QOOH/OY ROLL OF HONOUR
Alphabetical List of Officers and Soldiers.
As the title suggests the following pages list, in alphabetical order, the names of all the officers and soldiers, of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry [OY] and the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars [QOOH] who became casualties, and had their lives taken away in the pursuit of freedom and peace during three wars – The Boer War; First World War; and World War Two.
This Alphabetical List contains all of the men who are remembered in our monthly Roll of Honour.
They will be found under separate pages using the initial of their last-name – A – C; D – G; H – L; M – Q; R – S; and T – Y.
Against each soldier, where known, will be found his full name, rank when died, service number, date of death, where and how he died, and where he is buried or commemorated. I will be adding some more personal details of each man, when found – date of birth and where; his date of enlistment; title of OY/QOOH unit he had served in (or attached to), and more depending on what can be found.
This will certainly be an ‘ongoing project’ needing return visits to see any new data found.
I will not be quoting the source of individual details (would take up too much space), but I’ll list the main sources, of where most of the data was obtained, below :-
www.ancestry.co.uk – For personal historical records [requires subscription]
www.angloboerwar.com – The website for most things about the Boer War
www.cwgc.org – Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.fepow.family – Researching soldiers who suffered in the Far East during World War Two
www.findmypast.co.uk – For personal historical records [requires subscription]
www.greatwar.co.uk – Western Front WW1 Battlefields and History of the First World War
www.longlongtrail.co.uk – Researching soldiers of the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk – The National Archives at Kew, Richmond, UK
www.sofo.org.uk – Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. Where all the artefacts and records owned by the OY Trust are held.
www.thegazette.co.uk – The London Gazette, The Belfast Gazette and The Edinburgh Gazette. The Gazettes are official journals of record.
Other contributors
Harry Staff – who researched most of the information regarding the Boer War soldiers.
Mike Cross – who researched (along with Harry Staff) most of the information regarding the First World War.
And lastly, but not least, the ‘ELTZ’ collaboration – this is a group of four dedicated researchers who began to research their own relative’s military history before coming together to combine their results. The name ‘ELTZ’ came about by using the first letter of the last-name of each contributor.
Andrew Easterbrook – grandson of Joseph Harper [251 Bty, 63rd AT Regt and 85th AT Regt]
Mick Luxford – former Hon Sec of the QOOH Association and newsletter editor, researcher of anything QOOH and OY, but mainly concerning WW2, and now the compiler and maintainer of the www.qooh.org.uk website
Walter Tuttlebee – son of William Tuttlebee [281 Bty, 70th AT Regt and 85th AT Regt]
Bruno Zaoral – son-in-law of Roy Adkins [251 Bty, 63rd AT Regt and 85th AT Regt].
The ’ELTZ’ collaboration has resulted in the compilation of a very large spreadsheet of data which contains probably the largest collection (in one place) of data regarding the events of the 85th AT Regt RA, from its formation at Clacton-on-Sea in September 1941; their passage to Singapore; the battle against the Japanese; the order to capitulate to the Japanese forces; and their suffering (and death for many) at the hands of their captors. This spreadsheet is maintained by Andrew Easterbrook, with updates supplied by the other three members of ELTZ.
If you know of any person whom you think should be remembered in the Roll of Honour, please inform any of these people –Mick Luxford, Mike Cross, or Harry Staff – for consideration, thank you.
Service Numbers – Source – The Long, Long Trail, written by Chris Baker, and other sources.
WW1
An explanation about the Service Numbers recorded, especially for the WW1 period, where some men are listed with more than one number. These numbers were known as ‘Regimental Numbers’.
During WW1, men serving in the Territorial Force [TF] were issued new numbers in 1917 and were allocated a new 6-digit number. Up to the end of 1916 men in each TF unit (infantry battalion, artillery brigade, field ambulance, etc) were numbered using a system unique to that unit – often by allocating the number ‘1’ to the first man to join the unit on its formation in 1908 and continuing from there. In some cases, the system was a continuation or variation of that used by the Volunteer unit on which the new TF unit was based. In other words, there could be a ‘Private 1234’ in the ‘4th Battalion of the Umpshires’ and another in the ‘5th Battalion’, as well as all the ‘Privates 1234’ in other TF units in other regiments – all quite confusing. Then to add to this confusion, when a man moved between TF units, even between battalions of the same regiment, he was renumbered. This was adequate for peacetime but not for the different circumstances of war. Renumbering resulted in inevitable errors and confusion, and an administrative burden. This became worse as the number of transfers between TF units (and between TF and non-TF units) increased after changes in regulations which allowed the compulsory transfer of TF men to units other than the one in which they had enlisted.
In late 1916 and early 1917 a new numbering system was promulgated in five Army Council Instructions (ACIs), each one covering a different arm of service and each with a date of implementation some weeks or months in the future. The ACIs defined who was to be considered a ‘regular’ or a ‘TF soldier’ for the purposes of renumbering, and allocated blocks of numbers to TF units for renumbering their soldiers and set out the rules for future numbering changes.
To understand the new system, it is necessary to understand some of the terminology used. The following are simplified definitions –
• “Corps” were effectively the different parts of the army as defined in the “Corps Warrant”. Pre-war a man enlisted in a particular corps and could not be compulsorily transferred to another. The Royal Engineers [RE] and the Royal Army Medical Corps [RAMC] were single corps; the Royal Artillery [RA] consisted of two corps, (the ‘Royal Horse & Field Artillery’ and the ‘Royal Garrison Artillery’); the ‘corps of cavalry’ and the ‘corps of infantry’ were more complex.
• “Transferred” meant a man was permanently moved to another corps.
• “Posted” meant a man permanently moved to another unit of the same corps.
• “Attached” meant exactly that – the man was temporarily attached to another unit or corps for a particular purpose, but he remained part of his original unit and corps for pay and promotion e.g. the RAMC men attached to infantry battalions.
The definition of who was a ‘TF man’ and who was a ‘regular’ for the purposes of the initial renumbering was standard for all arms.
TF soldiers were defined as (1), all soldiers serving in TF units at the time of renumbering who had either
• Enlisted direct into such units or
• Had been posted directly to such units from Army Reserve Class B or
• Had been transferred or posted to such a unit from any other corps or unit.
And (2), all soldiers belonging to TF units who were temporarily attached to other units or corps.
All other soldiers were considered as regulars are were not affected by the renumbering.
By the date specified for his particular arm of service, every TF soldier was renumbered, receiving a six-digit number (five-digit in the case of some Yeomanry units) from the block of numbers allocated to his unit. The block of numbers allocated to a unit was used for all parts of the unit – 1st, 2nd and 3rd lines, the depot, men on TF Reserve, men temporarily disembodied and men temporarily attached to other units and corps. The distribution of numbers to the different elements of a unit followed no set pattern.
A TF soldier now retained this new number as long as he continued to serve in a particular corps, even if he was posted to another TF or regular unit in that corps. He would only be renumbered if he transferred to another corps.
WW2
Following the WW1 era new British Army numbers were issued in the 1920 renumbering. If your soldier has a seven-digit number (not including any prefixes) he was serving when these numbers were issued in 1920 or at a later date. There is a good chance that he continued to serve after the vital 1921 cut-off date for records and that his service record is still held by the Ministry of Defence. Up to 1920 there was no such thing as an “Army Number”. Men had numbers issued by their regiment or Corps. With each regiment having its own scheme, numbers were inevitably duplicated and in some cases dozens of men had the same number. In 1920, all that changed.
Army Order 338 of August 1920 stated that Army Numbers would now be issued from one continuous series, to all men then serving in regular or Territorial units (with the exception of the Labour Corps); to all men then on Army Reserve; to all recruits into the regular army; TF, Special Reserve and Militia; to all men who re-enlisted if they had not had one of the new numbers before; to all men transferred to the army from the Royal Marines; and to all deserters who subsequently rejoined, if they had not had one of the new numbers before.
Once issued, the man would retain the same number irrespective of his transfers and postings within the Army. If a man (who had been given one of the new numbers) left and re-enlisted, he would retain his old number.
Generally, the new numbers did not have prefixes but the Royal Army Service Corps was an exception. RASC numbers were prefixed S (Supplies), T (Transport), M (Mechanical Transport) or R (Remounts).
This meant that in WW2 a soldiers Service Number was known as an Army Number.
Then a third system was introduced during WW2 (1942), when the ‘General Service Corps’ were formed for the initial training of all new recruits. Large numbers of men were being conscripted and sent to a central depot where they had their medicals and were allocated a number BEFORE being posted to a regiment. It was too much of an admin cluster for the central depots to administer the old regimental numbers so, a single system of Army Numbers (as opposed to regimental) was introduced. These numbers were allocated in blocks in the 14xxxxxx, 16xxxxxx, and 19xxxxxx series. It was this process that was rationalised into the 1950-2007 numbering system.
Now, to search for your man, go to the relevant page – A – C; D – G; H – L; M – Q; R – S; or T – Y, remembering they will be found under these separate pages using the initial of their last-name.
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