For the Royal West Kent Regiment, those men that signed on as a Regular Soldier would have been allocated a number with the letter L as a prefix. These were the men who signed on for a period of 12 years, with 7 years in the army and 5 years on the reserve. When war broke out in 1914 it was the reservists who flocked back to the ranks and along with the soldiers already serving, helped the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F) in its fighting retreat from Mons and the subsequent counter-attacks against German Forces pushing them back to the River Aisne. The Royal West Kent's 1st Battalion was involved in all of these actions and lost a good number of men killed and wounded.
A man could still sign on for 12 years of service during the war if he wanted to and choose which regiment he wanted to serve with.
Next came the Special Reserve (S.R.) a form of part time service that was introduced in 1908 as part of the Army Reforms submitted by the then Secretary State for War Richard Haldane. Unlike the Territorials the S.R. were liable for overseas service if required. Initially a man would serve a number of months in the Army and put through full training on full pay and then return to civilian life. He would then on an annual basis do so many weeks of training. In this way the Army would have a pool of men available to make up any shortfall in numbers. Men who signed up for these terms in the Royal West Kent Regiment were issued a service number that had the letter S as a prefix.
The Territorial Force had only been existence since 1908, introduced as part of the "Haldane Reforms" born out of the old volunteer and militia units that formed a Home Defence. The Royal West Kent Regiment, like most county regiments formed two battalions, the 1/4th and the 1/5th. The number 1 denotes the First Line while the latter number denotes the number of the battalion. Recruitment was very much on a local level and training was done on an evening or weekend basis with a summer camp held annually. Men of the Territorials signed on for Home Service only but were liable to be called up for full time service at home in the event of full mobilisation. With the advent of war in 1914 many men waived the right of home service and volunteered for overseas.
In the Royal West Kent's two battalions, numbering was issued on a first come first served basis, with a service number prefixed with the letters TF. As each regiment in the British Army generally followed the same numbering pattern this led to mistakes and many clerical mix ups as men transferred between regiments so in 1917 all men of the Territorials were issued with a new six digit number including those who had already enlisted.
It must also be noted that the county of Kent had two Yeomanry Regiments, the mounted arm of the Territorials. These were the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry and the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles. Both units were to have a say in the history of the 11th Royal West Kent's.
The letter G was issued by the Royal West Kent's and several other regiments to those men who volunteered in their thousands from 1914 onwards for wartime service only. It stood for General Service and was used as a prefix throughout the war to volunteers, Derby Men and conscripts alike.
The G prefix was issued to the majority of men who served in the 11th Royal West Kent's. It had a number of Regular and Special Reserve soldiers pass through its ranks as the war progressed as well as a number of Territorials who were posted to the battalion to make up for its losses.
For the 11th Royal West Kent's service numbers were not issued sequentially. The 11th would have a block of numbers and each recruitment depot was issued with a batch of those numbers, these were then allocated as men enlisted. For example Lewisham, Deptford, Rotherhithe and Southwark all had their own batch of numbers for the 11th and a man enlisting in Deptford on such a date could have a lower service number than a man enlisting at Lewisham the previous day.
Their was also the case of other battalions within the regiment issuing service numbers.
The 10th battalion in Maidstone which was being raised at the same time as the 11th had a block of numbers that were allocated to volunteers from depots around Kent. Tonbridge, Dartford, Gravesend, Chatham for example all had their own batch of numbers.
For the 11th battalion the numbers issued started from the G/8000 block onwards. As previously mentioned in an earlier post Sgt George Alderton was issued with G/8008 and then upwards to G/8077 which was issued on the 19th May 1915 to Charles Albert Louis a 47 year old from Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich who had previously served in the Hampshire Regiment as a regular.
The next block for the 11th started at the G/8130 batch with Pte Edwin James Freeman, a 32 year old Tram Driver from Sydenham enlisting on the 20th May 1915 and allocated service number G/8137.
The last in this block was Corporal (Cpl) Stanley John Hele G/8199 a 21 year old Clerk from Hither Green who joined up on the 29th May 1915.
And so it went on with blocks of numbers issued by the 11th Royal West Kent's to its volunteers until G/11500 was allocated to 20 year old Dental Mechanic Charles Fraser Hoffman from Sydenham who enlisted on the 3rd December 1915. Thereafter men enlisting were generally sent to the Royal West Kent's Regimental Depot at Maidstone and then sent on to whatever battalion they were assigned to...although there were exceptions.
Frederick Keefe G/11517 a Rag Dealer from Watergate Street, Deptford enlisted in Deptford on the 6th December 1915 while ex Grenadier Guardsman and father of six Police Constable Alfred Aldridge (picture below) G/11584 from Forest Hill also enlisted on the 6th December at Lewisham.
Both men joined the 11th Battalion with Alfred Adridge becoming Company Sergeant Major (C.S.M) and was awarded the Military Medal in 1916 for his bravery during the Battle of Flers in September 1916. Subsequently wounded twice he went on to serve in the 10th battalion and was discharged from the Army in January 1919.
Pte Frederick Keefe was to lose his life while serving with the 2nd Royal West Kent's on the 28th October 1918. After training with the 11th he was sent to the 12th reserve battalion and then transferred to the 10th Kent County Battalion of the Regiment. Wounded at the end of September 1916 he recovered to be sent to the 2nd battalion and today lies in Baghdad War Cemetery in Iraq.
In summing up an original volunteer into the 11th Royal West Kent's would have been allocated a service number between G/8000 and G/11500. These were joined by those regulars who were either transferred from the regiments 2nd battalion in India or those Regular Soldiers who upon recovering from their wounds or sickness were posted to the 11th battalion before its embarkation to France.
The only Special Reserve soldier that embarked with the battalion in May 1916 was Walter King S/8917 from Rotherhithe who had signed up in January 1914. He had been wounded in the right shoulder in May 1915 with the 1st Battalion during the fighting for Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient. Upon his recovery he was posted to the 11th battalion in December 1915 but was to lose his life during the Battle of Flers on the Somme in September 1916 and today lies at Bulls Road Cemetery on the outskirts of the village of Flers.
I'm indebted to Paul Nixon's excellent blog which inspired me to research the service numbers of the 11th Royal West Kent's little knowing what a minefield it would be.
http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.co.uk
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