• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Kings Royal Rifles

A

Ann Peace

Brummie babby
Hi to all

I am new here and this is my first posting, so all the help given will be much appreciated!

I have today received the BC for my grandfather hoping to get info of his father Harry Hayes. The BC tells me that he was a Private in the 5th Battalion Kings Royal Rifles. Now, I am totally green and ignorant of anything military, never having come across it before.
I know that he was born in Walsall and I believe that his father lived in Aston Warwickshire, so I am wondering was this Battalion a Staffs/Warwick one?
Can anyone advice me where i go from here to get any info please?

Thank you
Ann
 
Found this on google, not much help, but we have some real buffs on here who know there Military Stuff who will no doubt help you further

5th and 6th (Reserve) Battalions
August 1914 : in Winchester. Depot/training units, they moved on mobilisation to Sheerness and remained in this area throughout the war. In 1918 the 6th Bn was at nearby Queenborough. Both were part of the Thames & Medway Garrison.
 
Thank you Claire, all bits of info very helpful to me as i literally know nothing on this subject... Thank you
 
Is it just the Military stuff you want or are you looking to work back on your tree too? i'm looking to see if i can find an army record online for you, can you give me as much info as you can on his father please (full name rough DOB last nown address), you never know, his record may have survived.
 
Hi
Yes I am working on the family tree. This gt grandfather no one seems to know much about. He was born (I think) Henry Hayes in Walsall between 1891 and 1894. His marriage was to Annie Webster b in Walsall. Last known address was 18 Peal street Walsall. I know that on his MC it says he was a carter and his father (my gt gt grandfather was a horse dealer. On the BC it says that he was a (what looks like) a haulers carter? or something looking similar.
No one seems to know what happened after his marriage, where he went, what he did etc.
 
They married 1915 in Walsall, just checking 1901 to see what i can find under Harry/Henry what's his dads name off the marriage certificate? and i'll recheck Army online Records too later.
 
Harry or Henry is the one that was in the army in 1916 when my grandad Edward Henry was born. Ihave Census records up till the date he married Annie Webster in Nov 1915. also have the marriage Certificate for that wedding.
 
My granddad was with the Kings Royal Rifles.

In Memory of
Rifleman J SHELDON

4581, 9th Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps
who died
on 23 December 1918

Remembered with honour
HAMBURG CEMETERY
Hamburg%202007-Web.jpg

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
 
Hi My Grandad sevred with the 10th Batt Kings Royal Rifles and he enlisted in wolverhampton
Did your granded die on the somme or in action.
if so you will probally find quite a bit on the war graves commision web site. You can serch for him and if sucessfull get a full run down of where he is buried and what happened, who his wife and parent were.

www.gwgc.com

Phill
 
the light infantry/rifle corps depot and training battalions are, and always have been at Winchester, I believe that the KRRC became amalmgated into the The Royal Green Jackets, so if you can use the web Ann, go to royal green jackets web site and their you can get access to all museum, records and any other info you may require, you will need his service number and date of birth though.
regards
paul
 
paul stacey said:
the light infantry/rifle corps depot and training battalions are, and always have been at Winchester, I believe that the KRRC became amalmgated into the The Royal Green Jackets, so if you can use the web Ann, go to royal green jackets web site and their you can get access to all museum, records and any other info you may require, you will need his service number and date of birth though.
regards
paul
Click to expand...
Hi Paul, according to my "bible,"History of the British Regular Army.1660/1990, the
Kings Royal Rifle Corps in 1870 were the 60th of Foot, then in 1948 became the 2rd Green Jackets, based ,as you say at Winchester There is a very good museum there, Enid and I went on a
day trip once from Bournmouth. Keep warm Bernard
 
Hi,I,m a new member and saw your enquiry about your grandfathers ww1 career with the krrc,I was researching my great grandfathers ww1 record, i knew from my late grandfather that he was a prisoner of war,and being brummies i assumed he was in the warwicks regiments,and could find no information anywhere,till i stumbled across some old family records stating he was a pte in the krrc,I was puzzled by this but found out when he was a lad he was in the church lads army/boys brigade and they had military type training and apparently thats why they were put in to the krrc,he enrolled at winchester,and according to his military record,which i obtained from the national archives,his "theatre of war" was france in 1915,I,ve drawn a blank since,i,m trying to find out what prisoner of war camp he was in. cheers skiddy 58
 
Hi Skiddy58> Your post about the connection with the Boy's Brigade sounds about right for my Uncle William who was killed in France in 1915. At first I thought that they weren't taking fellows into the Royal Warwicks for some reason in the Birmingham area. It didn't make much sense though. I know William went to Winchester to sign up for the KORC and I also know he had belonged to the Boy's Brigade in Witton for many years. A month or two ago when they had a free download on one of the ancestry sites. I found all his military records and it was fascinating to read them. He was trained at a camp on Salisbury Plain originally before being sent to France.
 
Hi jennyann,my father told me that when he was a lad he wanted to join the boys brigade,but his father wouldn,t let him stating he would be in uniform soon enough.This must have been a reference to his father(my great grandfather) being enlisted in the krrc,Oh how i wish i,d asked my grandad more questions about our family history.
 
We all wished we had asked more questions way back. Skiddy. Many of us have recently, say in the last few years, found out stories about our
families during the two world wars. The numbers killed in WW1 are mind boggling and make you feel very sad that so much sacrifice of life was made. I knew about 40 years ago that my father has lost his elder brother in WW1 and since there is more information available I have a good picture of him and his life when he joined up. Your grandfather's father must have known something to make that statement about being in uniform before too long, etc.I just wish I had had the chance to meet my Uncle William as do many many others who lost loved ones in war.
 
Firstly I am so sorry that its taken so long to reply to any of you here, my comp been on the blink and with Christmas and everything I didnt have time to sort it out. Thankyou all so very much for the info, I can see I am going to be busy searching through the websites you have given. Its all very interesting and Im learning a bit (thank goodness). Yes, searching through family history and seeing so many of the men had enlisted, some dying has certainly brought home to me how awful it must have been. I have always felt sad about the war years and the deaths but its all made so real when you actually start looking at it doesnt it?
Thank you all, I am very grateful to you
 
Ann Peace, If you signed up before conscription in WW1 you could choose the regiment you wanted to join. Len.
 
I may be able to add some more detail on why a lad from Witton might join the KRRC.

My Great Grandfather, James Kelly, served in the KRRC for a little over 26 years. He joined at 19 in Ireland in 1866, and served until discharged in Birmingham in 1893. He was in India, Afghanistan and South Africa and took part in the Mari expedition and the siege of Ladysmith. For the last 8 years of service he was posted to Birmingham in the army recruiting service.

I have a little silver vesta case of his, inscribed from the Boys Brigade in Aston. This suggests that he probably worked with them for some time. I also know that he lived at Great Brook Street, not far from the barracks. Although he died in 1910, it is possible that his stories persuaded some of the boys fom the boys brigade in Aston to join the KRRC.
 
What a nice story you are so lucky to have the information and the vesta case. I bet many of our families knew him. My husbands father was a postman in Aston and he joined the KRR but sadly lost his life at the Somme.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top