DtG,

Looking at your notes and comparing them to what little I have, it seems that your grand father may have served in several battalions (not unusual). I can find no refernce to survivors of a bn being absorbed by the RWF, however, if a man left his battalion for any length of time (sick, wounded etc.)before late 1916 he returned to his own battalion, after this, to any battalion of his own regiment and in late 1917/early 1918 to any unit which the army need to send them thus a Lancashire Fusilier returning from hospital might well find himself in the Royal Welsh/Welch<1> Fusiliers while his mate, discharge a week later might find himself in the Devons or the Gordon Highlanders.

I can find no mergers to form composite battalions, but Four territorial battalions were reduced to a cardre or disbanded (2/5th; 2/6th; 2/7th & 2/8, ) in 1918 during the massive reorganisation brought about by lack of manpower and extended frontage, while and two "New Army Bns (9th & 10th) were disbanded in France in August 1918 (probably due to casualties)

Could your GF have been a Territorial? This would have required him to report to the Depot at Bury (which might account for the trip there). If he went to Ireland with the Lancashire Fusiliers then it was with the 1st Bn.

As AndyG says, there is a chance that his records will be in the PRO, however, a lot were destroyed by bombing in 1941. There is an ongoing project to restore those burned records which survive, it's worth looking at their web site to see if your letter batch has been done yet (I'm sorry, I don't have the web address to hand).

Good Luck with the search and let us know how it turns out.

Walrus

<1> Welch is a valid spelling, but I can't remember if it is wartime or post war - W