{"id":10474,"date":"2015-01-16T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T11:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=10474"},"modified":"2015-01-16T06:00:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T11:00:59","slug":"saturday-january-16-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/saturday-january-16-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"BATTALION RE-ORGANIZATION \u2013 AGAIN – IN 1915"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, January 16, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n

In Camp, Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains<\/em><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cLt.-Gen. Alderson inspected lines.\u00a0 Assured men that they would soon be eating their dinners in France.\u00a0 Announcement heartily cheered by the men.\u201d\u00a0[1]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY:\u00a0\u201cThe number of companies per battalion was another subject of contention and confusion, of postings and repostings, and of general dissatisfaction for eleven weeks.\u00a0 At Valcartier there were eight:\u00a0 on 1st<\/sup> November, Contingent Orders in compliance with War Office instructions directed battalions to reorganize on a 4-company basis in accordance with Expeditionary Force establishments.\u00a0 Five days later the Army Council decided that Overseas Contingents should maintain the existing organization which they understood to be eight companies per battalion.\u00a0 General Alderson explained that his battalions were already organized into four companies, but the War Office instructed that there should be eight, which was implemented in Contingent Orders on 17th<\/sup> November and carried out.\u00a0 On 10th<\/sup> December the War Office informed General Alderson that after consultation with the Commander-in-Chief, B.E.F., the Army Council had decided on a 4-company basis, but four days later reversed the decision.\u00a0 The final changed was effected on 16th<\/sup> January, when General Alderson stated that reorganization on the 4-company basis had commenced, and the War Office approved. But the attempted to take supernumerary regimental officers into the field was unsuccessful:\u00a0 six officers per company were allowed, from which the transport and signalling officers were selected.\u201d\u00a0 [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

The 14th<\/sup> Battalion history tells how \u201cDuring January the Battalion was again reorganized on a four company basis.\u00a0 Once previously this reorganization had been effected, but after a short trial, the old eight company formation had been restored.\u00a0 Under the new system, now definitely adopted, the Battalion consisted of four companies instead of eight, each company being composed of four platoons, under a lieutenant, and each platoon of four sections, under an N.C.O.\u00a0 Command of the new double companies, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, was given respectively to Major A.C. Shaw, Major P.R. Hanson, Major Gault McCombe, and Major Hercule Barr\u00e9, who had as their second-in-commands Capt. J.N. Warminton, Capt. R. Steacie, Capt. V.G. Curry, and Capt. E. Ranger.\u00a0 Major Shaw’s company was formed by combining old Nos. 1 and 5, which had been recruited by the Guards and Victoria Rifles respectively; Major Hanson’s company was made up from old Nos. 2 and 3, which were Guards units; Major McCombe\u2019s company was composed of old Nos. 4 and 6, from the Victoria Rifles; and Major Barr\u00e9\u2019s company absorbed old Nos. 7 and 8, from the Carabiniers de Mont-Royal.\u201d\u00a0 [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 War Diary, 14th<\/sup> Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, Jan 16, 1915.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089686.jpg<\/a><\/pre>\n
[2]\u00a0\u00a0 Col. A.F. Duguid, \u201cOfficial History of the Canadian Forces in The Great War 1914-1919, Vol. 1<\/em>, Part 1,<\/em> King\u2019s Printer, Ottawa, 1938, pg 141.<\/pre>\n
[3]\u00a0\u00a0 R.C. Featherstonhaugh, The Royal Montreal Regiment 14th<\/sup> Battalion C.E.F. 1914-1925<\/em>, Montreal, The Gazette, Printing Co., Ltd., 1927, pg. 21.<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday, January 16, 1915 In Camp, Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cLt.-Gen. Alderson inspected lines.\u00a0 Assured men that they would soon be eating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}