Showing posts with label Post Office Rifles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Post Office Rifles. Show all posts

Sunday, December 7, 2014

More pictures on the Leavesden Pages

Military
Watford
Leavesden was a parish created from part of Watford in the 19th century and I have restructured and augmented the pages with more post card images. There is a master Leavesden entry page with links to separate pages for All Saint's Church, The Grove (and Grove School), Munden, The Metropolitan Asulum (where the Post Office Rifles were billeted in 1914/5), The St Pancras Schools and the local part of the Grand Junction Canal.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Post Office Rifles in Leavesden Asylum, Watford

Phil has asked if there were any records of Arthur Edward Draper being billeted at Leavesden Asylum - and whether there are any photographs.which might show him.


Captain Peel
When war broke out the 2nd London (Territorial) Division moved to War stations and many ended up in billets. The problem is that only the Army at the time would have kept detailed records of who went where - and these records have not survived. The Councils would also have been involved - particularly when buildings like schools were taken over - because while the school buildings were vacant when war broke out in August the children would be returning to to study in September! Unfortunately most council records have not survived, and the information that is available is mainly about buildings and not the units or individual soldiers that occupied them. 
CAN YOU HELP?

What I have done is to set up an answer page on the Post Office Rifles (1/8 Battalion of the 2nd London Division) from which it is clear that most information on where they were billeted has come from soldiers' letters and post cards home - such as those by Captain H. Peel. There must be many more such letters surviving in private hands - and if the information can be brought together it would help to paint a more detailed picture of where units (and individual soldiers) were billeted in Hertfordshire during the First World War.