World War 1 records

[AileenA]

Me again!!
My Grans first husband was a sapper in the Royal Engineers, my grandad knew him in the war so the story goes. Do you think Grandad could have reenlisted for the war but went to another regiment??? Would that have been possible, or would he have had to go back to the Scots Guards due to his previous time served with them?? I do remember my Mum saying that Grandad had no flesh on one of his thighs and he had been shot in the war, so I'm thinking he must have been in the war at some point, can't see that kind of injury happening in the mines.

[djcrtoye]

Hopefully this link will get you there.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline

Click on documents online, this will bring you to another list click ww1 service medals. That will bring you to the search page. Good luck.

[AileenA]

Thanks, I'll think I'll need luck

[Currie]

Hello Aileen,

This page on Army service records is probably as informative as things get
http://www.1914-1918.org/grandad/records.htm

The MOD still holds the records of men who continued to serve after 1920 or who returned for service later. There’s something currently in the works to have these records released to the National Archives as was mentioned in a previous post viewtopic.php?p=93352&highlight=#93352

According to “The Long, Long, Trail”

The records of those men discharged before 1920 were stored in the War Office and more than half of those there in 1940 were destroyed by bombing.

Some of the War Office records, those for men who had applied for pensions, had been moved to the Ministry of Pensions before 1940 and were saved.

There have been instances where a soldier has been found to have had records in both the War Office and the Ministry of Pensions.

But if your Grandfather was in a military unit, the Cameronians, after 1920 perhaps the Ministry of Defence is holding any WW1 or other records that may exist. Maybe even his short stay during WW2 would have been enough to cause his records to still be there.

I think I’ve seen a better explanation elsewhere but the discussion in this thread leads me to the supposition that the four digit number would have been issued in 1906 when he first joined and that he would still have been a reservist in 1914 and the other number was issued later for any of the reasons mentioned in the thread. http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forum ... opic=39238

That’s as far as I know,
Hope it helps,
Alan

[AileenA]

Thank you Alan for making things a bit clearer the info has been very useful, I'll continue my search. Wish me luck!!

[Currie]

Good Luck Aileen.

Alan

[Adam Brown]

On the paperwork on ancestry his number was 6646 but that's been scored out and the number 32490 rga has been written in its place

Would RGA have stood for Royal Garrison Artillery?

It was likely he would have been called up as a reservist in 1914. He would have enlisted in 1906 for 12 years (5 years service, 7 years reservist). This matches because he left in 1911 after his 5 years service but would have been a reservist until 1918.

Adam

[AileenA]

Hurray!!! I thought I'd go back onto ancestry and surprise surprise his wartime records are now there!!
I'm presuming ancestry is still adding records to their website as I couldn't find them before even although I searched several times