What dates was he OS please

[hilbury]

Hello all,

Would someone please decipher the dates on my Great Graddad's Army service record for me.

I'm not realy sure when he went over seas and how long he stayed away from home.
Most of the writing is quite clear but I'd like to get somone with some knowledge to verify what I'm seeing here.

His name is George Victor BLAKE and he signed up on June 14th 1915 at Walthamstow, Essex.
As far as I can make out he was demobbed on 6th March 1919 on a disability.
But I'd realy like to figure out what happened in between.

Thanks for any help
Hilary

[Bill749]

Looks like he was in France from 25th June 1915 to 7th August 1918, and from 23rd August 1918 to 3rd February 1919.  2 weeks furlough in between when he MAY have been shipped home, or simply to some quiet place away from the fighting!

Bill

[hilbury]

Hello Bill

Thanks for that.
Unfortunately it confims the family story that my Grandmother was conceived while her 'Dad' was off fighting in WW1.
Unless he was allowed home for a few weeks for the funeral of his baby son who died 11 August 1915...
[My grandma was born on the 14th of June 1916.]

Would it have been possible that he came home without it being recorded on his service record?
The death of this son was on there, but I suppose that was more to do with payment of allowances.

Thanks again
Hilary

[Bill749]

Hi Hilary

I think this is one family legend that has its roots firmly planted in fact!  Not an uncommon thing to find, but unusual in that she seems to have "strayed" after only 3 months apart! 

Bill

[hilbury]

Yes, I agree...
Oh to be a fly on the wall during those times.
The story said that Grandma's real father was 'the bloke next door' so pehaps the affair had been on for a while?
The good part of the story was that Great Granddad came back from the war and even though he knew she 'probably' wasn't his, he took her as his own and never treated her any differently than her older siblings [3 brothers and one sister].
My great grandparents lived 'happily ever-after' (apparently) until his death in 1951, in the same house where my grandmother was born, no less.

Hilary