Sorry if this is in the wrong place - but can anyone advise where I should start looking for someone who served in the '4th Reserve Dragoons' during WWI?

I (think) these were part of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoons - later merged with the 7th in 1922, then the 5th Royal Iniskilling Dragoons in '92 to become the Royal Dragoons.

Cheers

Could they be German? The British didn't have "Reserve Dragoons", but the Germans had "Reserve Dragoon Regiment No 4 ", comprised of men who had complete their military service in Dragoon Regiment No 4 sometime before 1914.

Definitely not German as the guy I'm looking for lived on the Wirral, Merseyside.

In WW1 there were three "Special Reserve Cavalry" regiments
North Irish Horse
South Irish Horse
King Edwards Horse

So you may have got it a bit mixed up, as they were Irregular units and some of the first units to join the regular army in France in 1914. In 1917 the North Irish Horse had 2 sqns serving as Corps troops with the 4th (Royal Irish ) Dragoons who in 1922 became the 4/7th Dragoon Guards not the Inniskilling Dragoon Guards which was made up from the 5th and 6th Dragoon guards

There is a website dedicated to the North Irish Horse so it a case of Google, and the Western Front ASSc and The Great WAR Forum now for you

Hope that helps Trop

Fairly normal for me, being mixed up! I got the info from his wife's death certificate. It reads, 'Trooper, 4th Reserve Dragoons (Pawnbroker's Manager). So, maybe they were part of the TA? And his civvie job was a Mgr?


Yep, the 4/7th merged with the 5th Royal Iniskilling Dragoons at the end of the Cold War to form the Royal Dragoons in 1992.


Thanks for all your efforts Trop - much appreciated. I'll go and do a bit of googling now!

...as did Hitlers half brother Alois and his son and nephew of the Fuhrer William Paddy Hitler.

Pteranadon,
You can blame the Wirral for a number of things eg. Paul O'Grady, but I can assure you none of hitler's relatives lived there !

I assume the death certifcate was issued during WW1 or shortly after in which case Pawnbroker's manager was his usual civilian occupation but he was for the time being in full time service in an, as yet, unidentified cavalry regiment. My grandfather is described as Private Royal West Surreys (Tram Conductor) on my father's birth certificate issued during WW1. My guess would be that "4th Reserve Dragoons" is a badly written "4th R Irish Dragoons" or the registrar misheard the response when he asked for the informant's occupation.

To trace your man's service records you really need a service number. A good place to start is WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards available on line from Ancestry. Providing you are not looking for a John Smith you might be able to pick the number there.

Moonraker

The certificate was dated 13 November 1918. The certificate is typed so it's definitely 'Reserve' - but like you say it could have been an error when first entered.

I've found that the 4th Dragoons were part of 1 Cavalry Division, 2 Cavalry Brigade. So I [hopefully] just need to get to the bottom of the Reserve bit.

I think there's a Regimental Museum in York so I'm going to try my luck with them.

See link

www.1914-1918.net/cavreserve.htm

OK The Hitlers lived ithe other side of the Mersey in 102 Upper Stanhope Street, Liverpool.

Blob on, Beardy! That cracks it. Thanks very much for the help!

Fixed that for you...

CW

Quis Separabit
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum

What, like Hitler's brother?

That'll learn me to not read the thread before posting with glee. If you're leading the pillorying can I just caper wildly behind you pointing and laughing?

As if being German prevented you somehow from living in the Wirral! Half the waiters and barbers in the UK in 1914 were German! Liverpool had an enormous number of them because of the Atlantic passenger trade...

There might have been an enormous number of them in Liverpool but I don't think we would have let them live on the Wirral.

We did have standards in those days, doncha know?

They all went on holiday to the Isle of Man in 1914

Judging by the number of professional footballers living there now, you have abandoned them wholesale?

Cuddles the footballers live in Cheshire Wilmslow etc

No, joking aside, a lot of them went home in a headlong rush to get mobilised. There are a few, apocryphal and authenticated alike, tales of familiars meeting up in the 1914 Christmas Truce for example.

Ally Pally was an internment camp early in WW1 before becoming an MT depot and a SMB. Knockaloo and Douglas on the IOM were the main venues and 23000 or so German civilians were detained there for the duration in most cases. Seen as unjust with the benefit of hindsight, the reactions to Germans and German businesses in 1914 and 1915 (after the RMS Lusitania was sunk) indicate that it was definitely for their own good!

Never one to let a WW1 reference go idly by!!

Cast a look at gov.im/mnh/heritage/li...rnment.xml