Army Number Block Allocations

Hi
Gnr Ivor Bevan, enlisted at Kinmel Park and joined the Royal Artillery with the service number of 1492601. His attestation papers show he enrolled on the 17 Jul 1939 for the Militia. Going through training at the same time was Gnr Trevor Butts, 1492701.

I wonder if someone can explain why the Reg Army and Terr Army was crossed out and why it stated joining for the.............. Militia?

Can I asssume that with their service numbers being 1492601 and 1492701 that this meant there were 100 men enlisted between them.

With enlistment dated prior to conscription, would they been classed as volunteers?

Regards, Roy

Roy, I'm surprised that no one dealt with your query and wonder if you're still puzzled. If you are, here's my take.

Conscription did start pre-war - the Military Training Act 1939 became law in April and the first batch of 200,000 20 & 21 year-olds were registered on Sat 3 June. Medical examinations were carried out a week later and the first call up notices sent later in the month with them reporting from 1 July. There was a huge reluctance to use the term conscript, so they were known as militia-men. The obligation was to train for 6 months and then become a trained reservist. Of course the war intervened.

Hope this clears the matter up.

Charles Vernon

 

@CROONAERT, Thanks for the RASC tip (sloppy cut and paste on my part meant they were missed as they are first on the list). The numbers in the range: 10660001 - 11000000 should now return RASC.

Note also that at the moment these two don't work either:

Auxiliary Territorial Service W/1 - W/500,000
Voluntary Aid Detachments W/500001 - W/1000000

As they begin with a letter. I need to make a little tweak to make it work with these number types.

@VON POOP Go ahead and link away if you want to.

 

Hi CMP

A very neat little program and sensibly picked up by Adam.

By now, I think everyone on this forum must know about and, if they are sensible, must have used, Geoff's super CWGC search engine. Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine

When this program was first was mentioned and we started testing it out I wrote the following piece that newcomers might now find of interest:

Geoff

I feel must tell you and others, of my experience this morning on testing out your admirable CWGC Search Engine.

My Army number was 14300260.

I decided to enter only the first six digits, i.e. 143002 in the "number" field and see if any one who joined the Army near my time had been killed in WW2.

The search produced, amongst others a Trooper Fletcher, Reginald Water who died on the 12th of March 1945, is buried in The Reichswald Forest Cemetery and who's Army Number was 14300257.

Trooper Fletcher's number is just 3 digits lower than mine and he must have joined on the same day, 1st October 1942.

Truly a case of "There but for the Grace of G-d go I"




Ron

 

interesting just taken Rons thoughts and
1653265 this chap is RAF in amongst Royal Artillery

 

I noticed a few people had put in post war army numbers in the search. I've added those blocks in and it will now return the approximate date joined for an army number:

http://www.corpsofmilitarypolice.org/tools/armynumber

So now you get:

The army number: 24969234 indicates that the soldier's original unit or date joined was:
"Until January 1992".

 

I saw "Croonaert's" list of RAF numbers and will try and make a checker for that in the coming weeks. Does a similar range exist for the senior service? If anyone has it to send then I might as well do all three.

 

I know a fair bit about enlisted men's number thanks to this thread but what about officer block allocations? were there number blocks for different types of commission, regular, emergency, wartime etc?


Thanks
Al

 

I saw "Croonaert's" list of RAF numbers and will try and make a checker for that in the coming weeks. Does a similar range exist for the senior service? If anyone has it to send then I might as well do all three.

Not in the same format, but this is all I have on RN numbers between 1894 and 1959 (its handy, but you might find it slightly less useful)...

 

hey guys do any of you now the service numbers of 2 PARA durring ww2 and post war?

 

Inspired by Geoff Reeves list posted at the beginning of this thread I've bashed together handy little web utility you can use to check the army numbers listed there:

http://www.corpsofmilitarypolice.org/tools/armynumber

To use it, enter an army number in the search box and click the button. It should return to you something like:

The army number: 6076192 indicates that the soldier's original unit was: "The Queen's Royal Regiment"


I've checked it out with a few of the numbers from my site and they seem to tally up. But let me know if there is anything amiss.

I hope this is helpful in some small way to some of the researchers here.

Been reading through this thread and it's great. I tried the search tool but it came up with an error for me.

 

Been reading through this thread and it's great. I tried the search tool but it came up with an error for me.

Same here...

 

Who could help a old Raff type regarding an army number. Looking for an approx date of joining for this number 981012. He was in Tunisia in November 1942 as a member of the 1st Btn Para

Edit:
See this thread for responses
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/airborne/29856-i-am-new-odd-bod-help-please.html

 

Odd bod - as stated on another thread - possibly the number 7 is missing from the beginning of the number making it another Tank Regimental number - 798****
Cheers

 

The 14 million series of numbers was for conscripts into The General Service Corps,which was a large Holding Unit introduced in 1942 via Atmy order No.19 of 1942.The numbering ranged from 14200001 to 15000000.
These numbers were retained-I had an uncle with one of these "Bolo" numbers, who served in 7th batt.The Black Watch in Italy and France/Germany during WW2.He became a Regular soldier after the war and still in the BW, which fought in Korea-his Korean War Medal still had his GSC number.

jainso31

 

jainso31

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a "Bolo" number ?

Thanks

Ron

 

Army slang for "odd" as opposed to a REGIMENTAL number. An old WW2 Coldstream Guardman gave me that one-just old soldiers slang.

jainso31

 

I have found my father's number (Jack Taberner) on the side of the Normandy Campaign Medal (my sister was given this by my mother when dad died), which she didn't know anything about. However I did. My father's number is 17970. I have checked the service number website and it comes up with Royal Army Service Corps Block 1, what is Block 1?
Plus the medals he has are 1939-45 star, Africa, Italy, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal, 1939-1945 medal, National Service Medal 1939-1960 and Normandy Campaign Medal. Can you assist me in finding out what his part in the Royal Artillery was please. Many Thanks. Tabby

 

I have found my father's number (Jack Taberner) on the side of the Normandy Campaign Medal (my sister was given this by my mother when dad died), which she didn't know anything about. However I did. My father's number is 17970. I have checked the service number website and it comes up with Royal Army Service Corps Block 1, what is Block 1?
Plus the medals he has are 1939-45 star, Africa, Italy, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal, 1939-1945 medal, National Service Medal 1939-1960 and Normandy Campaign Medal. Can you assist me in finding out what his part in the Royal Artillery was please. Many Thanks. Tabby

Hi,

Apply for his service records, they will answer virtually all of your Q's.
Army Personnel Centre - British Army Website

 

I have found my father's number (Jack Taberner) on the side of the Normandy Campaign Medal (my sister was given this by my mother when dad died), which she didn't know anything about. However I did. My father's number is 17970. I have checked the service number website and it comes up with Royal Army Service Corps Block 1, what is Block 1?
Plus the medals he has are 1939-45 star, Africa, Italy, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal, 1939-1945 medal, National Service Medal 1939-1960 and Normandy Campaign Medal. Can you assist me in finding out what his part in the Royal Artillery was please. Many Thanks. Tabby

Is this your fathers number or was it a issue number which was stamped to each medal? The Normandy Campaign Medal is not an official medal being Commissioned by the Normandy Veterans Association .Not 100% sure but I believe they do have numbers stamped/impressed on the edge to show the issue number of the medal rather than the recipients Regimental number.

 

Ah maybe it is the issue number then.....sorry not well up on the subject. All I have are his medals, and pictures of him in Brussels, also a picture of him in his uniform which is Royal Artillery.