Service record help please

[Barbara Dodds]

I wonder if sks would give me a second opinion on this service record please?

- Ancestry.co.uk

My grandfather - Henry Ellison Dodds - appears to have joined up in Dec 1915 but not been posted until April 1917. Is this usual, or was it a case of him being in a reserved occupation as a munitions worker?

The munitions factory did employ female staff as my grandmother (his future wife) worked there throughout the war.

Everything else fits, including the home leave in 1918 which was about the time of his father's funeral and his sister subsequently being given as next of kin.


Thanks everyone

[BridgetM]

Looking at the Ancestry ref .....

Army Form B - Casualty Form Active Service
shows he enlisted 12/12/15 & was mobilised 3 Apr 1917
His terms of service are D of W... = Duration of War?

Another Army Form B shows similar info but Service reckoned from 12/12/15 has been struck through & 3/4/17 inserted
Further down on this page -
13.12.15 W.A. Res
3.4.17 Mobilised & Posted

The next page is his 'call up' telling him he is being moved from the Army Reserve to active duty. (Ancestry page 10303)

A similar letter was sent 22 Aug 1916 but ...?

Ancestry page 10307 shows dates Attested, To Army Reserve, Mobilised, etc

He was in the Reserves until 1917!

[Barbara Dodds]

Thanks for that Bridget

So I was reading it that right that he signed up in 1915 but was held in the reserves until 1917. It just struck me as strange!