How do I find out if relatives served in WW1?

[harribobs]

Andrew

it's highly unlikely that Leeds Library would have any further information on your GGF

soldiers records are kept at the National Archives at Kew, but before you rush off  only 30% of them survived the blitz in WW2

did all your GGFs survive the war?

[Comosus]

Yes all of them survived.  I don't think the older two were in WW1.  The Smith was a baker and the Wooler had something to do with fish.  According to my mum they wouldn't have gone to war because they were in a job which involved food.

Well a 30% chance is worth a try, I'll have to go there sometime.

Thanks for your help.

Andrew.

[manmack]

andrew,if you live near the library check the papers,theres a chance he may be in the casualty lists,enlisted dec 1915,that means he wouldnt have gone over till at least 1916,but he married in 1916,he couldnt have got leave that quick,so he must have been wounded just before he got married,whats the date of his marriage andrew
mack

[manmack]

the training res battalion that your g/father was in,was the 13th west yorkshire regt originally,he joined the battalion when it was at cannock chase,rugeley,staffs,mack

[Comosus]

Thanks manmack.  Unfortunately, I live in the south but I go up to Yorkshire every few months to see my (maternal) grandad and I tend to go to the library at Leeds while I'm there.

I don't know the date of his marriage but it was registered in December 1916.

The odd thing about him is that my dad and uncle both said they never knew him and they would have been 19 and 16 when he died and yet they knew their grandmother and there are a few photos of her with my dad and uncle but none whatsoever of my GreatGrandFather (But then, there was a feud in the family so the only photos that I have on my grandad's side are during or after WW2).  Having spoken to my mum, she says my grandfather grew up in quite a poor background, which I believe may be linked to what happened in the war somehow.

Also, I found his younger brother also in the Training Reserve Battalion, I haven't paid to look at the information though.

Thanks, Andrew.