What was the Derby scheme?
QWhen researching my grandfather, Edwin Henry Hollins born Leytonstone in 1890, a soldier in the Royal Fusiliers during WWI, I found he enlisted under the Derby Scheme, service number 10748, 15th Battalion RF, but another record says his number was 47986, 9th Battalion RF and a prisoner of war. However, the Royal Fusiliers website only mentions the 1st, 2nd and 4th Battalions in WWI, so what is the Derby Scheme and what were the 9th and 15th Battalions?
Mrs Sandy Pattenden
AThe Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) actually raised no less than 47 battalions during WWI, of which 26 went overseas to fight. I’ve sighted the Royal Fusilier website you found, which only describes the three pre-war Regular battalions that fought in France. When Lord Kitchener called for volunteers in August 1914, the Royal Fusiliers formed volunteer ‘Service’ battalions numbered from the 8th Battalion upwards. The 9th (Service) Battalion went to France on in May 1915, but the 15th (Reserve) Battalion only served at home.
THE WWI DERBY SCHEME
By spring 1915 the flow of volunteer recruits was drying up at a time when the army had suffered appalling casualties, with 3.4 million men of military age (not in protected trades) stillwork with the necessary time to put your affairs in order and issued with a special armband to denote that you had volunteered. The last day to register for deferment was 15 December 1915. Married men born in 1890, such as Edwin, were placed in Group 31, which was attested on 14
