MILITARY PICTURE ANALYSIS
What can you tell me about this photograph?
QMy father gave me this photograph before he died. He told me that his uncle is on it, but I can’t remember which man he is. Can you tell me where and when it was taken?
Douglas Bryant
AThis is a splendid photograph of soldiers in the Army Pay Corps (APC), probably taken in the middle of the First World War. Clearly part of a larger photo, I’d estimate nearly 100 men would have been in the whole thing. The APC was formed in 1893 to provide clerks from the ranks to administer soldiers’ pay through District Pay Offices. To serve in it, soldiers had to be trustworthy (of course) and educated – usually to the First Class Army Certificate of Education, which meant many of them were sergeants and would have been educated by the Army itself. They’d naturally be older and have seen considerable service.
During the war, the vast majority of APC soldiers served at home. By December 1918 there were just over 13,000 at home and only 1,544 abroad, mainly in France, so I suspect this photo was taken in Britain. It may be the staff of a large District Pay Office, or possibly a Command Pay Office, which audited District Offices’ accounts over a wide area.
There are 13,424 APC service records on findmypast.co.uk and nearly 8,000 on ancestry.co.uk; your relation may be among them. Also, many clerks were commissioned as officers, and an APC officer’s record might survive at The National Archives in Kew.
Phil Tomaselli
1
CAPS AND PLEATS
All the caps have stiff wired tops and this man has no pleats on his pockets, both of which suggest the first half of the war.
2
ROYAL FUSILIERS
The photo includes some Royal Fusiliers (their cap badge depicts an old-fashioned hand grenade) all looking like younger men, suggesting they’ve been drafted in. Possibly they’d been account clerks in civilian life.
3
APC CAP BADGES
Most of the men in the photograph have cap badges featuring the letters “APC”
4 STRIPES
looped together under a crown, meaning the Army Pay Corps.
The first three rows mostly have sergeants’ stripes, with corporals’ stripes and lance corporals’ single stripes also showing. The crown above this man’s stripes makes him a warrant officer; two to his left is a quartermaster sergeant clerk.
5 MEDALS
This chap has Boer War medals and the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM). There are five MSMs (white edges with dark centre), which were awarded only to sergeants.