Army Form B.217 - Foot Guards attestation

 

By my own calculations, Army Form B.217 must originally date to between June 1883 and February 1884. The image above is the second iteration of this form and dates to February 1884 when a print-run of 5,000 was ordered. 

 

The original intention was that this attestation form should be for Foot Guards, but over the years this was changed to serve the purpose of short service attestation for all those men enlisting for 3 years with the colours and 9 years with the reserve.

 

 

The image above shows the 34th version of Army Form B.217 which was printed in a run of 100,000 in May 1905. Note that in this case, the terms of service have been reversed so that Henry Bruty was signing up for nine years with the colours and three years on the reserve; far more practical than 3&9 for all concerned.

 

Army Form B.248 - Short Service 9&3 -1906

 

Army Form B.248 was a short service attestation form originally introduced in January 1906 in a print-run of 100,000. The terms of service were nine years with the colours and three on the reserve. This form is not commonly seen and when it does surface, often has the terms of service altered. Confusingly, an alternative Army Form B.248 for one year's service in the Special Reserve would subsequently be printed in August 1914.

Army Form B.120 - Regimental Conduct Sheet

 

Almost identical to Army Form B.121 which I covered in an earlier post, these forms are commonly seen in WO 363 and WO 364 and can be useful in the absence of other documentation in providing evidence of the man's date of attestation.

 

The image is Crown Copyright The National Archives.