WW1 info on Steven Saunders - Soldier

[johnP-bedford]

Does anyone have any ideas how I can found out more to identify a Steven Saunders - assuming this is the correct spelling - who was a Soldier.  He is identified as the father of my mother on her birth cerificate - she was born May 1919 in Southampton.  Southampton archives state that Soldiers were stationed on the Common - what Common might this be? note this was the First World War

thanks John Partridge 

[casalguidi]

There were a lot of Canadian soldiers in England at that time - you will have to try and find out if that was the case for your area.

In the meantime, the Canadian soldiers' attestation records are online and free:

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/020106_e.html

The survival rate for English soldiers' records is not so good I'm afraid but you could start with searching the medal roll - everyone "should" be listed though it won't give you any biographical information and, possibly, no more than what is in the search result - only medals awarded and maybe date of enlistment:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm

I'd go with the Canadians first but you will need to find out about the "common" and who was stationed there approximately 9 months before the birth.

Good luck

Casalguid

[Hackstaple]

Much of The Common was used for army camps during both World Wars. The row of Corsican Pines remain from World War I. 

[johnP-bedford]

I am now told that Steven Saunders was killed in South of France in November 1918, a few days after Amistice was signed - can anyone confirm this please.   thanks JohnP 

[casalguidi]

Hi

Have you checked with the Commonwealth War Graves:

http://www.cwgc.org

Best wishes

Casalguidi

[johnP-bedford]

Thanks Casalguidi

I have checked this site & also the Canadian soldiers' site you suggested earlier in the month - but there is no specific entry for Steven Saunders for that period. To tell the truth I have no details about this man what-so-ever ; other than he must have been in the UK in August 1918. I'm not even sure of his nationality.

If other people are looking for there own lost soldiers, I've found an American soldiers database on http://www.abmc.gov/abmc2.htm which has both WW1 & WW2 casualties.

I was hoping for a response from the offer of a lookup on the 'Soldiers who died in WW1' CD database.

regards JohnP
 

[casalguidi]

Hi John

If you have no success on here then just type

volunteer lookup soldiers died

into your usual search engine Google/Yahoo.

Your results will contain a number of genealogy volunteer look up pages which offer look ups from this source.

Best wishes

Casalguidi