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I have a photograph dating from 1917 (give or take a year) featuring a man who is described but not named.

Facts given in the caption to the photo: 

He is the son of Mrs Smith of 208 Southampton Street, Reading.

He worked as a postman for 12 years - some if not all of the time at Newbury.

He served in the Boer War.

He re-enlisted at the start of the war.

He was a prisoner of war in Germany having been captured in September 1914.

So who was he?  I have been unable to find a Newbury postman called Smith, but his mother may have remarried.

For info:

Some Newbury postmen in 1913 (there will have been others):

Brown, W
Burden, J
Bolton, J E
Clark, C
Fleck, W
Freeman, W
Goddard, F
Harris, W
Ilses, L
Jordon, F
Start, W
Taylor, E G
West, B
Winterbourne, R
Witts, J R

Had a look at a 1939 directory.

Sir M Stapleton is at Westmead, Newtown Road
J Jackson is at Westmead Poultry Farm, Monks Lane

I'm pretty sure Stapleton's house will be the one that was developed into Westmead Drive.

Earliest entry I can find for J Jackson at Westmead Poultry Farm is 1933 - he may have been there earlier, the directories do not always have 100% coverage.   He is still there in 1942 but seems to have gone by 1950 (the next directory I have).

At a guess I'd say the poultry farm was the one ringed (1932 map, 1933 directory insert):

Hi,  Calling all lateral thinkers and census wizards!

I have struck out trying to find Ernest John Dangerfield in 1911, he was born Shepherd's Bush/Hammersmith in 1876. 

I'm not asking for anyone to give me copyrighted info, I have Ancestry and FindMyPast subs - all I need is a reference or some other clue.

There is another Ernest born Windsor - this is not the chap I am looking for.

Background:
Ernest John was the son of Ernest & Mary Ann (Annie) Dangerfield. In 1881 the family was in Barnes, by 1891 Ernest had left home and was working in Isleworth as a brewer's clerk - and was still there in 1901 in the same occupation. 

In 1912 he married in the Pewsey area (to Caroline Sarah Allen) and then had two children in the Watford area in Jan 1913 and Jan 1914.  He then signs up at the start of the war and is in France a few days later.  He dies there in 1915. Caroline settles in Newbury in 1914 and Ernest is remembered on the town's war memorial (hence my interest).

What I am really interested in is his job in 1911 - I can't see a brewer's clerk being rushed to France with no training, but lorry drivers, mechanics etc were - and this seems to apply to Ernest as he was a Mechanical Special in the Army Service Corps' Motor Transport arm (his number was MS/110).

The name A New appears on the Newbury war memorial - and I am having difficulties determining who this refers to. I know there are a few New researchers on Rootschat who I am hoping will know of this chap.

The CWGC database has several possibilities, the most likely being Alfred Sidney New from Burbage whose father was at some point living in Aldern Bridge, Newtown, Hants, a couple of miles from the centre of Newbury.  This address could well date from the early 1920s.  I can find no real sign that Alfred had anything to do with Newbury - so he seems a bit of a longshot.

FreeBMD has several A News born in Newbury RD in the timeframe for service in WW1:

Dec 1899     New    Arthur Daniel    Newbury    2c   244    b Newbury, d Aus 1958
Dec 1886   New    Alfred        Newbury    2c   235   no trace
Mar 1884   New    Albert Leonard    Newbury    2c   239   b Newbury, m 1904 (Fanny Wheeler - she then disappears), 1911 with his parents.

Does anyone knows what happened to Alfred or Albert - did they survive the war?

I am concentrating on younger A News - but there are others:
Sep 1877   New    Daniel Alexander   Newbury    2c   232  emigrated US 1899, naturalised 1921, died in CA 1924.
Sep 1868   New    George Albert    Newbury    2c   225
Sep 1867      New    Alfred Tom    Newbury    2c   219 b Chieveley

If anyone can show that any of these died as a result of WW1 it would be great to know.

There was no A New from Newbury as an absent voter in 1918 (which doesn't help much), he wasn't listed in the active service rolls printed in the local paper up to spring 1916, and he didn't get a write up in the local paper when he died (I haven't gathered all the BMD announcements yet - so he might crop up there).

All in all I'm floundering with this chap - any help would be appreciated.

Moderator comment: replies removed.  Only information gathered from the free index to 1911 census may be used.