Comprising fatal casualties, prisoners of war and gallantry awards, this consecutive listing of DLI Other Ranks Army numbers has been built up and rearranged from the 1945 War Office/Red Cross Prisoner of War alphabetical surname lists, cross-referenced with the various active service battalion Rolls of Honour held by the DLI Museum, in which fatal casualties are arranged by consecutive date, the 1947 War Office alphabetical Roll of Honour for the Durham Light Infantry Regiment as whole, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database of WW2 Army casualties and records of gallantry awards held by the National Archives and published in the London Gazette.
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I have included much information researched from local newspapers, and from 1945 returned POW questionnaires, an on-going task, and also details drawn from the Imperial War Museum’s extensive DLI oral history collection. I have also aimed to add as many links as possible to relevant items already published on the Internet, notably several accounts on the BBC’s Peoples’ War site and the many audio interviews published freely online by the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive. Bringing all of this material together in one user-friendly and searchable listing provides a unique perspective on the Durham Light Infantry in World War Two.
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Note that the list throughout is arranged strictly by consecutive Army Number (lowest first) and NOT alphabetically. The names follow alphabetically only within the training squad that the soldier would have belonged to during his basic training. Notice how the alphabetical sequence repeats itself again and again after around 300 numbers. It’s thus possible to get a very real sense of some of the other soldiers each man was with during his basic training. These are the men each individual trained and, in many cases, died with in 1940-45. This is the overriding rationale for arranging the list in this form: known facts about each name and number provide an instant and immediate context to those adjacent to them. A soldier’s friends and colleagues would almost invariable include those with nearby Army numbers. For the first time since these Army numbers were issued, this listing reveals the fates of some of those who were there and thereabouts with each recruit both during his basic training and often throughout his war. ‘There but for the grace of God....’ could well be the underlying theme when faced with the huge variety of good and bad fortunes revealed here. If you are researching a friend or a relative with a 4460000-4477000 series DLI number, then place it within this listing and several lines of inquiry should instantly become clear, particularly if the number is close to that of any of the many DLI veterans interviewed at length by the Imperial War Museum.
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Every theatre of war and almost every regiment and corps of the British Army is represented by men who began their military service with a 4435000 to 4470700 series number in the Durham Light Infantry.
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To search for a specific name or Army number please use the site search button above right, it is highly effective.
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DLI Army Numbers circa 4435001-4459999
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Pre-1939 regulars and Territorials, numbers assigned from 1919 to early 1940. Fatal casualties, POWs and gallantry awards. Researched but not yet published. Most POWs from this numbers allocation are already featured on my consecutive POWs listing.
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DLI Army Numbers circa 4460000 to 4464399. Army numbers allocated to DLI recruits circa 4/40, predating the formation of 14 DLI, 16 DLI and 17 DLI in July 1940. All fatal casualties of all DLI and all subsequent units, most DLI number POWs, and gallantry awards now included. It seems that no soldier in this allocation died in France in 1940.
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16 DLI Army Numbers circa 4464400-4464999. Numbers assigned circa 7/40, drafts to 14 DLI, 16 DLI and 17 DLI. All fatal casualties serving with all DLI battalions and all subsequent units, most DLI number POWs, and gallantry awards now included.
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16 DLI Army Numbers circa 4465000-4466999. Enlistment drafts circa 7/40. All fatal casualties serving with all DLI battalions and subsequent units, most DLI number POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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16 DLI Army Numbers circa 4467000-4469099. DLI Recruits circa late 1940 to late1941. All fatal casualties of all DLI battalions and subsequent units, most DLI number POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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16 DLI Army Numbers circa 4469100-4469399. Recruits enlisted at No 4 Infantry Training Centre, Brancepeth in 12/41, my father Pte T Tunney’s training draft. All fatal casualties of all DLI battalions and subsequent units, most DLI number POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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16 DLI Army Numbers circa 4469400-4469999. 16 DLI Recruits, enlisting direct to the battalion in 1/42. All fatal casualties of all DLI battalions and subsequent units, most DLI number POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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DLI Army Numbers circa 4470000-4470700. Soldiers enlisted in the DLI circa February 1942 through to the end of the seven figure 447 number system in mid-1942. All fatal casualties of all DLI battalions and subsequent units, most DLI number POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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DLI Eight Figure General Service Numbers, 1942-47, all fatal casualties, most POWs and gallantry awards now included.
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16 DLI, Known ex-Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment Other Ranks. Arranged alphabetically by surname. The NCO backbone of the 16th Battalion DLI on its formation in 1940.
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WW2 DLI Other Ranks who began their service with other units of the British Army, Fatal Casualties, POWs and Gallantry awards. Researched but not yet published.
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