Common Names

[Gibel]

On his marriage certificate does he give his Army number as well as his rank?

[lizdb]

.....and you still haven't said what George's occupation was. And who were the witnesses?

[Rena]

Quite lot of streets and other organisations commissioned plaques to be put onto buildings. These listed all the men who had signed up into the WWI army.  The ones who didn't come back had a little star put against their names.  I did a quick search to see if there were any surviving West Ham plaques, but got waylaid when I saw that West Ham Fooball Club organised a Pals Battalion:-

http://www.footballandthefirstworldwar.org/the-west-ham-pals/
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Soldier's rank
Many of the ranks within the Royal Artillery have been abbreviated. The soldier's full substantive rank is given with any acting 'A' or temporary 'T' rank in brackets afterwards. During WWI, the artillery rank structure included corporal which was removed from the regiment in the 1920s and Serjeant became Sergeant. The WWI War promotion ladder consisted of:

• Gnr – gunner
• Bdr – bombardier (one stripe)
• Cpl – corporal (two stripes)
• Sjt – serjeant (three stripes with a gun above)

The WWII promotion ladder was:
• Gnr – gunner
• L/Bdr – lance bombardier (one stripe)
• Bdr – bombardier (two stripes)
• Sgt – sergeant (three stripes with a gun above)

Between gunner and bombardier there was a lance bombardier (L/Bdr) and between bombardier and corporal there was a lance corporal (L/Cpl). During WWII there was also the rank of lance sergeant 'L/Sgt'. The names of some of the ranks also denoted their role, for example:

[Gibel]

There is a small tree for this couple on Ancestry with a photo of William and his wife. He is in Army uniform which might help work out which regiment he was in.

[Susan Smith]

Sorry,  George (Willian's dad) is down as a labourer on Willian's marriage Cert,  William as looks like bombardier in R.H.A looks like Doris's sister was a witness and ester Elizabeth Hodgroon. No army no for William. 

The tree with a photo is a relative the photo was sent to Forces war records but they could not help as no badge showing and they said it was a generic uniform etc🙁.

[Rena]

R.H.A. = Royal Horse Artillery.

Searching for "William Smith, Royal Horse Artillery" on the national archive "Discovery" website 69 results were shown.   Only one of those men was a Bombardier:

Reference:   WO 372/18/177163
Description:    Medal card of Smith, William
Corps: Royal Horse Artillery    
Regiment No 487    
Royal Horse Artillery Driver  608093    
Rank: Acting Bombardier
Date:    1914-1920
Held by:    The National Archives, Kew

[Susan Smith]

Thank you so much to Rena for the information,  it is very much appreciated.

I do however need to get the service record to see if the right record and I'm struggling to get it on ancestry,  can anyone help?

Sue

[KGarrad]

More than two-thirds of the WW1 Service records were destroyed in a WW2 bombing raid.

So there may not be one still in existence?

[Susan Smith]

Thx for that Kgarrad,  have a copy of a medal card from national archives so would that not have been with service record, if so the record must be available.