Regular Army Service Numbers

The Childers Army Reform created The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) on 1st July, 1881, from the previous 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot. The new regiment consisted of two regular or "line" battalions (the 1st and 2nd) and two militia battalions (the 3rd and 4th), although the latter were styled the 1st Royal Lancashire Militia (Duke of Lancaster's Own).

In the course of the re-organisation a new regimental numbering system was introduced with no distinction being drawn between the two line battalions as far as numbering was concerned. Men already serving retained their old (pre-Childers) numbers, but new service numbers, starting with 1, were allocated on the basis of seniority, with new recruits receiving the next number in the sequence as they joined. Consequently a man's service number may be used to determine an approximate date for when he enlisted. Note: it is believed that the militia battalions (3rd and 4th) did not adopt this new system but continued to use their original numbering sequence.

The following data for enlistments into the 1st and 2nd Battalions during the late-Victorian and early 20th Century era have been provided courtesy of Paul Nixon (armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com):

10  joined on 9th July 1881

271 joined on 16th December 1882

397 joined on 2nd June 1883

599 joined on 21st March 1884

1012 joined on 12th March 1885

1632 joined on 2nd July 1886

1923 joined on 1st January 1887

2300 joined on 19th January 1888

2561 joined on 15th January 1889

2981 joined on 11th June 1890

3244 joined on 24th June 1891

3506 joined on 31st January 1892

4061 joined on 24th July 1893

4317 joined on 17th February 1894

4650 joined on 12th January 1895

5019 joined on 29th January 1896

5311 joined on 3rd May 1897

5671 joined on 14th April 1898

5923 joined on 24th March 1899

6288 joined on 2nd April 1900

6665 joined on 4th January 1901
7003 joined on 17th February 1902
7652 joined on 5th January 1903
8079 joined on 11th January 1904
8489 joined on 9th January 1905
8847 joined on 9th March 1906
9134 joined on 1st January 1907
9800 joined on 20th August 1908
10076 joined on 21st April 1909
10178 joined on 14th February 1910
10439 joined on 20th April 1911
10649 joined on 3rd May 1912
10836 joined on 3rd January 1913
11105 joined on 3rd February 1914

Of course, if a soldier of the King's Own were to be transferred to another regiment there would naturally be 'overlap' between service numbers and so renumbering on transfer was automatic, his new number being the next available in the numbering sequence of his new regiment. This new system was not without its flaws as, in due course, there would arise a great deal of overlap within the regiment itself as men in the militia battalions (later the 3rd or Special Reserve Battalion) and Volunteer Battalions (later the 4th and 5th Territorial Battalions) could have the same number as Regular soldiers in the 1st and 2nd Battalions. Hence, when interpreting service numbers from this period it is necessary to know whether a man was a Regular soldier or not.

In 1920 a new numbering sytem was introduced by Army Order 388. This allocated a unique block of numbers to each regiment, with the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) receiving the block 3701001 - 3757000.

Every serving soldier was given a new number in this block to replace his old one and then he kept this number for the rest of his army career, irrespective of whether he was subsequently transferred between regiments. New recruits received the next available number in the series and thus, from this era, once again a man's service number can be used as an indicator of the date he joined the Army.

The next numbering system was introduced during the Second World War. Due to mass conscription large numbers of men were sent to cental depots for induction and medicals rather than to the individual regimental depots. The administrative effort required to maintain a regimentally-based numbering system was too much for the depot staff to deal with and so a single system of Army service numbers (as opposed to regimental service numbers) was introduced. These numbers were allocated to the depots in blocks in the 14xxxxxx, 16xxxxxx and 19xxxxxx series, and recruits were given a service number before being posted to a regiment. Once again, they retained that unique service number for the whole of their service in the Army, irrespective of which regiment they were serving with. Unfortunately, although a lower number will indicate an earlier enlistment, it is no longer possible to infer much about a man's enlistment date from his service number alone.

Finally, following the introduction of National Service, the numbering process was rationalised into the sytem still used to-day. Part of the number block sequences were:

22000000 - 22199408 used until October 1950

22199409 - 22460786 used until February 1951

22460787 - 22562759 used until July 1951

22562760 - 23052500 used until June 1955

23052501 - 23188252 used until October 1955

23188253 - 23479123 used until May 1956

23479124 - 23845071 used until October 1960

On 31st October 1959, The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) was amalgamated with the Border Regiment to form The King's Own Royal Border Regiment. Consequently, the last service numbers to be issued to men who served in The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) would have been drawn from the last block quoted.