In 2005 I started to look into the involvement of Old Blues in World War One. I started with the “Record of Service” and the “Roll of Honour” published by the Counting House in December 1920, which listed all known Old Blues who had served in and died as a result of ther recently-concluded war. My first step was to compare these two documents to the names listed on the Dining Hall War Memorial (DHWM) and, to my surprise, discovered that there were several differences.
This led me to review every name. The  basic methodology has been to compare the names in the Christ’s Hospital records with official documents and  where there is substantial agreement between the two that entry has been accepted as valid. The official documents have always been taken to be the more authoritative source, leading to numerous minor corrections in the Christ’s Hospital documents, such as rank and unit. This accounted for just over 90 percent of the names, leaving deeper research necessary into names where there were major discrepancies.
It should be made quite clear that neither the Clerk, in the case of the Record of Service, nor the War Memorial Committee in respect of the Roll of Honour are being blamed for the errors. They were under strong pressure to complete their work as quickly as possible, official records were neither as complete nor as readily available as today, and they depended in many instances on word-of-mouth reports.
In many cases I have simply run out of time. There are undoubtedly a number of entries still to be validated and there are almost certainly approximately 500 names of Old Blues to be added to the “Record of Service” and perhaps between ten and tweny to add to the “Roll of Honour.” If considered worthwhile, somone else will have to pursue them. I hope that this record will prove a good starting point.

David Miller, Lamb B 1948-1955 © David Miller 2008

INTRODUCTORY NOTES

1. 1. The Roll of Honour concerns Services’ organisations, titles and nomenclature  which may not be familiar to today’s readers. Also, even those with knowledge of the modern Services may find some of the organisations and units of the 1914-1918 era strange. These short explanatory notes are, therefore, intended to save readers the necessity of finding and consulting reference books.

ROYAL NAVY

1. 2. Several hundred Old Blues were either already serving in the Royal Navy, or were commissioned/enlisted into it during the war. The great majority of these served at sea and they tended to change ship from time to time.

Supply Branch

1. 3. In the course of research it became noticeable that an unusually large proportion of those Old Blues serving in the RN did so in the Supply Branch, as shown in this table:

1. 4. From 1863 onwards, aspiring Royal Navy officers were trained at the Royal Navy College Dartmouth, with admission at the age of 13. At the start of the 20th century the two hulks lying in the River Dart were replaced by a purpose-built establishment ashore, and at the same time an additional facility was established at Osborne on the Isle of Wight. Children entered Osborne at age 13, served there for two years and then progressed to Dartmouth for a further two years. Apart from the question of age, there was also the matter of finance, since parents had to pay for tuition and board. In effect, Osborne and Dartmouth consituted a fee-paying boarding school, with Osborne  the prep and Dartmouth the upper school.
   

1. 5. I corresponded with Lieutennat-Commander Barlow, RN (retired), the acknowledged historian of the Supply and Secretariat Branch, and asked whether he could shed any light on the large proportion of Old Blues in the Supply Branch. Although he had not come across this question before, he suggests that there may have been three reasons:
1. The first is that they would have had to leave C.H. early in order to go to RNC Osborne at age 13.
2. The second, that since, by definition, parents had to be “needy” to get their child into C.H., it seems unlikely that they would have been able to afford the fees for Osborne/Dartmouth. This was not, however, impossible and Lieutenant Morton Liddle, RN, was in Peele B  for only two years (1906-08), before leaving at age 13 to go to Osborne.
3. The third is that joining the Supply Branch from C.H. may have become self-perptuating and boys at the school desiring an RN career were encouraged by Old Blues already in the Branch. It should be noted that W le Geyt Pullen,(CH 1864-1871) who served throughout the war in the rank of Paymaster-in-Chief, became the first ever Paymaster-RearAdmiral when military ranks were granted to the branch in September 1919 (The Blue March 1922, p203).                  

1. 6. Since the ranks used in the Supply Branch during World War One are no longer in use, their title and equivalence to ranks in the Executive Branch are shown in the table below.

 

Executive Officers		Paymaster Branch Rank Titles
Rank Title	Rings	1886-1917	1917	Nov 1918
Rear-Admiral	1 thick 1 standard	None	None	Paymaster Rear-Admiral
Captain	4 standard	Paymaster-in-chief	Paymaster-in-chief	Paymaster Captain
Commander	3 standard	Fleet Paymaster	Fleet Paymaster (after 8 years as Staff Paymaster)	Paymaster Commander
Lieutenant-Commander	2 standard 1 thin	Staff Paymaster	Staff Paymaster	Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander
Lieutenant	2 standard	Asst Paymaster (12 years in rank)	Paymaster	Paymaster Lieutenant
	1 standard 1 thin	Asst Paymaster 6 years in rank
Sub-Lieutenant	1 standard	Asst paymaster under 6 years in rank	Asst Paymaster	Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant
Midshipman	White collar patch	Clerk	Clerk	Paymaster Midshipman

Royal Naval Division

1. 7. A number of Old Blues served in the Royal Naval Division. This was raised for land  service in August/September 1914 when it was realised that there were some 20-30,000 RN reservists for whom no useful employment could be found, either at sea or in naval esablishments ashore. The First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill) seized the opportunity to convert them into infantry and they were formed into two army brigades, each consisting of a number of battalions. and the battalions bore naval names, such as 1st (Drake) Battalion, 7th  (Hood) Battalion, etc. A curious feature was that while RN ranks were retained, the officers wore naval rank stripes on the lower sleeve, but with Army badges of the equivalent rank on their shoulder straps.  With virtually no training and very ill-equipped they were rushed to the Continent to defend Antwerp, but were forced to withdraw. Most made it back to England but some 1,500 had no option but to cross the Dutch border, where they were interned for the remainder of the war. The division was reformed and subsequently fought with distinction at Gallipoli and then on the Western Front, where, on 19 July 1916, its title was changed to 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. It now came under War Office control and was finally properly equipped and provided with artillery and logisitc support.

Royal Marines.

1. 8. lieutenant-general at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout World War One the Royal Marines were divided into the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) and Royal Marine Artillery (RMA). Only one Royal Marine Old Blue died in the war. He was  Lieutenant Sydney Hope Elsdale Inskip, RMLI (ThA 1905-1912), aged 22, who died in heroic circumstances on the Mole in Zeebrugge harbour, during the famous raid on 23 April 1918.

AIR SERVICES

1. 9. The British entered WW1 with two air services. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was a distinct part of the Royal Navy, but with its own rank titles, which made the bearer’s flying role clear. On the other hand, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was a distinct part of the Army, but used standard Army ranks. The RNAS and RFC were amalgamated on 1 April 1918 to create an independent air service, the Royal Air Force, which was equal in status to the RN and the Army. It was decided that Army ranks would be used until a new system could be agreed, resulting in the now-familiar RAF ranks (Pilot Officer, Wing Commander, Air Marshal, etc), but these did not come into use until 1 April 1919. This is relevant to Old Blues, since any RAF officer listed as dying between 1 April 1918 and 1 April 1919 is given the rank which he held at that time; i.e., an Army rank.

BRITISH ARMY

Composition of the Army.

1. 10. By far the largest number of Old Blues who served in World War One did so in the British Army, which comprised three major elements:
1. Regular Army. The pre-war regulars, i.e., professional, units.
2. Territorial Force. Formed in 1908, the TF was initially committed for home service only and in 1914 comprised fourteen divisions, each of three infantry brigades, each of four infantry battalions, plus support elements such as artillery, cavalry, medical, and so on. When war was declared men were asked to volunteer for overseas service and the vast majority did so. TF infantry belonged to the same regimental organisation as the regulars; i.e., county regiments, light infantry, and so on.
3. Kitchener Armies. In late 1914, Lord Kitchener raised new formations based entirely on new volunteers. These were formed into battalions, brigades and divisions, and, for administrative purposes only, were known as “Kitchener Armies”, being divided into:
1. Kitchener 1 (K1). The “first 100,000” was announced on 11 August 1914, and was fully recruited within two weeks.
2. K2 and K3. The “second” and “third 100,000” which were announced in September 1914 and fully recruited within weeks,
3. K4 to K6. The last of these was formed in March 1915.

Infantry

1. 11. No matter  whether an infantry soldier was in a regular, territorial or Kitchener unit, the highest reality in his military life was the battalion, which was commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, had a strength of some 800-1,000 all ranks, and was divided into four rifle companies.

1. 12. The Regimental System.  
1. The British infantry was organised into regiments, each of which had its own name, cap-badge, title and customs. The regimental headquarters was, however, purely an administrative body and the operational strength of all regiments lay in their battalions, each of which was numbered.
2. On mobilisation in 1914 most regiments consisted of two battalions of regulars, one or two battalions of Special Reserves and several battalions of Territorials.
3. For example, the Manchester Regiment consisted of two regular battalions (1/Manchester and 2/Manchester), two battalions of Special Reserves (3/ and 4/Manchester ) and six Territorial battalions (5/ to 10/Manchester).
4. Rifle regiments had four regular battalions each.
5. Irish regiments had no territorial battalions.

1. 13. Regimental Structure. There were four types of designation:
1. Guards. Considered the elite of the infantry, there were four regiments of Foot Guards in 1914 (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots and Irish) and a fifth – the Welsh Guards – was added in  February 1915.
2. County Regiments. These bore the names of the counties to which they were affiliated and which were the primary source of their recruits: e.g., Devonshire Regiment, Yorkshire Regiment, Royal Sussex, and so on.
3. Fusiliers.  There were nine County regiments which bore the title of “fusiliers,” which was purely an honorary title conferred in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Organisationally, they were no different from County regiments. (e.g., Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers)
4. Light Infantry. There were seven regiments classified as “light infantry,” essentially an honour conferred during the Peninsular War: e.g., Durham Light Infanrtry, Highland Light Infantry. Apart from minor differences in uniform and a faster rate of marching, these were no different from normal “heavy” infantry units.
5. Rifles. There were four “rifle” regiments, collectively known as the “Greenjackets”: Rifle Brigade, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), Royal Irish Rifles. These were rasied in the late 18th century as sharpshooters (snipers) armed with rifles, at time when the rest of the infantry had muskets. By 1914 these were no different from other infantry battalions.
6. Cyclist Units. In the late 19th century bicycles offered infantry a degree of mobility without the logistic requirements of horses, particularly for fodder and water, or the complexity of early motorcars and motorcycles. In 1914 the Army had thirteen Territorial Force cyclist battalions, all of them named units with the word “Cyclist” in their title; e.g., 7th (Cyclist) Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment. Some cyclist units were deployed to France, but most remained in the UK where their mobility made them valuable in patrolling the coastline.

1. 14. The London Regiment.  This unusual and complex organisation is significant because so many Old Blues, being Londoners, joined one or other of its many battalions. In addition, many of the staff of the Counting House, which had remained in London after the move to Horsham, tended to join one particular unit, the 15th Battalion, The London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles). This organisatrion is described in more detail at Annex A.

Cavalry

1. 15. The cavalry was organised into regiments, but, unlike the infantry, there were no subordinate battalions. Officers and men were all mounted on horses and were organised in the same way, but the regimental titles stemmed from their past roles; e.g., 7th Dragoon Guards, 13th  Hussars, 21st Lancers.

Royal Engineers (RE)

1. 16. The Royal Engineers had a wide variety of tasks, including field engineering, communications, bridging, railways, postal, mapping and printing. Note that the Royal Signals did not become a separate corps until after the end of World War One.

Royal Flying Corps

1. 17. The first British military aviation unit was formed by the Royal Engineers in 1878 after which  the air service expanded slowly, receiving its first airship in 1907 and forming the first air battalion in 1911. Nevertheless, the potential was clear and in May 1912, the air elements were separated from the Royal Engineers to become the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Expansion during the war was very rapid and on 1 April 1918 the RFC and RNAS were combined to form the RAF.

Royal Artillery (RA)

1. 18. Throughout World War One the artillery was divided into four  elements:
1. Royal Field Artillery (RFA). By far the largest element, the RFA manned medium and light artillery pieces and were deployed in support of infantry divisions and brigades. Their weapons were usually the 18-pounder and, from 1916, the 4.5-inch howizter.
2. Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). The RGA manned all artillery of 5-inch caliber or above. Despite its title, many of these were deployed in batteries in forward dvisions.  
3. Royal Horse Artillery (RHA).  The RHA was the elite of the RA and manned light, horse-drawn batteries equipped with the 13-pounder field gun. Their task was to support cavalry brigades.
4. Trench Mortar Batteries. The RA was responsible for manning medium and heavy trench mortars.

Specialist Corps

1. 19. It was customary in the British Army that when a new military function appeared it would first be allocated to whatever existing corps appeared best suited, but if it grew too large a new corps would be formed to handle it. In World War One this effected the infantry in three particular cases:
1. Machine Gun Corps. In 1914 there were two Maxim machineguns per infantry battalion, which were integral to the battalion and manned by officers and soldiers of the battalion. But there was an evre-increasing demand for machineguns so that in October 1915 a specialist corps, The Machine Gun Corps, was formed. It was initially manned by infantrymen on secondment but increasing numbers entered it straight from training. The mission was extremely hazardous and losses were so high that the MGC’s nickname was “The Suicide Club.” (The MGC was disbanded in 1922).
2. Tank Corps. The tank was invented in 1915 and first used in battle in September 1916. Following some early setbacks it quickly became one of the keys to victory. The first tanks were operated by the Heavy Branch of the Machine Gun Corps, but on 28 July 1917 this was separated from the MGC to become the Tank Corps, which consisted of 15 battalions in January 1918 and 26 battalions by November 1918.
3. Trench Mortar Batteries (TMB). A mortar is a steel tube  mounted on a base-plase which fires bombs on a high trajectory. At the outbreak of war the British had none, but successfull use of Minenwerfers by the Germans soon changed that. By 1915 large numbers were in use. The medium and heavy mortars were operated by the Royal Field Artillery, but the 3inch (81mm) mortar (also known as the Stokes mortar after its inverntor) was operated by infantrymen, with one Trench Mortar Battery of eight mortars per infantry brigade. The mortars could produce a high volume of accurate fire over a relatively limited range – up to about 1,200 yards. As with the machineguns, Trench Mortar Batteries (TMBs) were prime targets for enemy counter-battery fire and casualties were great. There was no separate corps or cap-badge for the Trench Mortars as there was for Machineguns, infantry personnel being “attached” to a Trench Mortar Battery (TMB).
4. Training Reserve Battalions (TRB). The army was required to expand extremely rapidly and the training uuits and  reserve units were reorganised several times to cope. In 1917 all were amalgamated into Training Reserve Battalions (TRB) which were responsible for both training recruits and, once trained, for holding them until required by frontline units, either as drafts or as individual reinforcements.

DOMINIONS ARMIES

1. 20. It is clear from the records that an appreciable number of Old Blues emigrated soon after leaving school, with most going to one or other of the Dominions or colonies. On the outbreak of war many of these joined the appropriate Dominion Army, with which they served throughout the war. However, there were some who returned to the UK in order to join the British armed forces directly, while others enlisted in their Dominion Army, which sent them to France or the UK, and they then transferred to the British Army. For example, AGA Vidler (PeA 1902-08) was living in Canada in 1914 and immediately enlisted in the Vancouver Light Horse, with which he moved to England, where he transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment. From his listing in the Record of Service and Roll of Honour there is nothing to indicate that he came from Canada, which only becomes apparent in his obitiuary (see The Blue March 1924). It would require a detailed examination of every individual’s record to establish whether this applied or not.

 INDIAN ARMY

1. 21. A significant number of Old Blues served in the British Indian Army, which was an all-volunteer force, whose primary pre-war role lay in the Indian sub-continent. It was some 155,000 strong in 1914 but expanded very rapidly from August onwards, although never losing its all-volunteer basis. In organization and size, Indian Army infantry battalions mirrored those in the British Army. The infantry regiments were numbered but their titles varied from the simple, such as 69th Punjabi Regiment, to the complex, such as 14th (King George’s Own) Ferozepore Sikhs, and 58th Vaughan’s Rifles (Frontier Force).
2. 22. It should be noted that at the time of World War One the Gurkha Regiments were part of the Indian Army. They did not transfer to the British Army until Indian Independence in 1947.

UNITED STATES ARMY

1. 23. A number of Old Blues emigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like those in the Dominions, some of these may have returned to the UK to join the British Armed Forces, although no actual example has been found. Two, however, have been identified as having enlisted in the United States Army, one of whom, Private George William Dell of the US Infantry died and is on the Roll of Honour.

ANNEX A
THE LONDON REGIMENT 1908-1920

The Territorial Force was established in 1908 and in the rest of the country the territorial infantry battalions became part of their county regiment. London, however, was treated differently and the territorial infantry battalions were made part of a newly-created London Regiment. But, unlike other county regiments, this one had no regimental headquarters and no capbadge, and each battalion continued to have its own title, cap-badge, uniform and traditions, and, when war came, to raise additional battalions and to earn its own battle honours (see table overleaf). Battalions 1-9, 11-25 and 28 of the London Regiment were mobilised on 3 August  1914, and so strong was the patriotic sentiment that second battalions of all units were raised in September, quickly followed by third battalions. Finally, fourth battalions of 1st to 4th Londons were also raised. Thus, in the Civil Service Rifles, for example, the existing unit was mobilised in August 1914 as 15th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own, Civil Service Rifles). Then when a further battalion was raised in September 1914 the existing battalion became 1/15th, and the new battalion, 2/15th, and these were followed by 3/15th in January 1915. Throughout the war there were repeated organisational changes in the Army as new battalions were raised, understrength battalions were amalgamated, or units which were simply no longer required, disbanded. This process is too complicated to unravel here.

The whole business of the London Regiment was confused from the start and it is difficult today to see what the War Office was trying to achieve. Some of the battalions were disbanded in the early 1920s, but the London Regiment title continued until 1938, when it was discontinued and the battalions either became part of various regular County regiments or, in some cases, were reroled and transferred to the Royal Engineers or Royal Artillery.

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