Hi, I have in my possession what I believe to be a First World War period soldiers dogtag, I'm familiar with WW2 type but this one differs slightly.
It is the circular pressed fibre type, red/brown in colour with the following stamped into it: 6538112 C-E- RAMC QUY E (The 'Q' might be an 'O'?)
I recognise the obvious RAMC part and the C-E- (Church of England) and service number, but what do the other letters represent?
I would also be interested in finding out the 'history' of the person it belonged to - is this possible with just a service number?
Many thanks.

Essbee

The Quy E is the person's name and initial, there are four men with this surname listed on the CWGC site, none with a RAMC connection.

John Milner

To be honest, I don't think it is actually of Great War vintage. That service number just seems that little bit long at 7 digits for this war.

However, I can't find where the number falls in the post 1920 number block system (somewhere between the Royal Fusiliers and the Inns of Court Regiment), a system that remained untill after WW2. Possibly it's a number from the 1919-20 "transitional period", where a wide and wierd range of numbers can be encountered.

Dave.

PS. the post 1920 number block allocated for the RAMC was numbers 7245001 to 7536000.

If someone transferred in from another regt or corp would they (as is now done) keep their original service number? if so could this explain the non RAMC number?
Regards
Ali.

Post 1920, yes, they'd keep their original number... Pre-1919, no, the number would change...1919-1920, I've no idea - these numbers seem to be a rule unto themselves!!!

Dave.

Cheers Dave,
Nothing like keeping things simple!
Ali

Hi

I always understood that ID Tags that had a Regiment or Corps on them were WW1 and ID Tags without that information were WW2. In WW2, if captured, you only gave the enemy your name rank and number so therefore your tags did not identify which Regiment you were from. I could, however, be totally wrong, perhaps someone else can verify this one way or the other. Maybe this tag is from between the two Wars.

Steve

Steve.

You can find the regimental details on some tags upto the 1930s (this practice should have stopped in 1920, but didn't in all cases). However, certain Corps have their initials on tags throughout WW2 (unnofficially). Some of the more commonly encountered examples from Ww2 are the RE, RM, RAF (official), RA and ....RAMC.

Dave.

(PS as a "rule of thumb", you're quite correct in your thoughts, but the service number is the one that is most use in dating a tag)