3364 Pte William Doyle of the 1st Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, was killed in action on 10th August 1916.
William Doyle was not a Lancashire man. Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that he was born in Whitechapel and enlisted at Stratford, and his army service number gives us a number of possibilities.
We can rule out enlistment into a service battalion because they were all numbering in the 11000s when Britain went to war. Their number series was a continuation of the series that had been used by the regular battalions since 1881, and to find when number 3346 was issued you have to go right back to about September 1891. That leaves three options: the Special Reserve or the two Territorial Force battalions: the 4th and the 5th.
3346 would have been issued to a King's Own Special Reservist in August 1914, to a 4th Bn territorial in April 1915 and to a 5th Battalion territorial in December 1914. I incline towards the Special Reserve only on the basis that the Territorial Force battalions were recruiting territorially in Lancashire. There are no real clues on William's medal index card which shows entitlement to the British War and Victory medals only and therefore means that whichever battalion he joined, he didn't actually go overseas until 1st January 1916 at the earliest.
Perhaps William was an old soldier who joined the Special Reserve on the outbreak of war, was retained in the UK at the regimental depot or in the capacity as an instructor, but was subsequently posted to a line battalion and then killed on the Western Front.
William at least has a known grave and that is in Essex Farm Cemetery, reference III.C.29. The cemetery contains 1100 First World War graves.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Sources:
Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Essex Farm Cemetery, photographed just after the war, courtesy of Flanders Fields Music.
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