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General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: dsjturner on Sunday 08 November 20 17:51 GMT (UK)
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Hi!
I am very lucky to have in my possession many photos of relatives that served in the First World War. Unfortunately I have no idea who most of them are. I’m slowly but surely working through them all to try and identify them and I think I may be onto something with this. I have two questions.
Firstly I believe the men to be the same person would you all agree?
Secondly I was wondering if that is in fact a military uniform he is wearing? It’s the only one I have of someone in shorts! Any help at all trying to identify the man would really help. Many thanks in advance for you time.
Daniel
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Military yes, tropical kit in the first photo not sure about the white arm band. Second photo same man as Lance Corporal.
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That’s great thank you very much for your help! If it’s who I think it is then he was a driver in the Royal Engineers.
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The arm band is actually the blue and white brassard (arm band) of the RE Signals Service. A Driver in the RE could be in a RE signals unit, the rank does not describe his trade necessarily.
MaxD
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That’s great thank you very much! It looks like it’s pointing more and more to who I think it is. I found his enlistment papers today and it just said RE driver. It’s all really helpful thank you very much!
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If his papers show his unit(s) then that may yield a clue as in Sigs Coy .
MaxD
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I’ve just found his medal card and it just says royal engineers DVR so I assume that’s driver? It doesn’t mention anything else really. I’m only interested as I found this newspaper cutting amongst all the bits I was given and I’m certain the man in the clipping is the same man as in the photos above. In the article it states he was in the RE and served abroad.
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Forgive the rude question but how do you know the medal card is his? Do you have other papers with his number?
MaxD
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Not rude at all I surprised myself with this one!
On his enlistment papers it’s gives his regiment number and that matches the one on the medal card. The address on the enlistment papers match the ones in the 1901 and 1911 census when he was living with my great grandfather? His brother, and the mother listed as next as kin all fits too, so I’m certain it’s him.
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On a side note I thought it was only one page and I’ve discovered more pages! I only had a quick glance but I saw the words cleopatra and India so that’s the link with the uniform!
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So presumably you now can see entries relating to his unit?
MaxD
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Yes I can see more information now but the handwriting is very hard to read and the quality of the image isn’t great either. I did pick out the word signals quite a lot though!
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There are several public trees on Ancestry for this man with links to the service records. Here are a couple:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/10126428/person/25119676032/facts
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/23257654/person/320182588129/facts
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Thank you very much for that. At the moment I am using the library edition of ancestry online at home and I can only seem to find one tree. I’ll certainly make a note of the above, thank you!
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I’ve had a long look at the service record and I’m a lot better off but I still can’t read or understand a lot of it, but this is what I did manage to decipher.
* Transferred from Haynes park signal depot to M.E.F (March 1916)
*Joined depot, cleopatra (March 1916)
*Transferred from (??) to Mesopotamia
*Disembarked Suez (April 1916)
*Disembarked Basrah (April 1916)
*Admitted to hospital (Aug 1917)
*Rejoined (coy?) (Aug 1917)
* Granted one months leave to India (Apr 1918)
* Embarked Basrah (Apr 1918)
* Struck off the strength of the company not having returned from leave within 3 months from date of embarkation (Aug 1918)
*It mentions a punishment but in the column it says certified. (Dec 1918).
I do have a few Questions about all that. Would it be common place for soldiers to take leave and visit other counties for instance India?
Also would it have been common place to not return in time from leave? I can’t imagine so, so I find it odd he was awol for over 2 months. (Although I don’t blame him wanting to get away from it all)
What does being struck off the strength of the company mean?
Many thanks in advance for any help!
Daniel
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Not sure whether you don't want us to know who he was but in deciphering a record, context is everything so a link to his on line record would be helpful.
Struck off Strength is when a man is taken "off the books" of a company. The opposite of Taken on Strength
MaxD
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Here are links to the army record:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1219/images/miuk1914e_124675-00702
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F007286463%2F00705&parentid=GBM%2FWO363-4%2F7286463%2F45%2F705
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Not sure whether you don't want us to know who he was but in deciphering a record, context is everything so a link to his on line record would be helpful.
Struck off Strength is when a man is taken "off the books" of a company. The opposite of Taken on Strength
MaxD
Apologies I hadn’t realised I hadn’t said his name, but yes the links above are him! I’m now 99.9% sure the man in the photos are Albert so I’m really thankful for all the help!
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Cleopatra Camp was at Alexandria. There was a signals school there.
Mentions:
https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/77130
https://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/sapperinpalestine.htm
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Thank you very much for that, it was a very interesting read! I naively had no idea what went on over there so to read first hand really puts it into perspective!