Old contemptible conundrum - Middlesex Regiment 1st Battalion

[jstomlin]

I found my grandfather's (maternal side) pip, squeak and wilfred war medals yesterday while helping my dad tidy his house - he thought they had been stolen a few years ago - so that was great relief.  They also came with three army forms (B2067 - Character Reference March 20, B2079 - Discharge Certificate March 20, B2079 D - Discharge Certificate from reserves, March 26, which had some details confirming what my mum had told me years ago.

My grandfather, Charles Herbert Clarke, b 1888 in Southwark, was in the Middlesex regiment, 1st Battalion, and had served largely in India.  He was being demobbed in Woolwich when war broke out and was reenlisted / called up, and went out to France on one of the first boats and saw the war out.  He has a 1914 star.

I remember being told that the medals didn't have his name, and they don't - they have W G Clarke, L11026, Midd'x Regiment.  Family folklore is that my grandfather joined up because one of his brothers had died in the Boer War, and that he used his brother's name when doing so for some reason, but I can't find any evidence about that.

Anyway, his form B2079 declares he joined up in 9 February 1906 and that his first posting was the Middlesex Regiment (and the L11026 on the medals  fits in perfectly with that - (ref http://army service numbers.blogspot.co.uk/2009_07_01_archive.html).  He ended the war in the Royal Engineers, as a sapper, number 37653, discharged in March 1920.

I have been unable to trace any of the above on Ancestry, so i assume his records were lost in the WW2 fire. 

My questions and where I would like help please:
- does anyone know how I can contact the Middlesex Regiment to see if I can find anything about his postings previous to WW1, including any overseas census returns in 1911
- what can i do to see if he did join up as W G Clarke, L11026, and if it was not him, what his roll number really was?  As i say, I have his joining date as 9 February 1906
- has anyone else experience of someone having medals with the wrong name on them when they were being sent out?

If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, so please get in touch.  I would really appreciate it

Many thanks   Jules

[stevew101]

If it helps, I believe that the  Middlesex Regiment "Regimental Archives" are held at the National Army Museum

May be worth contacting.

http://www.nam.ac.uk/

Steve

[jstomlin]

Steve
Many thanks - good idea - I will give it a go.
If anyone else has thoughts or comments let me know.
Cheers. Jules

[jstomlin]

Hi
You may be interested in what I have found about this.
The WW1 records I have are detailed above.
I now have :
- the 1914 Star Roll (dated 1917) which lists him under the 1st Middlesex Reg't, L11025 and as William George Clarke, and also lists his Royal Engineers number of 37653, which matches the RE number I have in his records I have where his name is Charles Herbert Clarke.  he landed in France on 11 August 1914.
- Royal Engineer record - as WG Clarke and 37653, dated 1919.
So it looks like he was L11025, not L11026 - it must be the stamping as it looks like a 6, but his Middlesex Reg't records show L11025.  And sometime between 1917 and 1919 his name got corrected - this must have been after the medals were issued though.

Been a long one, but finally got there.