George Plant

[Dragoman]

Can anyone help me find more information about an ancestor of mine please? All I know so far is that he was born George Edward Plant in Wandsworth, South West London on the 9th February 1887. He fought in two regiments:
- as a Private in the Machine Gun Corps Reg. No. 9453
- as a L/Sgt in the East Surrey's Reg.No 26093
  I know that he fought in France with the East Surrey's but have no idea about what happened to him. His record shows that he was demoted at some stage for misconduct and according to his family he may have been drowned while abroad.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[rosie99]

When do you last have him on census /army records

[Dragoman]

I have the 1911 Census which consists of a list of soldiers serving in the 2nd East Surrey's. I think that at this time the regiment was based in Burma and the Andaman Islands. George was 22 and a private. When WW1 broke out the regiment was transferred to France.

[jim1]

Firstly his numbers are the other way round.
His MIC shows he received a SWB which gives an attestation date of 20/2/08.
His discharge date is 14/12/18 for sickness so still alive post war.
He also has the 15 Star with an entry date (France) of 19/1/15 (2nd. Batt.).
With regard to his MGC number (26093) the Corps was formed in Oct. 1915. The first 3000 numbers went to the Motorised MGC so the starting number is 3001. As a rule of thumb there were around 500 recruits a week so you can work out roughly from that when he was likely to have transferred.
Nov. 1915 moved to Salonica & spent the rest of the war there & Macedonia.
Without a service record & with the absence of a war diary covering that period we don't know whether he stayed out there with the MGC or returned to France. Found it.
Here if you care to read it:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01lly/
Most likely received MGC training out there & stayed with his Div.
2/E. Surrey's were in 85 Bde. Their MGC section would be the same so 85th. Coy. MGC.
First mention of it in the diary is Oct. 1916.

[rosie99]

Jim does it give a place of discharge (In case it helps locate a death)

Thanks,

Rosie

[jim1]

He would have been discharged in the UK but there's nothing on his SWB card.

[rosie99]

Thanks Jim 

[jim1]

Can he be found on the 1939 Register?

[rosie99]

I can't find him using that date of birth