Enlistment date?

[Brock]

I have an ancestor who was named Frederick Augustus Kendrick & he served in the 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards, army number 13347. Frederick was born & raised in Nottingham & it appears that he enlisted in Nottingham which I found puzzling ~ it's not an obvious regiment for a Nottingham lad to enlist in with there being a local Nottingham regiment so why would he have enlisted into a London based regiment in Nottingham? Did the regiment possibly hold recruitment drives around the country?
The 3rd battalion went to fight in France in WW1 where sadly Frederick was killed in action. He died on 9th October 1915 & his name is listed on the memorial wall of Loos Cemetery, Pas de Calais.
I was wondering when Frederick actually enlisted into the Grenadier Guards ~ his 1911 census entry places him as a 21 year old lance corporal in the Wellington barracks in London.
I have contacted the regiment at the Wellington barracks in the hope of discovering his enlistment date but have been told that I need to pay £30 in order to learn these details.
Unfortunately, my lack of funds won't run to me being able to pay such a fee & so I wondered if anyone might know of any military websites that might contain this information. If anyone can help me to learn of Frederick's enlistment date I would be most grateful.
Thank you.

[SueNSW]

There is a well respected and thoroughly researched site that covers Army Service Numbers from 1881-1918

For the Grenadier Guards - it records:

13051 joined on 4th January 1907
13752 joined on 19th May 1908

As numbers were issued consecutively - you can narrow it down that your man enlisted during this period

Bear in mind that if you can ever afford the fee - you should get a lot more than just his enlistment date from the Regimental Archives. The Guards Regiments apparently kept separate/duplicate service records that were not affected by the losses during WW2 - so hopefully there will be some more details of his service available

[sheilastain]

Hello Brock
My grandfather was also from Nottingham and was enlisted in the 3rd Battalion Grenadier guards. I am fortunate enough to have his army discharge book, medals and a soldiers new testament which says South Africa 1900-1901 on the cover. I also have a couple of walking/marching sticks that he had during his service. I was able to download his service records from Ancestry. His number was 9004. He enlisted in July 1900 in Nottingham.
Sheila