If a soldier in WW1 stared in the 13th? south lancs regiment...how does he end up in the welsh regiment the welsh fusiliers....and how can you tell where he fought? My grandfather, charles leonard doherty fought in france but ended up in tralee, ireland after he was injured...can anyone help....i get so confused with all the numbers of regiments and divisions etc and the fact that they swapped around all the time. my uncle said he was in the 5th something c company but that does not help.I live in Australia and cannot get to london to research it. i have his medal index which says he can have the victory medal and his initial signing up with the s lancs reg..in prescot in 1915.he gave his age as 18 but he was only 15 and a bit.
The 13th South Lancs was a reserve Bn formed out of the 11th Bn and was used to supply men to the 11th Bn once it was in France and in action.
There are various reasons for why men were transfered to different battalions, if he was wounded and spent time in hospital he would have been sent back to France via a Base Depot, troops from these depots were not always sent to their parent regiment but where they were needed.
Also after the German March offensive in 1918 many battalions were reduced to cadre, this allowed the extra troops from these battalions to be used to bring other battalions up to strength. This happened to the 11th S Lancs, so this may be when he moved to a Welsh unit.
Unless you are one of the lucky few who's relatives documents survived Hitlers attentions during the second war you will probably never find out for sure what happened.
Thanks Brad,
I guess he was moved to the Welsh Reg then Welsh Fusiliers...funny there was no mention of the Lancs regiment on his index card....I guess I will have to try to get to England to see if the info survived the bombing.When you see for eg 1/3 battallion , does the 1 mean regiment...so confusing for a non army person.
Ann
