Genealogy Chat

My grandfather joined the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry in 1915 and was immediately posted to the Army Cyclist Corps. I have downloaded a complete day-t-day history of the Oxford and Bucks LI during WW! but I am wondering whether it has any real value to me. As a member of the ACC, would he have remained with his regiment or served elsewhere?

Hi Paul

If any service record exsist for him there may be a varying of numbers in hs records which often is a clue where they have been moved to another unit but within the same regiment or a complete move to another infantry altogether.

But numbers can be where they have been drafted/re-enlisted in and also served in the army in previous years.

His service record does exist but it's patchy. According to his medal card he was with the Oxford and Bucks throughout the war, so I'm not suggesting that he left the regiment. What I'm wondering is, if he was posted to the ASC during that time, did his duties take him away from the rest of the regiment. If that's the case the officiasl history will be no use to me.

By the way, a new system of regimental numbering was brought in in 1917, so all soldiers with service prior to that date would have two regimental numbers on their service record.

Paul
Could you please tell me where you got the download, as I have an ancester who served and died in the Ox & Bucks LI, and even had a road in Bucks named after him !
I would like to try and find out more about him if I could as his Army records were very patchy.

Lynne

Paul.



You may need the input an expert in army operations of that time.

Is there anything at Kew that could be of more help?

None of the territorial units saw service overseas in the first months of the war, all being used for coastal defence work inside the United Kingdom. In 1915, the Army Cyclist Corps was founded to encompass these battalions; it later extended to cover a dozen more battalions raised from second-line yeomanry regiments which had been converted to cyclists.

Most units of the Corps served out their time in the United Kingdom, providing replacement drafts to infantry battalions; some were converted back to conventional infantry and saw active service, such as the Kent Cyclists (on the North-West Frontier) or the 10th Royal Scots (in northern Russia).

Formed units of the Corps were not sent overseas; this was done in small groups of men, with the divisions possessing individual cyclist companies and composite battalions later formed at corps level. These were rarely committed to action, rather being held back in preparation for the resumption of "normal" mobile warfare. On the occasions that cyclists were employed in combat, they were generally found to be ineffective; the terrain on the Western Front was unsuitable for them, causing the bicycles to be discarded early on and the unit proceeding as normal infantry.

Following the war, cyclists were perceived to have little value, and the Corps was disbanded in 1919; by 1922 all remaining Territorial cyclist battalions had been converted back to conventional units.

Lynne, to be precise, my grandfather served in 2/4 Batallion of the Ox & Bucks LI, and it's the history of that particular batallion I have found. It's on http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20395

Ann, I have viewed the same information, but it doesn't take into account that although the Army Cyclists never saw action as a Corps, many individuals, including my grandfather, were assigned other duties to make use of their skills. Many simply fought with the regulasr infantry. My grandfather became a runner, dodging bullets and shrapnel to deliver essential messages between headquarters and the front line, especially when heavy bombardment had destroyed telephone lines.

And this is my dilemma. Was he a runner exclusively for the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, or was he used by the whole army?

Try this forum

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/

Roy