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.265

Army Form B.265 was introduced in October 1880 with an initial print-run of 25,000 copies.  It was a short service attestation form, the recruit being asked:

"Are you willing to serve for the term of twelve Years, provided her majesty should so long require your services, the first six years in army service, and the six remaining years in the 1st Class of the Reserve?"

William Barrow answered "Yes" to this question when he joined the Rifle Brigade on the 10th May 1881 although had he but known it, the form he was signing up on had already been superceded by a second version which was published in a short print run of 2000 in March 1881.  In fact, there would be many versions of this attestation form over the coming years and B.265 was an enduring attestation form which would be used  - in various iterations - certainly into the First World War.

The version above is the 22nd iteration of Army Form B.65 amd dates to March 1889 and a print run of 120,000.

All document images reproduced on this post are Crown Copyright, The National Archives. Pension records can be searched and downloaded from Findmypast which offers a FREE 14-day trial.