west and east kent regiments

[hollowayranger]

Hello I'm trying to locate my grandfathers war history

Herbert henry Robertson

he was born 6/6/1884
I'm told he joined up under age to fight in boer war ,was made a queens corporal and won d.c.m ,he added a bar to this during ww1 and also served in India
he served the east and west Kent regs for approx 30 years ,being a colour Sargent and NCO with own batman
when he died in 1953 he was given a full military funeral ,coffin carried by 6 colour Sergent's ,and yet i can find no trace of him apart from a medal card ranking him as a private! in the royal west Kent's!

any help would be most welcome as I'm doing this for my father who is Herbert's son, sadly my dad is fading fast and id like to be able to show him his fathers history before its too late

thank you !

[scrimnet]

Hello and welcome to Rootschat!

Pse excuse, but a whole raft of questions follow!

First of all as he won a DCM, have you tried the London Gazette on line?

Next, have you his death certificate?

Then, have you found him on any of the Censi?

Have you spoken to the Regt Association or the museum.??..A large funeral for an old boy like that would surely feature in the Regt Journal.

Have you looked on Anpestry for his records? But as he may have served apres 1922, your father may have to sign for the papers from the Veterans Agency, as they would then still be held by the MOD...

Finally...

Any photos or medals in your posession?

Lots of questions I'm afraid, but it will help us to help you And also not cross old ground!

[neil1821]

....and yet i can find no trace of him apart from a medal card ranking him as a private! in the royal west Kent's!

And one further question 
If you don't have the medals themselves, and you're just going on the medal card, do you know for sure you have the right man here? After all, you need to consider cards for Herbert Robertson and H.Robertson, and I imagine there are several.

Anyway, to start with I can look up the Boer War DCM lists for you this evening if no-one else beats me to it.

[neil1821]

Hmm, sadly I have to report that there was no-one by the name of H.Robertson awarded a DCM in the Boer War or at any time up to 1909. 

Given that, perhaps we need to go back to the beginning.
Can you distinguish what you know about him (ie you have documentary evidence for, or medals/photos etc) from what you've heard (family stories, hearsay and the like).

The latter needs to be treated with a hefty dose of skepticism until proven otherwise. But perhaps we can unravel it.

[hollowayranger]

many thanks for trying to help this is from the local paper sept 1952

if it wasnt for this and the photos of the funeral which i will try to add later i wouldnt believe any of it to be true ,my fathers remembers all the medals the dcm had a pink ribbon with a (rose)bar? a french medal and an indian one as well as  others

sorry im not great with computers and am only here during breaks at work
there was also a story of him changing his name to get into army as he was underage
15 YEARS EAST KENTS AND 17 YEARS WEST KENT
God father was a captain kingsmill
ciatians from a lt fleetwood-smith
pension £2 and  3-4 pence?
hope any of this helps

[neil1821]

there was also a story of him changing his name to get into army as he was underage

That's a possibility, but of course that makes it so much harder to research unless you know the pseudonym he went by. We're not necessarily searching for H.Robertson. 

I'll go back the the Boer War DCMs then and look at all recipients from the East & West Kents

[hollowayranger]

yes i know its a nightmare trying to work out as they just didnt talk about such things back when he was alive,no clue as to name had hoped it be something simple like robINson instead ,he ended up as a game keeper at leeds castle kent
these are a few of the funeral photos

[mmm45]

Just been playing with the NA MIC searches....I entered the wildcard search on name HH then regiment Royal West Kents...there are a number of hits but not many DCM winners closest i found was a HH Butcher a Sgt but then his campaign medal card ruled him out with a name of Harold

Do you have any photos? Ive seen DCM confused with MSM before and also Long Service and Good Conduct medals If he had 30yrs service  as Scrimnet has stated his record could still be with MOD.

Ady

[scrimnet]

I strongly recommend speaking to the museum and Regt Association...

There is quite likely to be some Regt research on DCM / MSM / LSGC awardees...

They are in Maidstone, and thoroughly good eggs...In fact I did a memorial pde for them last year...

http://www.museum.maidstone.gov.uk/pages/index.asp?area=140