't always happen, as the majority of men joining in the early stages were needed for the Infantry, sometimes many joined them first before realising they'd be better suited elsewhere. After initially joining his "preferred" local unit, a soldier could still find himself transferred to another unit, if you look at Medal Cards they'll often show 2 or 3 different units. For each unit he got a new service number. Transfers happened for various reasons, eg if a unit had suffered really heavy casualties in the Somme. Similarly as the war progressed and the need was seen for men with mechanical skills, they might join the new Mechanised units or Machine Gun companies; similarly sewer-builders and miners into the R.E. Tunnelling units.

Ref the newspapers casualty lists, just one example is here.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=47106
Sadly they became a regular feature in local newspapers.