Corps Of Royal Artillery Drivers

10/13/2017by

Mar 02, 2014 I am searching for the service records of my 3 x Gr.Grand-Father John Robie/Robbie, who joined the above Corps at age 19. Royal horse artillery 4-horse team. Consists of four horses with harness and two Royal Horse Artillery drivers, and gun limber. Specify position of horses: standing, walking, trotting, or at the gallop.

This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the Army Service Corps. Note that the ASC is the same as the RASC: it received the Royal prefix in late 1918.

Corps Of Royal Artillery Drivers

The officers and men of the ASC – sometimes referred to in a joking, disparaging way as Ally Sloper’s Cavalry – were the unsung heroes of the British Army in the Great War. Soldiers can not fight without food, equipment and ammunition. They can not move without horses or vehicles. It was the ASC’s job to provide them. In the Great War, the vast majority of the supply, maintaining a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from Britain. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won. At peak, the ASC numbered an incredible 10,547 officers and 315,334 men.

The organisation of the ASC The ASC was organised into units known as Companies, each fulfilling a specific role. In most cases the Company also had a sub-title name describing its role. Some of the Companies were under orders of the Divisions of the army; the rest were under direct orders of the higher formations of the Corps, Army or General Headquarters of the army in each theatre of war. They were known as part of the Lines of Communication. Many men of the ASC were not, however, with ASC Companies, for many were attached to other types of unit in the army – for example, as vehicle drivers.

Horse Transport The largest element of the ASC was the Horse Transport section. Most Horse Transport Companies were under orders of Divisions, with four normally being grouped into a Divisional Train. Others were part of the Lines of Communication where they were variously known by subtitles as Auxiliary Supply Companies or Reserve Parks. Soldiers who served in the Horse Transport usually had the letter T as a prefix to their number. For detailed information see IWM image Q4831.

Horse wagons of the Army Service Corps at a roadside dump for supplies. Albert, Somme, March 1917. Mechanical Transport The British Army was already the most mechanised in the world when the Great War began, in terms of use of mechanical transport. It maintained that leadership, and by 1918 this was a strategically important factor in being able to maintain supply as the armies made considerable advances over difficult ground. All Mechanical Transport Companies were part of the Lines of Communication and were not under orders of a Division, although some (unusually known as Divisional Supply Columns and Divisional Ammunition Parks) were in effect attached to a given Division and worked closely with it. Those in the Lines of Communication operated in wide variety of roles, such as being attached to the heavy artillery as Ammunition Columns or Parks, being Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, or Bridging and Pontoon units. Soldiers who served in the Mechanical Transport usually had the letter M as a prefix to their number.

For detailed information see and IWM image Q71933. A soldier and vehicles of the 960 Motor Transport Company, ASC. This unit was also known as 34 Auxiliary (Petrol) Company.

Remounts The ASC Remounts Service was responsible for the provisioning of horses and mules to all other army units. The units of the Remounts were always part of the Lines of Communication and were never under direct orders of a Division. Soldiers who served in the Remounts usually had the letter R as a prefix to their number. For detailed information see ASC Labour Companies In France and Flanders it was soon discovered in 1914 that the local authorities could not supply civilian men for labouring duties, such as helping the BEF disembark its stores and equipment from ships. The War Office arranged to send 300 labourers for these duties. More followed, and by the end of December 1914 they had been formed into five Labour Companies of the ASC. They were numbered 1 to 5.

Many more Companies were formed in 1914 and 1915, but none are well documented. Each Company consisted of 6 officers and 530 other ranks. Numbers 1 and 2 Labour Companies were officially formed at Aldershot on 24-25 August 1914. A number of Foremen and Gangers were recruited in the early weeks, to act as NCOs. Approximately 21,000 skilled labourers and dock workers had joined by the end of 1915. However, the Companies were not destined to remain for long: 28 of them were absorbed into the newly-created between February and June 1917; 8 other Companies were disbanded between January 1915 and June 1917, with personnel from 3 of these Companies being transferred to the Royal Marines.

The first specialised ASC Railway Labour Company was formed in January 1915, doubling to two in October 1915. They eventually took the numbers 33 and 34 Railway Labour Companies. Detachments were based at Le Havre, Bailleul, Steenwerck, Caestre and Strazeele. The Supply section, Field Bakeries and Butcheries The ASC provided an important service in the production of bread and meat for the troops in the field. Details to be added shortly. Reserve Supply Personnel depots (RSP) were located at Aldershot, Bath, Hastings and Prees Heath.

Base Depots The Base Depots established in the various theatres of war were the primary locations. They were used as main stores; for organisation of men and units going to and from the units in the field; and for administration. For detailed information see The contribution of the ASC “Lines of Communication” was an army term used to describe what today we might call the army’s logistics: the supply lines from port to front line, and the camps, stores, dumps, workshops of the rear areas. It is difficult to comprehend just what supply to an army that in France alone built up to more than 2 million men actually means.

Corel Draw X7 Download Crackeado Portugues. Welcome to the British Genealogy forum. I'm sure you appreciate that records from that period are sparse. You seem to have found more than I have for another soldier of that time, so if you find more, please come back and tell us where! Have you tried searching for Capt Grimes? Officers tend to be documented than their men, but if you can find him, that will at least tell you what his troop was doing.

Other than that, keep re-checking. More and more info is appearing every day. Ni Maschine Serial Number Keygen Mackeeper.

However, bear in mind that such collections often appear on only one of the commercial genealogy databases because that particular company has bought the license for the dataset and has then done all the digitizing. I always check Ancestry, Find my Past and our own partners, FWR as well as The National Archives and the National Records of Scotland. Both TNA and NRS have a lot of records that are not on line, but at least they are (mostly) indexed.

Comments are closed.