16th Battalion C Company Platoon 10 Section 8

[grimmy]

Family photo:

[Jashton]

Please forgive the question of a non-military historian - but how can one find which "section" a soldier was in? Or - what, in this context, is "Section 8"? I have one photograph of my g-g-uncle (signaller) Rowland Ashton, and would like to be able to pinpoint him on the regimental ones, but I don't know how to find out if he might be one of the men in this group. He was certainly in C Company, platoon 10, and appears on their family photo, but again there is no definite way to know which he might be, even given the image I have.I do think there is a certain resemblance to one of the men here, who I'd also singled out on the larger group. 

[charlie]

Hello Janet and welcome to the forum.

An infantry battalion in 1914 had a strength of 1007 Officers and Men, the battalion was divided up into a Headquarters, 4 Companies and a Machinegun section. The companies were normaly designated A,B,C and D, although W-Z and 1-4 were sometimes used. A company had a strength of 277 Officers and Men and was divided up into 4 Platoons. Platoons 1-4 belonged to A Company, 5-8 to B Company etc. Each Platoon was divided up into 4 Sections, each with a strength of 12 men.

The Platoon is usually the smallest unit that a soldier is recorded as being a member of.

Hope this helps
Charlie

[Jashton]

Thank you, Charlie - that's useful to know. So we won't be able to narrow down who is on that photo unless we recognise them for certain from elsewhere....

Best,

Janet