Find your ancestors in British Army, Honourable Artillery Company, Cardew-Rendle roll of members 1537-1908

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This important work, published by the Honourable Artillery Company, provides information on all those known to have been admitted to the oldest regiment in the British Army between its earliest times and its integration into the Territorial Force in 1908. Edited by Dr Kirsty Bennett, the Roll contains biographical information about nearly 17,000 members of the HAC. This information has been extracted from around 100 different historical sources spanning four hundred years. The entries on the Roll encompass both men of fame and individuals whose service has hitherto been relatively unexplored. Amongst them are Royalists and regicides, architects and artists and bankers and businessmen. The Roll commemorates about 3,000 members of the HAC who fought during the English Civil Wars of the mid-seventeenth century (many with the City of London Trained Bands), plus men who fought to defend London from the Gordon Riots (1780), six who died as result of the South African War of 1899-1902 and around 350 who served in World War I.

The original Cardew-Rendle Roll takes the form of two substantial hard-backed A4-sized volumes enclosed in a slip-case. It is these volumes which have now been digitised.

The Roll itself is preceded by substantial introductory matter. This comprises a history of the Company and its membership and a three-part guide to using the Roll. Ten Appendices provide further information about such matters as the history of the Company’s various sub-units and lists of its Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Treasurers. The whole is illustrated by both colour plates and black and white pictures sourced from the HAC’s collections, many of which have never before been published.

A sample entry from this collection

Turner, James Algernon (adm. 10 November 1904)

Born 2 July 1884; address: Derncleugh, Grove Park, Wanstead. Military: age at admission: twenty; A Battery until resigned 10 May 1909. Served in WWI (regtl no. 1937): re-admitted and joined 2nd Bn. No. 3 Coy 5 September 1914; drafted to France to join 1st Bn. No. 1 Coy 20 June 1915; wounded 23 September 1915 (CP 16 October 1915) and evacuated to England 2 October 1915. Not listed as a member of the HAC after WWI. Sources: CM; CP; MMB; PAML; RNR1; RR2; VB3; WWIRC. Published Refs: CP, 16 October 1915.