pinkshoes wrote:Thanks David - I'm now working on a timeline to see when this man had 12 years free
Another question if you can be bothered with me - could he have served say 7 years service in Scotland and 5 as a reserve in Canada, both within Argyll & Sutherland?
Now there's a thought! I'm no great expert apart from the names and the numbering and simple stuff, but I'll ask someone who is.
pinkshoes wrote:And, if you're not tearing your hair out with me - what's the difference between a Corps and a Regiment? I looked on the 1914-1918 site mentioned elsewhere and found what is possibly the medal card of another member of the same family. I know he was in the Royal Ambulance Corps, which is shown on this card, and the regiment no is 54605 - what does that mean, please?
A "corp" has several different meanings. Used one way, a "corp" is the branch or the service, i.e. artillery, transport, ordnance, ambulance, medical, pay, etc., which is the meaning used in this case. Strictly speaking, but I don't know if I've ever come across the usage, the regiments of foot are the "corp of foot". In other words, it appears to be the British army usage that "corp" is for other, separate branches, e.g. artillery, although the word corp doesn't appear in the title, - instead it's the Royal Regiment of Artillery; or the Royal Armoured Corps, as well as all the ancillary and support services. But even in the latter they will sometimes still have a "regimental" number.
Before it became the Royal Air Force, the name of the "corp" was the Royal Flying Corps.
But a corp is also the name generally used for the size of an army formation between an "army" and a "division" - see
http://regiments.org/regiments/nomencla.htm
And just to confuse matters, in the Scottish regiments at least, the term "drum corps" (sometimes corp of drums) is used to describe the drums on their own for a single regiment or combined from a number of regiments.
pinkshoes wrote:Maybe I should pay more attention when hubby's watching what I call the "Army Channel" on Sky
Tracey - my photo is more formal than yours, and I'm sure the tents, although of the same type, are not real - just some kind of backcloth.
Pinkshoes
Just spend some time studying the
www.regiments.org site, and when he's watching that channel next time, he might just get a surprise
Phew
Sometimes the simplest questions have the more complicated answers
David
PS .... later ........
Closing down the various open windows I looked a wee bit further on the
www.regiments.org site and came across the following !!
Corps
L. Corpus, OF. cors, body.
A body of men forming a tactical unit of any size, but most often a subdivision of an army. In French military usage, short for corps d'armee, known before 1700, and entered English about the time of Marlborough. (OED: 1711)
(1) Administrative. For purposes of training, non operational adminsitration, and "esprit de corps", a corps is a family of units normally wearing the same badge and other uniform distinctions, and out of which personnel are not normally transferred against their wishes. With the 1873-1881 Cardwell-Childers infantry reorganisations the concept of regiments as "corps" began to emerge. Similary, cavalry regiments, while remaining theoretically autonomous, were grouped into "Corps of Hussars", "Corps of Lancers", etc. -- logical groupings in an era when their armament and tactics were significantly different. These were all superceded in 1939 by the Royal Armoured Corps, but the regiments still maintained much of the reality of being independent corps.
The Cardwell system ended with the independence of India and the disbandment of all infantry 2nd Battalions, and this blurred the concept of regiments being corps. Anticipating this in Oct. 1946, Groups and Infantry Training Centres were established with three or four single-battalion regiments sharing a depot. In 1948 these Groups became named Brigades (e.g. The Cheshire Regiment was one of the Mercian Brigade, formerly "K Group"). In Sept. 1951 these brigades were considered "corps" for purposes of the Army Act. This meant that personnel could be freely moved around in the group, but considerable effort was made to not unnecessarily undermine regimental identity and tradition. The end of National Service brought more reductions and massive reorganisations which strengthened the role of the brigades and further weakened the regiments. In 1959 Brigade cap badges were substituted for regimental badges. Many considered this to be the thin edge of the wedge towards complete obliteration of the regimental system and substitution of a Corps of Infantry. training, cross-posting, etc. Six of these Brigades transformed themselves into "large" regiments, which have since developed regimental identities and traditions as strong as any other (e.g. East Anglian Brigade became The Royal Anglian Regiment, perpetuating no less than seven Cardwell regiments). Further shrinkage saw the Brigades merged into five Divisions as the new family "corps" in 1968 (e.g. The Cheshire Regiment in the the Prince of Wales's Division), but this time regimental badges were reintroduced. The restoration of regimental badges was meant to defuse renewed concern that this was the next step toward a corps of infantry. In a very technical sense, infantry regiments ceased to be corps in 1951, but the strong persistence of the regimental system and the failure to implement a Corps of Infantry means that regiments remained corps in a very real sense.
(2) Tactical. A grouping of two or three divisions. Such groupings are so large that they usually exist only in very major war operations and almost never in peacetime. The notable peacetime exception was 1 (British) Corps in Germany during most of the Cold War.
Commander: Lieutenant-General, or General.
Pronunciation: In Old French, cors was pronounced with a silent s. In the 14th century the spelling was corrupted to corps without a change in pronunciation. It entered English spelled both ways, but in the 19th century a final e (corpse) and pronounced p came to distinguish the body of a person or animal from the military sense wherein the corps spelling had become predominant with a silent p.
