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My grandfather was in the 15th Battalion Royal Warwicks - also known as the 2nd Birmingham Battalion. His service number was 537. What does that actually mean in terms of when he enlisted? Was he the 537th man to enlist in that particular battalion?
The number he was issued with would have been his regiment number and would have been in sequence for each battalion within that regiment, so there could have been more than one soldier with the same number within the regiment and the army in general.
For example a quick search for 537 and Royal Warks gives 6 results, I presume for men in different battalions. If he changed regiments or battalions within the same regiment he probably would have been issued a new number.
There's an article on findmypast that explains it better...
Ever gotten confused between the Special Reserve, the Extra Reserve, or the Regular Army Reserve? With so many regiments, battalions and ranks, we asked our in-house military expert Paul Nixon to break it down for us.