Army Form E.501 - Territorial Force attestation

 

Introduced in 1908, Army Form E.501 was to be used for men who were not serving members of the Volunteer Force or Imperial Yeomanry; men who wished to serve with the newly formed Territorial Force for a period of four years. Unlike later incarnations, the pre-war E.501 form is packed with useful questions for today's military historian: Name, place of birth, residence, employment details, physical characteristics and next of kin name and address are all included.

 

 

Page 3 has sections for preliminary training and annual training and so we can see in Laxton's Boyall's case (above) that he attended training on four consecutive years between 1909 and 1912 inclusive and also where that training took place.

 

Here's a later version of this same form from 1914:

 

 

 

All document images reproduced on this post are Crown Copyright, The National Archives. Service and Pension records can be searched and downloaded from Ancestry and Findmypast. Both companies offer FREE 14-day trials.