Royal Artillery WWII (thread previously incorrectly named 30th S. L. I.)

[aliceaevdb]

Hello everyone,

*As some of the other photographs have now been dated earlier than I thought, any information on the date/regiment of this would be appreciated - not sure if it is the Somerset Light Infantry in WWII!*

My Great Great Uncle Thomas Smith served in the 30th Somerset Light Infantry in the Second World War, and I have a group photograph presumably of the infantry as a whole. The back reads:

'IMPORTANT. This photographic being copy-right is furnished for private use only and must not be reproduced or published  in any form without written consent - Blackpool Gazette and Herald Ltd.'

(Thankfully it is now out of copyright!)

I am going to contact The Gazette tomorrow to try and find out more about this photograph (when/why it was taken). If you recognised your relative in this picture please let me know; I have a couple of group photographs of Thomas Smith with friends, and photographs of friends (unfortunately with no name/date on the back). We would like to reunite these photographs with the gentlemen's families.

Thankyou for reading,

Alice

*Contacted the Gazette today and have sent them the photograph as they can only search their archives by exact date as they have not been digitalised. Will update this post once I receive a reply!*

[aliceaevdb]

Hello!

As some photographs I posted up on another thread have been dated much earlier than I expected, I am not not certain that this photograph is in fact 30th Somerset Light Infantry in WWII.

(please see http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,538941.msg3927258.html#msg3927258 for the other photographs)

Any advice or information would be fantastic.

Thankyou,

Alice

[mmm45]

Pretty difficult to ID cap badge outline suggests Royal Artillery BUT cant say for definate
 but 30th SLI were formed 1936 ...The uniforms are circa WW2.

Ady

[aliceaevdb]

Thanks Ady Hopefully the newspaper will get back to me and I can find out about the photo itself and why they were in Blackpool! We've decided to order his army records despite the cost as he never spoke about the War and we recently 'rediscovered' his pay and discharge booklets.

I will update this thread once I have any further information; if anyone believes their relative is in the photo let me know and I will email you a better quality copy.

Alice

[scrimnet]

Well, for a start these are Royal Artillery!! Patent by cap badge and the arm badges on the Sgt.

This is about the size of a battery (artillery) or platoon (infantry) in WW2...

Never trust a newspaper!!

This is the badge of the Somerset Light Infantry....

http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l102/scrimnet/?action=view&current=IMG_0254.jpg

[aliceaevdb]

 

Well now I am really stumped! We know he served in the Somerset Light Infantry in the Second World War; we don't have his record yet but we have all of his documentation - and he's sitting in the front row! (it was me who assumed this was a photograph of the Somerset Light Infantry based on what we knew about his time in the Army; I've sent the newspaper on a wild goosechase... I only contacted them as there was a copyright stamp on the back!)

Oh dear...

I have also posted this photo up:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,538767.msg3932999.html#msg3932999

Not for dating as I 'assumed' (really should stop doing that...) this was of a comrade who also served in the Somerset Light Infantry. This photo has a name and an address on the back and we wanted to track down the gentleman's family to send it to them.

If you have a second, would you mind taking a look for me? Another Rootschatter found possible contact details for the gentleman's daughter, and I don't want to contact her with wrong information!

Thankyou for your help,

Alice

[mmm45]

Alice
Mr Kilshaws family may  be able to give you unit info?

Ady

[aliceaevdb]

Good idea

It's just strange that we have all of his documentation from WWII and it only mentions 30th Somerset Light Infantry.

If we request his records based on the army number we have, will it show all of his records from every time he served? Or will he have had a different number every time? We don't have any other records/numbers for him.

Thankyou for all of your replies,

Alice

[ScouseBoy]

It may have been taken at Weeton Barracks, which is just outside Blackpool.

During WW2   Blackpool and the Fylde area   was predominantly an air force area.

Both  RAF  and USAAF   but also Aircraft manufacturing area.

Secondly,    Men  would often get transferred from one County regiment to another, perhaps  as battlefield reinforcements or as casualty replacements.