Welcome, Guest. Please login or register for free.
Did you miss your activation email?
Saturday 28 November 09 17:43 UTC (UK)
Welcome Home Help Surnames Library Shop Search Login Register

+  RootsChat.Com
|-+  Some Special Interests
| |-+  Armed Forces
| | |-+  World War One (Moderator: scrimnet)
| | | |-+  How sad !
« previous next »
Pages: [1] Print
Author Topic: How sad !  (Read 257 times)
nestagj
RootsChat Extra
**
Posts: 71


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
How sad !
« on: Friday 06 November 09 00:13 UTC (UK) »
I have today (with the help of the new WW1 release from Ancestry) solved a family mystery.

My Dad's uncle Owen Pritchard is remembered on the local war memorial and on his parent's grave.  Dad was named after him and it used to give me goosebumps each year when Uncle Owen's name was read out at the Armistice Service.

On his parent;s grave it states that he died of wounds in Baghdad.  I discovered through the cwgc that he died on October 7 1917 and that he was a private in the Royal Welch Fusiliers.  We have always wondered what he was doing in Baghdad. 

I had never tried to find his war record before but today on an impulse after an email from Ancestry I gave it go - he was the first on the list and a very sad story unfolded.

He did not die of wounds in Baghdad - he was a POW - initially in Jerusalem and he died of tuberculosis.  He was first reported missing in March 1917 and then as a POW in June.  I do not know if his parents ever knew he was POW - the record contains a list of personal belongings returned to his parents they consisted of a pair of mittens, a pair of socks and a devotional book.  I;ve been sitting here this evening thinking of his mother's reaction to so few mementoes of her son.

I have more research now to do on POW in WW1 and on.

On a family history note the information on his family contained a list of his brothers and sisters and where they were in 1919 - this has given me another branch down from one of my grandfather;s sisters by tracing her marriage and children down to my generation.

A younger brother is noted as being RWB Ireland - if anyone has any suggestions what this might mean please let me know.

Thanks for reading

N
« Last Edit: Friday 06 November 09 22:26 UTC (UK) by nestagj » Logged
mmm45
RootsChat Marquessate
********
Posts: 3080


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: How sad !
« Reply #1 on: Friday 06 November 09 07:07 UTC (UK) »
Could it be RWF based in Ireland,,,,same Regiment as his brother Royal Welsh Fusiliers RWF?

Ady
Logged
nestagj
RootsChat Extra
**
Posts: 71


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: How sad !
« Reply #2 on: Friday 06 November 09 10:13 UTC (UK) »
I thought that Ady but it quite clearly states RWB - could it be Royal Welch Battalion ?

N
Logged
jds1949
RootsChat Member
***
Posts: 185


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: How sad !
« Reply #3 on: Friday 06 November 09 15:44 UTC (UK) »
Possibly South Wales Borderers?

jds1949
Logged
Swarbrick - all and any
nestagj
RootsChat Extra
**
Posts: 71


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: How sad !
« Reply #4 on: Friday 06 November 09 15:55 UTC (UK) »
Would someone from North Wales be in the South Wales Borderers - busy ploughing through all the John Pritchard's on Ancestry !

Back to Owen - Found some really awful stuff about POWs in turkish hands during WW1; he would have been captured during the 1st battle of Gaza;

Any idea how I go about getting a death cert for a soldier who died in WW1 ?  I also checked to see if he actually has a grave not just a memorial but there's definitely a grave reference.  Baghdad was in allied hands by October 1917 so he may have been released and died in hospital - hence the thought about a death cert.........

Nesta
« Last Edit: Friday 06 November 09 22:16 UTC (UK) by nestagj » Logged
briant
RootsChat Member
***
Posts: 239
Re: How sad !
« Reply #5 on: Friday 06 November 09 18:28 UTC (UK) »
If his number was 266274,you can get his death cert from the GRO, Army Deaths 1914 to 1921,
Volume I.28, Page 218,


Briant
Logged
Richardson    Westmorland & Cumberland
Hall,               Westmorland & Aussie
Titterington    Westmorland & Cumberland(Dalton Gamekeepers)

Cencus information is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
nestagj
RootsChat Extra
**
Posts: 71


Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Re: How sad !
« Reply #6 on: Friday 06 November 09 22:16 UTC (UK) »
Yes it was brilliant thank you so much for that - how did you find it so quickly?  I will order it over the weekend is that the reference I will need to give ?

Nesta
Logged
briant
RootsChat Member
***
Posts: 239
Re: How sad !
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 07 November 09 08:57 UTC (UK) »
Taken from FMP,


Regards briant

* pritch.JPG (15.7 KB, 791x32 - viewed 59 times.)
Logged
Richardson    Westmorland & Cumberland
Hall,               Westmorland & Aussie
Titterington    Westmorland & Cumberland(Dalton Gamekeepers)

Cencus information is Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Pages: [1] Print 
« previous next »


[Copyright] [Shrink Link] [About Us] [Terms of Use]
All Census Lookups are Crown Copyright, National Archives for academic and non-commercial research purposes only
RootsChat.com cannot be held responsible directly or indirectly for the messages or content posted by others. Inline images in messages are the copyright of the respective linked sites.
RootsChat.com, Europa House, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 5BT

In loving memory of Eric George Davies, 1934-2009, the father of RootsChat.com































Powered by SMF 1.0.7 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC
0.042:20