R.A.ANDERSON
Actual name
REGINALD WILLIAM
CHRISTIE ANDERSON
Private S4/070893
Army Service Corp
"A' Company
Died 13th April 1914
Aged 39
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Private
REGINALD WILLIAM CHRISTIE ANDERSON
S4/070893, "A" Coy,. Army Service Corps who died age 39 on 13 April 1915
Son of Robert and Isabella Margaret Anderson:
husband of Edith Elizabeth Anderson (nee Pearse)
Born at Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
Remembered with honour
ALDERSHOT MILITARY CEMETERY
REGINALD WILLIAM CHRISTIE ANDERSON
Reginald William Christie Anderson was the son of Isabella Margaret and Robert Anderson.
Robert Anderson was born in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on the 6th May 1835 and he died on the 21st November 1882 in
Fraserburgh.
He married Isabella Margaret Christie on the 5th of May 1861 at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She was born in 1839 registered at Peterhead & Fraserburgh. She died on the 24th February 1908 in Barnstaple, Devon.
Reginald was born in Fraserburgh, in 1876.
In the 1881 census he is listed as aged 5 living in Fraserburgh with his mother Isabella but there is no reference to his father who died the following year.
In the 1891 census Reginald was 15 years old, living in Eastbourne, visiting Samuel Smith, a surgeon, and working as an Industrial Insurance Collector.
By the age of twenty five, in the 1901 census, he is living in Hornsey, Middlesex as a Poultry Farmer Manager but moved soon after the census was taken. Being well qualified to take up a similar job Reginald not only moved but got also married in 1901. Edith Elizabeth Pearse, aged 33, came from Weymouth, Dorset.
They married in the December quarter of 1901, the marriage was registered at Witney, Oxfordshire, so it probable they had both moved to the new Town of Carterton to work.
I hey had two sons, Robert Pearse Anderson born 1905 and John Christie Anderson born 1909.
I he 1911 census gives details of the Anderson household in Carterton.
Reginald was 35 years of age and an Egg Merchant. His wife Edith was 43 years old and they had been married nine years.
I heir sons Robert, born at Little Coxwell, Berkshire and John, born and registered at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire were aged six and two respectively. Also in the household were Reginald's sister Emily Adeline, a spinster aged 44, born June 1866 in Fraserburgh, Scotland.
John Pearse, Edith's father, who was aged 83 and a retired Naval Fleet Engineer from Devonport Devon.
His wife, Elizabeth Jane aged 77, born in Weymouth, Dorset. They had been married 55 years.
Also Mary Blanche Bullock, aged 19, a servant from Alvescot, Oxfordshire.
In 1914 Reginald was either "called up" or volunteered to go into the Army Service Corps. He died on the 13th April 1915 aged 39 and was buried in Aldershot Military Cemetery.
1907 TRADE DIRECTORY
In this directory is the following entry giving Reginald's job as.
REGINALD CHRISTIE ANDERSON "HIGGLER"
A higgler is defined as "An itinerant dealer or peddler".
An itinerant is a person who travels from place to place with no fixed home.
Higgler has survived in the West Indies, especially Jamaica, in the sense of a market trader, but has disappeared everywhere else. But only a century ago, most English market towns had their higglers. They were middlemen — they went round the farms of the
local area, buying up produce such as poultry, rabbits, eggs and cheese to sell in the market. In return they supplied goods the household needed. Some of the trade was done by barter rather than by money changing hands, but all of it involved haggling — which is where the name came from, as it's just a variant spelling of haggler.
In The Surgeon's Daughter (1827), Sir Walter Scott spoke of: "The labours of a higgler, who travels scores of miles to barter pins, ribbons, snuff and tobacco, against the housewife's private stock of eggs, mort-skins, and tallow" [mort-skin: the skin of a sheep or lamb that has died a natural death].
In some places, higglers had a bad reputation, because they were thought to manipulate prices to their own benefit. The Times of London dated 10 June 1800 reports a small-scale consumer revolt against them:
ARMY SERVICE CORPS 1914
The Long, Long Trail http://www.1914-1918.net/asc.htm
Before and during World War Two the RASC was
organised into companies and although they were not formally organised into a battalion, the RASC units of a division were collected under the Commander, Royal Army Service Corps. Some companies carried out petrol supply duties, other general supply work while others were
assigned to units such as the 131st (Queen's) Lorried Infantry Brigade to transport the troops around in lorries and Troop Carrying Vehicles.
The Army Service Corps of 1914-1918
This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the history of the units of the Army Service Corps. Note that the ASC is the same as the RASC: it received the Royal prefix in late 1918.
The unsung heroes of the British army in the Great War - the ASC, "Ally Sloper's Cavalry" - were the men who operated the transport. Soldiers cannot fight without food, equipment and ammunition. In the Great War, the vast majority of this tonnage, supplying a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from
England. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won.
Manpower: how big was the ASC?
At peak, the ASC numbered an incredible 10,547 officers and 315,334 men. In addition were tens of thousands of Indian, Egyptian, Chinese and other native labourers, carriers and stores men, under orders of the ASC. Yet this vast, sprawling organisation - so vital to enabling the army to fight - merits just four mentions in the Official History of the war.
The organisation of the ASC
The ASC was organised into Companies, each fulfilling a specific role. Some were under orders of or attached to the Divisions of the army; the rest were under direct orders of the higher formations of Corps, Army or the GHQ of the army in each theatre of war.
Horsed Transport Companies (including Companies in Divisional Trains, Reserve Parks and SAA Trains) Mechanical Transport Companies (including Companies in Divisional Supply Columns and Ammunition Parks, Companies attached to the heavy artillery, Omnibus Companies, Motor Ambulance Convoys, Bridging and Pontoon units and Workshops)
The Army Remounts Service (Companies involved in the provision of horses)
The ASC Labour Companies
The organisation of the Lines of Communication
"Lines of Communication" was an army term used to describe what today we might call the army's logistics; the supply lines from port to front line, and the camps, stores, dumps. workshops of the rear areas.
It is difficult to comprehend just what supply to an army that in France alone built up to more than 2 million men actually means. Here are some statistics that give an idea: Size of forces on Western Front Monthly issues in lbs (Pounds weight) or Gallons
1914, August 120,000 Men - 53,000 Horses 3,600,000 Meat - 4,500,000 Bread - 5,900,000 of Forage - 842,000 Petrol (Galls)
1918, November 3,000,000 men - 500,000 67,500,000 90,000,000 32,250,000 13,000,000 These huge tonnages were moved through a complex chain of supply.
FROM THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES
COMMISSION WEBSITE
Aldershot Military Cemetery, is a burial ground for military personnel, or ex-military personnel. It is located in Aldershot Military Town, Hampshire. The Cemetery is also open for the interment of wives and families of all ranks, and for some civilians who have spent their life with the army.
The Cemetery lies between Thorn Hill and Peaked Hill, and is bordered to the south by Ordnance Road. Entrance from Gallwey Road, near where the old time-gun stood. It is unlike any other military cemetery in the United Kingdom. Not only is it set on hills and small valleys in natural surrounds, but here, at rest, lie fighting men of nine nations, who have served and died in Aldershot.
INFORMATION FROM THE INTERNET
COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION Military death and burial record
familvsearch.orq—LATTERDAY SAINTS
Birth , Marriage and death records of Reginald's parents
Robert Anderson Male
Birth: 06 MAY 1835 Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, Scotland
Death: 21 NOV 1882
Father: John Anderson
Mother: Jean Lunan Anderson
Spouse: Isabella Margaret Christie
ROBERT ANDERSON Male
Event(s): Marriages
Spouse: ISABELLA MARGARET CHRISTIE Marriage: 05 MAY 1861 Peterhead, Aberdeen, Scotland
Isabella Margaret Christie
Birth: About 1837 Peterhead &, Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, Scotland
Death: 24 FEB 1908
Children
EMILY ADELINE ANDERSON Female
Birth: 02 JUN 1866 Fraserburgh, Aberdeen, Scotland
Father: ROBERT ANDERSON
Mother: ISABELLA MARGARET CHRISTIE
Information from Censuses, Ancestry.co.uk and FREE BMD
Reginald W C Anderson abt 1876 Aberdeenshire
1881 CENSUS
Reginald W C Anderson aged 5 Fraserburgh Mother Isabella
1891 CENSUS
Reginald W.C. Anderson aged 15
Industrial Insurance collector
Visitor at the home of Samuel Smith — Surgeon 52 Seaside, Eastbourne
1901 CENSUS
Reginald W C Anderson 25 Scotland Middlesex. Hornsey Poultry Farmer Manager
PEARSE, Edith E F 33 1868 Weymouth, Dorset
FREE BMD Deaths Mar 1908
ANDERSON Isabella Margaret 68 Barnstaple 5b 347
Marriages December quarter 1901
ANDERSON Reginald William C Witney 3a 1823 PEARSE Edith Elizabeth Witney 3a 1823
Births March quarter 1905
Anderson Robert Pearse Faringdon 2c 292
Births Mar quarter 1909
ANDERSON John Christie Witney 3a 1091
1911 CENSUS
ANDERSON, REGINALD WILLIAM CHRISTIE HEAD MARRIED M age 35
Born: FRASERBURGH ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLAND
Occupation: EGG MERCHANT
RESIDENT
ANDERSON, EDITH ELIZABETH WIFE MARRIED 9yrs F age 43 Born: WEYMOUTH DORSET
ANDERSON, ROBERT SON M age 6 Born: LITTLE COXWELL BERKS
ANDERSON, JOHN CHRISTIE SON M age 2 Born: BLACK BOURTON, OXON
ANDERSON, EMILY ADELINE SISTER SINGLE F age 44 FRASERBURGH ABERDEENSHIRE SCOTLAND RESIDENT
PEARSE JOHN FATHER –IN-LAW M age 83 FLEET ENGINEER ROYAL NAVY RETIRED DEVONPORT DEVON
PEARSE, ELIZABETH JANE MOTHER-IN-LAW M 55yrs F 77 WEYMOUTH DORSET
BULLOCK, MARY BLANCHE SSE (SERVANT) SINGLE F age 19 ALVESCOT, OXON
These sites cover the ox18 area of Oxfordshire England, including the following villages, OX18, Alvescot, Bampton, Black Bourton, Burford, Broadwell, Carterton, Clanfield, Kelmscott, Kencot, Langford, Lechlade, RAF Broadwell, Shilton, Parish Pump, Oxfordshire Events,
