| The Cardwell Reforms of 1881 saw The Essex | | | | in the Militia, joined up and were allowed to keep their |
| Regiment formed out of the old 44th (East Essex) | | | | old Militia number. For instance, John Ballinger who |
| Regiment of Foot and the 56th (West Essex) | | | | joined the Essex Regiment Special Reserve at |
| Regiment of Foot. The 44th became the 1st | | | | Chelmsford on 12th July 1908, kept his old Militia |
| Battalion and the 56th became the 2nd Battalion. | | | | number, 9507, until his engagement expired in 1912. |
| Formed in July 1881, the first man to join the new | | | | And talking of Chelmsford, my home town, here are |
| regiment's 1st and 2nd battalions was given the | | | | some numbers and dates for the 5th Essex |
| number 1. The next man along was given the number | | | | Regiment (TF) which had its base in the County |
| 2 and so on. There was no distinction made between | | | | Town. I'll start this sequence in 1909, the men in 1908 |
| the two battalions; they both shared the same | | | | mostly being old Volunteers who re-enlisted: |
| numbering sequence. | | | | 623 issued on 16th February 1909 |
| I'll give you some numbers and dates - one number | | | | 1248 issued on 6th January 1910 |
| per year - for the years 1881-1908. The army service | | | | 1437 issued on 5th January 1911 |
| numbers website will give far more numbers and | | | | 1601 issued on 9th January 1912 |
| dates than I'm giving here, so just regard this as a | | | | 1915 issued on 24th February 1913 |
| taster. | | | | 2158 issued on 29th January 1914 |
| 33 issued on 15th October 1881 | | | | This is another good place to pause. By August 1914, |
| 274 issued on 1st February 1882 | | | | many TF battalions had recruited close to 2000 men |
| 974 issued on 24th April 1883 | | | | and as we can see form the sequence above, the |
| 1237 issued on 5th January 1884 | | | | 5th Essex had exceeded that. Once war was |
| 1439 issued on 22nd May 1885 | | | | declared, all battalions saw a surge in recruits and |
| 1649 issued on 19th January 1886 | | | | new service battalions were created to cope with |
| 2089 issued on 11th February 1887 | | | | the influx. I'll end this post here by continuing with the |
| 2330 issued on 27th January 1888 | | | | numbering sequence in the 5th Essex up until late |
| 2517 issued on 16th February 1889 | | | | 1916 and by having a final word on the Regular, |
| 2818 issued on 28th January 1890 | | | | Special Reserve and Service Battalions. |
| 3205 issued on 5th February 1891 | | | | By March 1914, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were |
| 3425 issued on 6th January 1892 | | | | numbering in the 10,000s (10414 was issued on 23rd |
| 3768 issued on 12th January 1893 | | | | March that year). When war was declared, numbers |
| 4118 issued on 5th February 1894 | | | | for the new service battalions continued on in that |
| 4455 issued on 4th March 1895 | | | | sequence and yet a block of numbers was obviously |
| 4609 issued on 29th January 1896 | | | | set aside for those men who enlisted during war-time |
| 4832 issued on 16th March 1897 | | | | but who wanted to enlist for the old term of seven |
| 5029 issued on 26th January 1898 | | | | years with the Colours and five on the Reserve. And |
| 5349 issued on 19th January 1899 | | | | so we see with the Essex Regiment that by mid July |
| 6117 issued on 7th August 1900 | | | | 1915, numbers in the late 19,000s and early 20,000s |
| 6407 issued on 14th April 1901 | | | | were being issued to men joining service battalions, |
| 6691 issued on 14th January 1902 | | | | whilst you could still enlist in a regular battalion for |
| 7434 issued on 7th January 1903 | | | | 7&5 and be given a number in the low 11000s. |
| 7966 issued on 20th June 1904 | | | | As far as the Special Reserve was concerned, men |
| 8337 issued on 20th January 1905 | | | | were still enlisting in the 3rd Battalion in November |
| 8596 issued on 29th March 1906 | | | | 1914 and probably later. The last number I have on |
| 8996 issued on 24th June 1907 | | | | the army service numbers database currently is 3 |
| 9242 issued on 20th July 1908 | | | | 3547 which was issued on 4th November 1914. |
| Let's pause here for a moment. The numbers above | | | | Here are some more numbers from the 5th (TF) |
| are those issued to men who joined the regular | | | | Battalion, The Essex Regiment: |
| battalions of the 1st and 2nd Essex regiment | | | | 2229 issued on 7th August 1914 |
| between the years 1881 and July 1908. So for | | | | 2469 issued on 15th September 1914 |
| instance, if you know your ancestor was a regular | | | | 2591 issued on 12th October 1914 |
| soldier serving with the Essex Regiment in the late | | | | 2901 issued on 7th November 1914 |
| 1800s and he had the number 5000, you can tell | | | | 3219 issued on 19th December 1914 |
| from looking at the above data that he would have | | | | 3248 issued on 11th January 1915 |
| joined up some time between 16th March 1897 | | | | 3276 issued on 1st February 1915 |
| (number 4832) and 26th January 1898 (number | | | | 3298 issued on 21st March 1915 |
| 5029). Looking at those numbers and at the slow | | | | 3317 issued on 17th April 1915 |
| rate of recruitment to these regular battalions of the | | | | 3401 issued on 5th May 1915 |
| Essex Regiment (an average of 330 men recruited | | | | 3685 issued on 5th June 1915 |
| per annum up until 20th July 1908), it seems likely | | | | 3741 issued on 10th July 1915 |
| that number 5000 would have joined either in early | | | | 3820 issued on 5th August 1915 |
| January 1898 or in December the previous year. | | | | 3878 issued on 11th September 1915 |
| Alongside the regular battalions of the Essex | | | | 3904 issued on 4th October 1915 |
| Regiment were the Militia and the Volunteers, each | | | | 3955 issued on 1st November 1915 |
| with their own separate numbering sequences. The | | | | 4087 issued on 1st December 1915 |
| scope of the Army Service Numbers database does | | | | 4189 issued on 29th January 1916 |
| not cover the Militia or the Volunteers, although as | | | | 4253 issued on 17th February 1916 |
| we shall see, the numbering sequences of the Militia | | | | 4436 issued on 27th March 1916 |
| and Volunteers in some regiments were carried on | | | | 5089 issued on 26th April 1916 |
| into the 3rd (Special Reserve) and/or (4th Extra | | | | 5127 issued on 21st June 1916 |
| Reserve) and/or Territorial Force (TF) battalions. | | | | 6095 issued on 21st July 1916 |
| Lord Haldane's reforms of 1908 created the 3rd | | | | 6210 issued on 11th August 1916 |
| (Special Reserve) Battalion in the Essex Regiment | | | | 6692 issued on 25th October 1916 |
| and the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Territorial Force | | | | One thing worth noting is that although many |
| Battalions. The Essex Regiment appears to have | | | | Territorial Force battalions formed 1st and second line |
| toed-the-line, all the new TF battalions commencing | | | | battalions during the First World War (these battalions |
| their numbering from 1. Men who had been in the old | | | | being expressed as 1/5th, 2/5th, 3/5th etc), the |
| Volunteers were encouraged to re-enlist in the TF | | | | battalion kept its original numbering sequence. So a |
| and they were given new numbers. For the most | | | | man joining the 2/5th Essex could be given the |
| part, men enlisting in the 3rd Battalion were also | | | | number 4000 - for argument's sake - whilst the next |
| given new numbers starting from 1, although there is | | | | man might be given 4001 and be sent to the 3/5th. |
| evidence that some men who had previously served | | | | |