Help translating Service Record?

Hello,
After years of waiting, I have finally been able to get a hold of my grandfather's military service record. He served in Beds&Herts, 3 Commando, and the Sommerset Light Infantry.
While it is very interesting, and I have been able to decipher some of it with the help of this forum and online abbreviation lists, there is still a lot I can't figure out. I am slowly making my way through the 44 pages trying to learn as much as I can.

Can anyone help particularly with the red underlines in this copy?

Also, I see he was being "punished" with 7 days C.B. and forfeited 1 day pay, but it doesn't say what the offense was. I can see other entries throughout his record where he went AWOL and subsequently returned several times, but this entry doesn't seem to correlate with any specific offense.

Any help is much appreciated!

Nan

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 03/07/2023 11:34:13

Hi Nan,

Here's a start -
ITC Beds & Herts Regt. was the Infantry Training Centre, for the Beds & Hearts Regt, and was in Kempston on the outskirts of Bedford. Here the enlisted men would do their basic training.

SPP - Special Proficiency Pay - was a special award for soldiers below the rank of sergeant, granted at Commanding Officer's discretion.

Army Order 41 of 1938 was a particularly long-winded order setting out details of increases of pay for soldiers enlisted on or after October 1925.
The increases were in two parts, those granted early in a soldier's service and those granted later as a result of long service and good conduct.

SPP was paid only to Privates and unpaid Lance Corporals, first as an increase of 3d per day - after the 1st & 2nd years' service - then, subsequently, after 3 years for "proficiency above average"
These increases, at the 3rd year point, were to be restricted to only two thirds of the strength of any unit, and were probably based, by most OCs, on the number of other qualifications already acquired by their eligible soldiers.
[Discontinued by ACI 418 of 1950]

Qualification badge - SP in a Wreath, worn on lower left arm by personnel granted SPP or its equivalent.

Nick

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 04/07/2023 14:47:34

... as for the other acronyms such as 63rd TS and 63rd AS, it is clear that they're written in two different hands. I believe that they are one and the same - just that one person used AS and the other, TS.
It is possible that AS = Ammunition Squadron and TS = Training Squadron.

What is established is that Corsham was a Garrison HQ for the Salisbury Plain District and, during WWII was a very large underground Ammunition Store.

Certainly Corsham was all of these:
a Central Ordnance Depot,
a COD (Command Ordnance Depot),
a CAD (Central Armaments Depot),
a BAD (Base Ammunition Depot) - possibly 2 BAD...

As you can see, Army acronyms can be a 'minefield'

with some people using their own version. An common example of this is Hightown Barracks in Wrexham where the Holding Operational Commando was based. Some used the abbreviation/acronym HOC, but others used HCO instead...

Nick

Thank you Nick,

You're not kidding about the acronym minefield!
I think there's a lot of information hiding in plain sight in this service record. Every time I look at it I find/figure out something new.
I appreciate your expert eyes.

Nan

Hello,
I'm now trying to piece together a timeline of events. My mother lived in Ramsgate with her mother and younger sister and I believe she was evacuated inland around the same time or shortly after the Dunkirk evacuation. Her dad was in France at the time serving with the Beds & Herts Regiment.

Can I be reasonably sure, based on this information, that he was one of the hundreds of thousands of men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk?
In the first attached clip, the record has him at the training center and ammunition depot in Bromley as of 4Sept '39, on leave in Jan-Feb '40, but then it doesn't indicate where he was until he "Disembarked in U.K." on 20th June 1940. (Would that entry represent his return from Dunkirk? The date is not quite aligned with the historical account of the 26May to 4th June 1940. Close enough?)

Elsewhere in his record, the second clip, it also shows him in France from 10Sep39 to 19thJun40.

Any help and insight much appreciated :)

Nan

CommanCestor wrote:

Can I be reasonably sure, based on this information, that he was one of the hundreds of thousands of men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk?
In the first attached clip, the record has him at the training center and ammunition depot in Bromley as of 4Sept '39, on leave in Jan-Feb '40, but then it doesn't indicate where he was until he "Disembarked in U.K." on 20th June 1940. (Would that entry represent his return from Dunkirk? The date is not quite aligned with the historical account of the 26May to 4th June 1940. Close enough?)

Nan

Hi Nan,

looking at the file you've named as 20 June 40, he was still attached to 2 BAD RAOC ( Royal Army Ordnance Corps) but he was with the 2nd Echelon - in France, but not on the front line
Operation Aerial was the evacuation of Allied forces and civilians from ports in western France from 15 to 25 June 1940 - so that would tie in with the dates in his record...

Nick

Oh! Yes, that makes more sense.
I'm off to read about Operation Aerial...

Thanks again Nick!

Nan