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Old 05-12-2010, 10:24 AM
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Coquet Coquet is offline
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Some of the more common abbreviations on the Northumberland Absent Voters List 1918:

B.E.F. = Men serving with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium. Men are marked as such because they are entitled to a postal vote, being in close proximity to the UK.

P.A. = Men serving in theatres other than France and Belgium, ie the Proxy Area, entitled to Proxy voting. (eg Salonika, Egypt, India, etc)

H.D.L = not precisely identified, but men with this note are all in the UK, so it's probably Home....something or other. We believe postal or normal voting was permitted in these cases.

Batt, Bat and Bn = Battalion. Batt is also occasionally used for Battery on the AVLs

Bty = Battery, an artillery unit

R.F.A. = Royal Field Artillery

R.G.A. = Royal Garrison Artillery. The heavy calibre artillery units

S. or Sie. = often used in conjunction with R.G.A. to identify Siege Batteries, Royal Garrison Artillery.

Garr. Gar. or G. = Garrison Battalion designation ie 2 Gar Batt. N.F. 2nd Garrison Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers.

Res. = Reserve, normally XX Reserve Battalion also occasionally just R.

T.R. = Training Reserve

N.F. = Northumberland Fusiliers.

D.L.I. = Durham Light Infantry

R.F. = Royal Fusiliers

A.S.C = Army Service Corps

Huss. = Hussars, frequently in our case North'd Huss. = Northumberland Hussars (A Yeomanry Cavalry unit initially recruiting mainly skilled horsemen from our area.)

M.T. and H.T. = Motor Transport (occasionally interpreted as Mechanical Transport) or Horse Transport. Prefixes to A.S.C Units.

Roy. = Royal.

Lab. = Labour often Lab C or Lab Co meaning Labour Corps or Labour Company.

Agric or Agr = Agriculture or Agricultural, which are Labour Corps Companies, so normally xx Agriculture Company, Labour Corps.

Co. or Coy. = Company, a subdivision of a battalion

M.G.C. = Machine Gun Corps

Pte. = rank of Private

Cpl. = rank of Corporal

Sgt or Sjt. = rank of Sergeant

Smn. = Navy Rating of Seaman

A.B = Navy Rating of Able Bodied Seaman

Tel. = Navy Rank of Telegrapher

R.N.R. = Royal Naval Reserve

Dk Hnd. = Deck Hand, a rating in the R.N.R.

R.N.V.R = Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

R.N.D = Royal Naval Division (R.N.D. Men were part of the R.N.V.R so often R.N.D. R.N.V.R.)

R.E. = Royal Engineers

R.O.D. = Railway Operating Division Royal Engineers, often R.O.D. R.E.

I.W. & D. = Inland Waterways and Docks, a division of the Royal Engineers, so often; I.W. & D. R.E.

R.A.M.C = Royal Army Medical Corps

Cav. = Cavalry

Regt. or Rgt = Regiment.

Bde = Brigade also occasionally Bgde on the AVLs
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