RSC member help needed please - Murphy?

[Paul Crook]

Hi. I am attaching three images to do with a friend's relative who we think died in WW2. We have been told that the uniform he is wearing in the attached photo shows him as a member of the Royal Signals Corp. However, we thought he was one of the two men who died in Italy as attached. Does anyone have anything they can add to this please. Is there anyway I can find a link between these two men and the man in the image? Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks as always

Paul

[Ruskie]

What a handsome young man!

The collar badge looks like Royal Corps of Signals. I think the shoulder title also reads "Royal Corps of Signals,

I'm sure the experts will be along soon to help you further.

[MaxD]

Ruskie is too modest and has the badges correct I would say.  The shoulder titles look as if they have the TF in the middle denoting Territorial Force

In any event, unless he transferred between regiments/corps, he is neither of the other two men whose badges were markedly different.

MaxD

[Paul Crook]

Hi. Thanks for the replies. We were wondering if either of the two men did transfer. Is it possible to tell from the service numbers when the two Murphys joined their regiments?

Pau

[Ruskie]

Hi. Thanks for the replies. We were wondering if either of the two men did transfer. Is it possible to tell from the service numbers when the two Murphys joined their regiments?

Pau

Max will be able to help with this I'm sure, but I believe service numbers can be a rough guide as to when and where enlisted. I remember seeing a list a while back which of course I can't find now .... 

Your friend can apply for the lad's service records if they are interested in finding out more details, if they transferred etc etc. (£30 per record  )

[Paul Crook]

Thank you both for your help

Paul

[MaxD]

I think the list Ruskie remembers could have been the block allocations to regiments when the seven digit numbers were introduced in 1920.  Unfortunately, you can't use the blocks to tell when some one joined except roughly in the sense of before or after another man in the same regiment..  Example, the RWK block was 6334001 to 6390000 starting in 1920.  All one can say from that is that the RWK Murphy, with his number 6355134 is about the 21000th man since 1920 to have been allocated a RWK number (that is incredibly rough and takes no account of men who were already serving in 1920 who had their numbers changed and a number of other boring complications).  When it was depends on how many joined each year, again roughly.

Didn't want to just say no - whole forums (fora?) can be found devoted to the fruitless task of finding enlistments dates simply from numbers.

Paul - you haven't given the name of the Royal Signals man - have you checked the CWGC records?

MaxD

[Paul Crook]

Hi Max. Thanks for the reply

Unfortunately we don't know who the RSC man is. We were hoping it was one of the two brothers whose names I put on my original posting. We don't hold the medals and I don't know if the original photo is about or not, so we are at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. We would like to identify all three men and put a story together re their times in the army.

All the best

Paul

[MaxD]

The only way to reconstruct the service of the two Murphys is, as Ruskie advised, to get their service records which are not on line but can be applied for, subject to the conditions, from MOD:

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records

Good luck

MaxD