pow in ypres 1915

[jim1]

Can't add much except to say he was one of a draft of 150 men arriving at Givenchy on the 2nd. Feb. 1915 from the UK to the 1st. Batt. SWB.

[Gwil]

im not absolutely sure where i he lived in abertysswg in gwent  he died in july 1958 i dont know a lot more about

The only possible in the Death Records is at Bedwellty District in September Qtr 1958. It gives his year of birth as 1888.

Looking at the one that Carol has found (post 4) and further reported upon by the others you'll note that he has a seven digit number of 4070156. This denotes that he has some sort of post war service with the Monmouth Regiment. Many records for such men are held by the MoD and a look at the index for such records I see that his are with them and the index gives a date of birth of 27 5 1888.

Your way forward then to find more about him e.g his background, next of kin, when he was taken PoW etc is to apply for the records as per the link below. There is a charge and it may take some months.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-records-of-deceased-service-personnel
(scroll to relevant section)

[MaxD]

Gwil - nice bit of joining the dots!

MaxD

[jim1]

This is POW record such as it is. As you can see he was at the POW camp Soltau.
OK I see MaxD has already alluded to this.

[MaxD]

This is actually a second record which I hadn't seen, thanks jim1.  It is dated Jan/Feb 1918 and is a list of POWs in Hameln (Hamelin) this time showing where they had come from (Soltau in his case), that he'd been captured on 2 May 1915 at Ypres and significantly (in view of what Irene says in her first post) that he has (presumably as a result of an operation) 2 ribs missing on his right side.  Not clear what "22 Inf[antry]" is supposed to be saying in the unit column.

There is also a third card (thanks Gwil) https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/List/4816578/698/4503/ which is a list made in Friedrichsfeld stamped March 1916 listing those who had entered the camp since the month of Nov 1914.  He was in Barrack 3b and, unusually, the list has clearly been written by an English person.

We now know he was in at least three camps and that the family tale of him being operated seems to have been true.

MaxD

[jim1]

I think 22/Bde. was a bit of misdirection.