James Henry Morrison

[MaxD]

Can't really answer the question but I too received a reply today to my query and the card is a veritable plethora of numbers all of which no doubt meant something 100 years ago to the particular branch of the system dealing with the pension.  I was advised that one of the numbers repeated three times with an M in it referred to a document series which it is believed were destroyed aeons ago.

I am content that there is no way to use any of the numbers to get any further and in my case am happy to leave it at that.

maxD

[Kerrill]

Thanks Max

[Kerrill]

This is what I recieved

[MaxD]

I think this might just provide an explanation for the complexity of it all:
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/all-about-the-wfa/wfa-news-events/pension-records/pension-record-cards-and-ledgers-deeper-understanding.html#sthash.0uGqrS5E.5mpnftY1.dpbs

As to changing his number, that part is relatively straightforward, his service number was something he was known by while serving, in pension he became something else.

From the explanation, the number 3/MM/7111 indicates North West region/ Army plus first letter of surname/ledger sequence number.  It says there were 2400 ledgers in the North West and most if not all are destroyed.

Reading the whole thing reinforces my acceptance that my man got a pension, and that's all that can be determined now.

Was there something particular that you had hoped to check?

maxD

[Kerrill]

Thanks very much for the info Max, I was hoping to find out why he was discharged was he gassed or did he receive a bad injury.

[MaxD]

His Silver War Badge record says he was discharged no longer fit for service due to sickness.  The two main categories under the paragraph of his discharge were either sickness or wounds.  I believe that gassed came under the sickness category although it was sometimes spelled out specifically.

You can I think certainly rule out injury as the cause of his discharge.  However, whether his sickness was due to gassing we wouldn't know.  As an ASC man, he would not normally be in the areas where gas was most likely to be the cause although that is simplistic.  Equally, the majority of men gassed mercifully recovered (there are statistics to prove it) but in sum, we have no way of knowing for sure.


maxD

[Kerrill]

Again thanks for the info, when you say ASC man what duty would he have been given?   My eldest sister who is sadly no longer with us once said she had heard my mother say he was kicked in the stomach by a horse, but  for some reason we disregarded that as fiction, so maybe it could have been true?.

[MaxD]

Makes total sense!  His full service number was T/313011 - the T prefix indicates that he was in a horse transport unit of the Army Service Corps.  Info about them here http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-army-service-corps-in-the-first-world-war/army-service-corps-horse-transport-companies/

Picture on this page:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/transport-and-supply-during-the-first-world-war

maxD

[Kerrill]

Brilliant, thanks for the site it really puts into prospect  what the powers of the day did to these poor young men.