Buffs (East Kent Regiment) Research Guide (WWI)

📖 Buffs (East Kent Regiment) Soldiers in WWI at a Glance

The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) used distinctive L/ prefixes for Regular Battalions and G/ prefixes for many Service Battalions. The 4th and 5th Battalions spent the war in India, while the 10th Battalion transferred from Egypt to fight during the Hundred Days Offensive on the Western Front.

Why Interpretation Can Be Difficult

  • The regiment used two distinctive prefix systems, with L/ identifying Regular soldiers and G/ generally pointing to the 6th–8th (Service) Battalions.
  • The 4th and 5th Territorial Battalions never served on the Western Front, spending the entire war in India instead.
  • The 10th Battalion had an unusually complex history, forming from the East and West Kent Yeomanry before moving from Egypt to France in 1918.
  • A Buffs soldier's battalion often tells a completely different story, ranging from overseas garrison service to the trenches of France and Belgium.
  • The regiment combined Regular, Territorial, Service and converted Yeomanry battalions, making battalion identification far more important than simply knowing the regiment.

The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) possess one of the more distinctive research profiles of any First World War infantry regiment. Their battalions followed markedly different wartime careers, from overseas garrison service to the Western Front, while their service numbering system offers unusually strong clues about a soldier's background before a service record has even been found. The regiment also underwent an unusual wartime expansion, incorporating units with very different origins and military traditions. As a result, researching a Buffs soldier is often less about identifying the regiment itself and more about understanding which battalion he belonged to, how he entered the regiment and the unique path that unit followed throughout the war. This guide brings those strands together, helping transform isolated clues into a far clearer understanding of an individual soldier's service.

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Distinctive L/ and G/ Service Number Prefixes

The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) offer researchers one of the more distinctive service number systems found in the First World War British Army. In an unusual arrangement, soldiers serving with the 1st and 2nd Regular Battalions commonly carried the L/ prefix, while men serving with the regiment's 6th, 7th and 8th (Service) Battalions were typically issued numbers prefixed G/. This creates a valuable distinction between pre-war or long-service Regular soldiers and wartime volunteers who joined the New Army battalions. Where these prefixes survive on medal rolls, service records, pension papers or family documents, they can immediately narrow down the type of battalion in which a soldier served. For researchers working with limited evidence, this makes the Buffs especially useful, as a service number may provide a strong clue before a full service record has even been located.

Territorial Battalions in India

The Buffs' Territorial Force battalions followed a very different path from many of the regiment's other wartime units. Both the 4th and 5th Battalions spent the war in India, serving as garrison troops rather than fighting on the Western Front. Their role was part of Britain's wider imperial military system, helping to maintain overseas commitments while other battalions were deployed to active theatres elsewhere. This can be a major trap for family historians, as a Territorial soldier in the Buffs may not appear in the battle narratives most commonly associated with the First World War. Instead, his service may have involved garrison duty, internal security and imperial defence thousands of miles from France and Belgium. Identifying a 4th or 5th Battalion connection therefore changes the whole direction of the research.

The East Kent Yeomanry's Transformation

One of the regiment's most unusual wartime developments occurred in February 1917, when the Royal East Kent Yeomanry and West Kent Yeomanry combined to form the 10th Battalion (Territorial Force) of the Buffs. At the time of conversion, the unit was serving in Egypt, reflecting its earlier mounted yeomanry background and its connection to the Middle Eastern theatre. Later in the war, however, the battalion transferred to the Western Front, arriving in time to take part in the Hundred Days Advance. This gives the 10th Battalion a particularly distinctive story: a unit with yeomanry origins, formed overseas, then converted into an infantry battalion and sent to France for the closing stages of the war. For researchers, that unusual journey can explain why a soldier's records may appear to point in several different directions at once.

Research in action: Buffs (East Kent Regiment) G/7338

A user entered the service number G/7338 into the Army Service Explorer after finding it engraved on the rim of a First World War medal. The distinctive G/ prefix immediately indicated a high-confidence match to the 6th, 7th or 8th (Service) Battalions of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment). The tool also revealed that these wartime battalions recruited heavily from Canterbury, Ashford and the Weald of Kent, helping place the soldier within the communities that supplied the regiment's New Army volunteers. The service number suggested an enlistment between July and December 1915, during the height of Kitchener's New Army recruiting campaign, when thousands of men volunteered in response to Britain's growing need for manpower.

From there, the battalion histories helped build a likely picture of the soldier's wartime service. Depending on which of the three Service Battalions he joined and when he reached the front, he may have taken part in major Western Front battles including the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele. Although the family knew nothing more than a single service number, the Army Service Explorer quickly transformed it into a probable battalion group, recruitment area, enlistment period and a likely wartime experience, providing a far stronger foundation for further research.

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Tips

  • Prefixes Can Identify the Type of Battalion: The Buffs are unusual in using different prefixes for different types of battalion. An L/ prefix typically points towards a Regular Battalion, while a G/ prefix usually indicates one of the regiment's 6th–8th (Service) Battalions, providing an immediate clue to a soldier's wartime background.

  • Don't Assume Every Buff Served on the Western Front: The regiment's battalions followed very different wartime paths. While some fought in France and Belgium, the 4th and 5th Territorial Battalions spent the war in India, and the 10th Battalion served in both Egypt and on the Western Front after its formation from the East and West Kent Yeomanry.

Explore similar units:

  1. Buffs (East Kent Regiment): Compare the regiment in WWI & WWII
  2. Royal Fusiliers: Often fought together in the Home Counties Brigade
  3. Middlesex Regiment: Another neighbouring regiment

Click here to explore similar infantry regiments in the main WWI Infantry Regiment Library.

This hub is intended for genealogical and historical research purposes. It provides the logical framework for navigating the complex numbering history of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment)