A question about a branch of Service...

[JollyBob]

...which I hope someone can help me with.

In the course of my mother's investigation of our family history, she has unearthed some details of my great-grandfather's service record from WW1.

Old John Wilson was a career soldier, lying about his age to join up in 1884 (or thereabouts) and serving Her Majesty the Queen (gawd bless 'er!) in both India and South Africa, before going on the reserve list and fathering 13 children.

At the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, he re-enlisted in the Border Regiment, and served (achieving a sergeant's rank) in France until invalided out of active duty in 1916 with rheumatic fever.

Before being discharged completely however, he spent some time with a unit called "337 Protection Company, Royal Defence Corps". And this is the thing we know nothing about.

Has anybody ever heard of this, or anything like it? It sounds wondefully clandestine, like he was on he King's bodyguard or something, and I am assuming that it was a wartime only unit, formed to meet a specific need.

My dad reckons the RDC was like the Civil Defence Force in WW2, and Great Grampa John would therefore have been a glorified night watchman, possibly at a military facility, but certainly not quite as romantic as I'd like to imagine.

Can any of you fonts of knowledge shed any light on this? Plynkes? aecurtis? You guys know about this kind of thing?

Was the old guy a spy, or a fire warden?

You decide!


Edited for getting things wrong.

[Lowtardog]

Worth asking the question at the National Army Museum?

[JollyBob]

Maybe, yeah.

If I can't find anything out myself with my half-assed Google-fu, I'll bear it in mind.

[Johnnytodd]

Take your question here and you will have an answer within hours:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/

[Lowtardog]

This sounds like it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Defence_Corps

[JollyBob]

Yep, found some more info here:

http://www.1914-1918.net/royaldefencecorps.html

Basically, batallions of troops on reserve, made up soldiers too old or unfit for active service at the front.

Mainly had Home Service duties such as guarding POW camps or other installations vital to the war effort.
 

Thanks for the help and links guys, I guess the old fella wasn't a spy after all! 

[Lowtardog]

More interesting stuff here

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65263&pid=580800&st=0&#entry580800

So he could have been a Prison guard, Royal bodyguard (in Ireland - I can see you will need to paint a couple of the Musketeer miniatures guys for this) or some other guard of important sites.  Still sounds better than the Home guard