I have just come across my great-grandfather's service record on Ancestry after many years of searching. It seems rather interesting and would like to know what others make of it, and what info anyone else can glean from it that I might have missed.
His name was Harry Bradbury, and he was born in Manchester around June/July 1898, however has given a year of birth of 1896, and enlisted underage - he was only 17, in August 1915 when he joined. He was living with his mother Lilly Bradbury at 9 Tilt Street, Miles Platting, Manchester at that point and was working as a carter. It looks like he was enlisted in the 27th (reserve) Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, however on the same page it lists him as being in the 22nd (service) Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. His regimental number is listed as 25633 I believe. Can anyone explain the two battalions on his initial sign up sheet? It seems after joining on 30th August 1915, he wasn't actually posted (BEF) until June the following year - is that not quite a long time at that point?
He was an infantry soldier from what I'm reading - from what I know of his regiment (22nd Manchester) he would have pretty much have arrived in France and been straight into the Battle of the Somme, I think that regiment was involved in some quite big actions during that time? In November, it says he was transferred to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 8th Battalion, which I found surprising and a bit confusing - why would this be? Were they not an Irish regiment? His luck seems to get worse from there, as he's listed as very soon after transfer having 'ICT of the buttock', followed by bladder irritation, ecthyma of the groin (a severe ulcerative skin infection, I think), and then repeated urinary incontinence, which suggests to me his skin infections had led to severe urinary infection - this is before and whilst he's 18 years old, poor kid. I can't tell how much time he spent in hospital and how much time he was actually with his regiment in the field - hoping somebody can help with this - but it looks like eventually he's deemed too unwell to serve on the frontline as infantry, and he's transferred to the labour corps (727 Company) in July 17, around his 19th birthday, and he remains with them for the rest of the war - I think it's saying 'Infy rates of pay', so does that mean he continued to get paid as an infantry soldier after transfer? I take it that was a higher rate, was it much more? Was that usual when men were transferred from infantry to labour corps due to poor health? His new regimental number was 478831.
On his demob sheet it's got his actual correct year of birth listed, which surprised me, and has his medical category listed as BII (B2?) - he was A1 when he joined. I feel like his pension records would be really interesting, but can't find them anywhere - anyone able to do better? Unfortunately this man, after marrying my great-grandma in 1924 (Doris Eckersall) in Hyde, Cheshire, and having my grandma Elsie Bradbury in 1925, disappeared and I have been unable to trace him after years of searching (not on 1939 register, passenger lists for emigrating etc). So any help to know anything else about him, no matter how small, would be fantastic.
Apologies for the long post!
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Topic: Harry Bradbury (Read 679 times)