WW1 stories – the mysterious Uncle Theo

Someone said during Twitter's #AncestryHour recently that writing a blog post often took her a long time as information gaps suddenly opened up in front of her, sending her digging around looking for answers. This post was definitely one of those!

With Armistice Day almost upon upon us, I thought I'd pull up what I could about the Percival WW1 ancestors. I had two potential leads – my husband's grandfather, Hector Percival, and Hector's brother Theodore. I decided to start with Theodore, not least because he's always been a bit of a mystery – and we all know what fun a mystery is!

Uncle Theo

We believe the photograph on the left of the man wearing Navy uniform is "Uncle Theo". It's dated 1918. The little boy behind him is my husband's father, Dennis, aged 4.

Despite what seems like this hard evidence of Theo's navy career, his name doesn't appear in any of the Navy's records I've looked at so far. Not all WW1 records survived. Many were lost during the bombings in WW2, so this may be why his are missing.

Of course it could mean that this isn't Theo but we do know that he did have naval connections – firstly because of what I've recently uncovered about his line of work and secondly because of the location of his death.

Theo was born in Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex in 1892, the younger son of Shadrack and Mary Ann Percival.

On the 1911 census, he's listed as an apprentice engineer. You may be able to make out the "visitor" on the census return – Dorothy Mary Tate. This is the woman Theodore would marry four years later.

But for some reason, they couple tied the knot in Northampton. Not only that, but neither of Theo's parents were witnesses on the marriage certificate, suggesting they didn't attend the wedding.

courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk

I'm not aware of any connection that either Theo or Dorothy had to Northampton, so perhaps Theo was working there. He's living in Forfar Street, at the same address as his witnesses, and his occupation is recorded as "mechanical engineering draftsman". Dorothy's address is in Middlesex, so no obvious link there.

 Did the war influence their decision to marry?

In autumn of that year, 1915, The Derby Scheme, was introduced, which assessed whether the fighting force's needs could be met by volunteers alone. Any men not volunteering would have to attest to being in an "essential" occupation. The anticipated plan caused a surge in recruitment as men preferred to avoid the ignominy of being "fetched" to serve their country.

As Theo and Dorothy married by licence, perhaps Theo had decided to join up at this time, and it was for logistical and expediency reasons they chose the location. Perhaps it was too difficult for Theo's parents to travel to Northampton.

Marriage certificate anomaly 

A bizarre anomaly appears on the couple's marriage certificate. Shadrack's occupation is recorded as "architect" when in fact he was a postman. A transcription error? Or some other reason? I've always wondered whether Theo was trying to imply his origins were a little further up the social scale than they really were, not least because Northampton was the location of a more affluent branch of Percivals. As far as I know there's no direct link on the tree but perhaps Theo had aspirations!

© crown copyright courtesy of Findmypast

And so back to Theo's naval connections and a big jump ahead. It's his occupation recorded on the 1939 Register on Findmypast, which shows an interesting link with the Navy.

Theo, Dorothy and their 2 children, Enid born in 1917 and John born in 1919, are living in Bexhill, Essex at this time. Theo's work concurs with his engineering background and he's recorded as being a Supervisor on the design of the Director of Fire control of naval ordnance. 

From online conversations with other family historians via Facebook's Ancestry & Genealogy Discussion Group, I've learned that this was a Whitehall Department. Two passenger records from 1933 show that Theo travelled to Argentina, accompanied by two engineering colleagues, suggesting that his trip was work related. I wonder what he went to South America to do? Another avenue of research to follow!

Theo's death

One more leap ahead to Theodore's death which took place in 1966 and another naval connection is confirmed by his death certificate. He died of heart attack in the Seamen's Hospital in Greenwich, a service set up many years before specifically to benefit naval servicemen.

While Theo's WW1 service remains a mystery, at least I seem to have stumbled upon his contribution during WW2. But it's a huge gap between that 1918 photograph of him in uniform and 1939. There's still a lot more yet to uncover about the mystery of Uncle Theo!

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Useful websites for WW1 research:

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/

Unexpected discovery

I love it when you're beavering away adding general information to your family history files and something unexpected turns up.

The 7th July 2017 was the 100 year anniversary of the formation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and prompted me to see what I could find out about my ancestor, Nora Ida Patten, my maternal grandmother's cousin, who's wearing her WAAC uniform in a photograph I have of her.

I believe the last time I mentioned Nora on this blog, was because she'd been incorrectly labelled and attributed to the wrong parents. (See Top of my mystery list.) Since then, I've established her true identity.

She was born in late 1896 in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, to John Patten and Mary Ann Griffiths, my great-grandfather's sister, making her my first cousin, twice removed.

Service records

Much to my delight, I discovered Nora's service records on the National Archives website and downloaded a copy. From the form I gleaned a couple useful snippets of information, unconnected with her WW1 career – firstly, that her religion was "Wesleyan" and secondly, that her occupation

Nora's parents, John & Mary Ann Patten
(nee Griffiths) in my great-grandparents'
garden (and later my gran's)

was "tailoress".

But what I was excited to learn was that she'd transferred from the WAAC to the Central Flying School at Upavon, Wiltshire and joined the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF).

The WRAF was created on 1st April 1918. Previously, the WAAC and the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) both worked on air stations of the Royal Flying Corp (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). When these two merged to become the RAF, the WRAF was created to ensure specialist women's services wouldn't be lost.

Members of the WAAC and WRNS were asked if they'd like to transfer to the new service and 9,000 of them did – clearly, Nora was one.

But while it would be lovely to think that being sent to the Central Flying School meant her new status involved flying aeroplanes, in reality the role of the WRAF was to support the men by doing work they would have done, thereby releasing them for combat.

Women's trades

There were four broad categories in which the women were divided: Clerks and Storewomen, Household, Technical and Non-technical. To quote the Royal Airforce Museum website:

The majority of women were employed as clerks, with shorthand typists the most highly paid of all airwomen. Women allocated to the Household section worked the longest hours, doing back breaking work for the lowest pay. The Technical section covered a wide range of trades, most highly skilled, including tinsmiths, fitters and welders.

By 1920 over 50 trades were open to women including tailoring, photography, catering, pigeon keeping and driving. The work of these women ...proved that [they] could equal men in the workplace.

Notice that one particular trade mentioned was tailoring, and given her former occupation, this may have been what Nora did at Upavon.

Courtesy of TNA

Nora was married in 1919 and her marriage was registered in Pewsey (the district for Upavon) in the March quarter of that year. I'm currently awaiting delivery of a copy of her marriage certificate.

The last entry in Nora's records is dated the end of February 1919 and it's clear that she's been granted leave. Some fellow family historians who've seen the form believe the shorthand stands for "unpaid leave". Others think it has something to do with "nuptials"!

As for the P.D. at the end... given that it's the final entry and she's surely to have left the service at this point, could it be "something Discharge"?

And what of Nora's husband? His name was Albany John Ward and he was born in Devon in 1894.

You'd think with a name like Albany, he'd be easy to trace but so far information is a bit thin. Apparently he was known as John or Jack which makes his distinctive name less useful.

Hopefully my luck will change soon, as I'm keen to find out about his military career. Did he and Nora meet at Upavon? Was he a pilot? Perhaps when the marriage certificate arrives it will answer that question. I'll let you know!

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If you've anything to add to the debate about what's written in that last entry of Nora's records, please do add your comment below. 

In the meantime, if I learn anything definitive about that, or about Albany John Ward, you'll read it here. Watch this space...

Mystery man identified!

Yes! At last! I now know who my distinguished serviceman is! Of course, that's not to say that I've established exactly... who he is... But more on that later...

Those of you who've read this blog for a while will know that I've always been baffled by this gentleman, whose photograph, dated August 1918, I found amongst the family documents. My late aunt believed him to be Vincent Talbot and had written that name on the back, along with that of his alleged mother.

But I hit a brick wall trying to find him on the family tree. The lady who was supposed to be his mother did not, as far as I could establish, have any sons.

Twitter help

Posting the photograph on Twitter resulted in feedback from some eagle-eyed tweeter who quite rightly noticed that the name Vincent, signed on the front of the photo, was his surname, accompanied by the initials C and J.

More investigation, and confirmation from a military expert, told me that his cap badge revealed him to have been in the Tank Corps. But although I searched various databases for a Sergeant C J Vincent, and came across potential matches, such as Charles James and Charles Joseph, there was no obvious connection with "my man" to draw any firm conclusions.

Pause for breath

So, as often happens, another mystery pushed its way to the front of the queue and I became involved in other things. Until I joined the Facebook group, Staffordshire & Ancestry Genealogy.... I posted a photo of my mystery man and I got a breakthrough!

I'm indebted to Bryan Johncock of the group who not only identified his initials as G J not C J, but armed with that knowledge, found his military records on Find My Past.

Attestation form of George J Vincent

So... meet George James Vincent, a sergeant in the tank corps, regimental number 205517! 

But, as all good family historians should, I cautioned myself not to get too carried away until I could verify that we were talking about the same man. 

So you can imagine my excitement when, using Bryan's information to locate George on Ancestry, I came across this  military record – his Service Attestation form from 1916.

When I homed in on the signature, I recognised it immediately. It's the same as the one on my photograph!

About the man

George James Vincent was born in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1893 to Henry and Mary Vincent (nee Head). His father was a grocer and the couple had seven children – Mabel, Henry, George, Hilda, James, Lilian and (Phyllis) Madge. 

The 1911 census shows George as a solicitor's clerk. His father was a Grocer manager in Chepstow and his elder brother, Henry, was also in the grocery trade as an assistant.

In 1916 George joined the Motor Machine Gun Service which would go on to be incorporated into the Tank Corps. A fascinating book called The Most Secret Place on Earth, by Roger Pugh, tells the story of the development of the tank in WW1. The book logs the early days of gathering men with an engineering background to train to drive the new secret machines and eventually take their expertise out to the battlefields in France.

As for George's role, I'm still getting my head round the vagaries of the battalions and units and regiments... but hope to report back soon in more detail on his service career once I've unravelled the relevant tangled military ribbons. 

Meanwhile, I can tell you that George married Ena Edna Thorne in July 1918, in Tidenham, in Gloucestershire. (Bizarrely, this portion of Gloucestershire was under the Chepstow registration district until 1937 when it became part of The Forest of Dean, which caused me some initial confusion!) If you cast a glance at the marriage entry below, you might recognise the signature!

As you can see, George is living in Wool, Dorset, at the time of his wedding – which is just down the road from Bovington, where in 1916 the Machine Gun Corps relocated from Norfolk and, of course, is where today you'll find the Bovington Tank Museum. Time for a visit there, I think!

Now, while I'm thrilled to finally know who my distinguished military man is, I'm still no closer to understanding why his photograph was in with my own family collection!  I've found no common surnames within his immediate family which might suggest a link, leaving me plenty of digging left to do to solve that particular part of the mystery. So this really is only Part One of the journey.

But, fear not, I have a few ideas and I'm already following up some leads. So I'll be back again when I've got more to report. Watch this space!

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Meanwhile, the website The Long, Long Trail is extremely useful if you're about to embark upon a search for WW1 information on an ancestor of your own.

And if you do track something down, you may like to post it on Lives of the First World War which is logging as many personal stories as it can for future generations to read.

Surplus Women - the legacy of WW1

Clarrie, Winifred & Hilda Griffiths

Most of us have them on our tree — Maiden Aunts. My great-aunt, Hilda Victoria Griffiths, depicted right with her sisters, my grandmother Winifred (the youngest) and Clarrie, the eldest of the three, is probably the one I knew best, out of all my maiden aunts.

Often overlooked by family historians for obvious reasons (that the line stops there, as with single men) single women can end up being labelled and dismissed as what's almost become a term of condescension — "spinster".

While the dictionary definition of a spinster is simply "an unmarried woman", the term conjures up society's stereotype — an elderly lady, sitting in a corner knitting, assumed to know little of the "real world", even seen as a bit batty, to be viewed with pity. Or worse, considered a "dried up", embittered old maid who'd been "left on the shelf", to be treated with scorn, mockery and even contempt.

Surplus Women

The unfairness of this attitude was made particularly clear to me this week while reading Singled Out, by Virginia Nicholson which examines the trauma of what the press of the time termed Surplus Women, following the First World War.

The loss of so many young men who'd died in the trenches completely distorted the natural balance of the sexes, confirmed by the 1921 census which revealed that for every 1,000 men of marriageable age, there were around 1,200 women. In consequence, there would be a considerable number of women who would never find a mate, an outcome considered a crisis situation in an era when society saw marriage as every woman's goal.

Hilda (left) with younger sister, Winifred

You would think that, given the status quo was brought about by such traumatic circumstances as a world war, allowances would be made for the women affected. But while there was sympathy and understanding by some, it seems there were others who looked down disdainfully on those women who didn't prove "good enough" in the inevitable competition to find a partner.

Mystery fiancé

Any woman born at the turn of the 20th century, as Hilda was, became a surplus statistic, as did Hilda's sisters — my grandmother, Winifred, who would have been 17 at the end of the war, and Clarrie, who would have been 23.

But Clarrie would be married by 1921 and by 1929 so would Winifred (albeit to a much older man, not of her own generation, though that's another story). But Hilda, born in 1897, would be 32 by the time of Win's marriage, an age considered far too old to have any reasonable hope of attracting a husband.

There was the sniff of a story that Hilda was engaged before the war and that her fiance was killed. Sadly, I have no name and no more information than that to establish the truth of the tale. Perhaps, as I've speculated before, my "unknown soldier" from the tank corps (see Mystery Unravelling... slowly) is the man in question and is the reason why I've been unable to link him to the family tree.

Nieces and nephews

Like many surplus ladies of her generation, however, Hilda was determined to make the most of her life, even if it didn't include a husband and children of her own.

My Rupert, one of many
versions Hilda made

She had several great-nieces and great-nephews who benefited from her love of sewing. Amongst the many things she sewed, she made Rupert Bears for each of us, using patterns she drew herself by hand, so each bear had its own distinctive character. My sister and I considered our own bears to be very precious and were horrified at the way our male cousins played with them, throwing them around through the air in games of derring-do!

Hilda worked for British Rail, having first joined the railways as clerk with the Great Western Railway in 1916. When she retired, she enjoyed travelling around the country visiting friends and family, thanks to the 'perk' of discounted fares as a former employee. 

Hilda's GWR employee entry in 1916

When she wasn't travelling, she lived in a caravan on a residential site in Wolverhampton which my sister and I thought was the most exciting thing in the world. When we visited, we would sit up at the bedroom end of the van at her "dining table" playing with a set of kitchen scales and weights, measuring out rice into different containers.

Hilda's caravan after it was moved to Wales
for family holiday use

Hilda was a great cook, too. In her minute kitchen, she would conjure up the most amazing cakes and biscuits for tea.

When she moved into a long-awaited council flat in the late 1960s (when she would have been around 70 years old) we couldn't understand the appeal over the "romance" of living in a caravan. The fact that she would no longer have to make do with a condensation-inducing gas fire for heating, a chemical loo in a cupboard in the kitchen or trek across the site for a bath, was completely lost on us!

Lost opportunity

Hilda died in 1975 in Codsall, Wolverhampton, aged 77. In life, she was always cheerful, kind, enthusiastic and always busy. I wonder how she felt about being one of the Surplus Women.  Did she, like many who are mentioned in Virginia Nicholson's book, feel that she'd missed out, that she'd been robbed unfairly of a life she might have expected if the war had never happened? If she did, I never saw any sign of it.

And what was the truth about the story of a lost love? That, I fear, may be one of those mysteries which is destined to remain ever secret.

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Do you have maiden aunts on your tree? What were they like? If you've any memories to share, I'd be delighted to hear about them.

Insights from a postcard and a mystery aunt

The leaning tower of family postcards!

My dad was always complaining about the amount of old postcards my gran left which he said cluttered up his cupboards. While sorting through them recently, I can see what he meant! She must have kept every holiday postcard she'd ever been sent by holidaying family and friends.

Amongst the designated albums and neat overflow piles, some bound in thick elastic bands, I also found postcards from my mum's side of the family. A true written history of the places people went and what they did while they were there.



As well as those sent on holiday, the collection included postcards from the First World War, on which verses of Abide with Me were printed below images of soldiers in pensive mode, occasionally being comforted by nurses.

Letters and postcards from home were understandably of vital importance to the morale of the soldiers and you can read more about the subject in an online article called Tommy's Mail and the Army Post Office. Sadly, the ones I found were blank.

Many of the postcards in my family's collection are simply photographic records of places around the UK, often of locations I know well and have hardly changed over time, such as Clovelly in Devon and Porlock in Somerset.

But it's those with messages written on the reverse which fascinate me most. Several are of the "letter card" variety, allowing space for more than just a brief note.

If I was expecting something monumentous amongst these newsy scribbled messages, often written in pencil and difficult to read, I shouldn't really have been surprised to find their content dominated by - yes, you guessed it (We are talking about British holiday postcards, don't forget) - the weather!

The weather is good so far, although it's been dull this afternoon or ...not a lot of sunshine but not too bad and the weather today shown some improvement after being very rough and cool since last Friday. So - that's one myth debunked. Summers in the early 1950s weren't an everlasting sun-fest, after all!

Even so, the cards do give an insight into holiday life back then. Comments such as, I've let Dad do the writing so I can do a bit of knitting. The scenery is very nice. Another read, Tomorrow I am going to the Scarborough Folk Dance class and, Sat on pier this morning and watched the navy, submarines, M.T.Ps and the steamer going round the island. (M.T.Ps? Answers on a postcard... ?)

One letter gave a summary of the hotel guests. 3 honeymoon couples, 2 engaged couples, 3 single men & the balance of the usuals. Presumably the recipient was perfectly clear what constituted "the usuals"!

A card from Hastings in Sussex began, Having got over the wedding we are now having a good time. What on earth happened at the wedding, I wonder, to cause Sam & Elsie (whoever they were) such trauma that they needed a holiday to get over it?

There was the odd complaint, too. Don't think much of the shops. None had cream cakes. Another said (and my apologies to inhabitants of the Isle of Wight), Visited Sandown but it's not as nice as Shanklin.

One brief message, though, intrigued me. It was from my Great Auntie Hilda, written to her sister and showing a photo of Hyde Park. 4.30 In the train, it said. Have had a wonderful time and engaged every minute. Will tell you more when I see you. But what fascinated me most was a note on the top in a different ink, as though it was added later. Please let me know Aunty Sally's address. 

Aunty Sally? Who's she? Didn't even know there was a Sally in the

family. A quick check reminded me that Sally was often a pet form of Sarah. Hilda's mother was called Sarah but she obviously wasn't referring to her mother.  However Hilda's uncle, Jabez Griffiths, married a Sarah Ann Astley. Was she known as Sally, to avoid confusion in the family?

It so happens that I've not been able to track a Sarah Ann Astley before her marriage to Jabez. Perhaps I should have been looking for a Sally Astley instead? Now, there's a thought... Don't you just love it when a chance discovery sends you off on another trail!

Anniversary favourites

This month is the second anniversary of my Family History Secrets blog so I thought I'd celebrate by choosing three of my favourite posts from the last two years.



The first of my choices concerns my husband's grandfather, Alfred Joseph Saunders. Alfred died before my husband was born, at the relatively young age of 45. Compiling the post was like putting together a jigsaw without the box lid and I can recall the shock I felt when all the pieces were in place and the emotional story hit home.

Many of jigsaw pieces were in the form of postcards Alfred had written to his daughter during  and just after World War I and reading them brought a lump to my throat.

Read Alfred's poignant story HERE.







My second choice is the post entitled The Mystery of 138 photographs.

I love old photographs and this bundle was intriguing. I found them in a bulging leatherette pouch and at first glance I didn't think I knew anything about any of them.

When I wrote the post, for instance, I had no idea of the identity of the lady who appeared in several of the pictures but with a little detective work and while on the search for another elusive ancestor, I discovered who she was.

You can read the original post by clicking on the title above and find out who Nellie was by clicking HERE.

And finally, after watching BBC's Countryfile programme the other week about the Welsh sea-side town of Llandudno, I was reminded of another post I'd written about my grandmother, Winifred Griffiths.

Wyn was a professional singer and often performed in Llandudno's famous Happy Valley on the Great Orme during the 1930s.



Read more about her singing career from being discovered as a teenager, touring with a well known opera company and her time in Llandudno, on my post Strictly Music Hall.


I look forward to many more years of sharing the secrets I uncover about my family history and hope that you enjoy reading about them too.

More questions than answers

My grandfather, (Ernest) George Shelley

With Armistice Day upon us, it seemed appropriate to dig out the bundle of my grandfather's WW1 service records. As most WW1 service records were lost in bombings during WW2, I know I'm fortunate in having what documents and photographs that I do.

Soldier's little brown Pay Book

One of the most treasured items is his original Soldiers' Service and Pay Book. A small brown notebook with a hard cover, it has a pocket in the back in which I found various slips of paper relating to demob clothes, ID certificates and pay allowances. In the front of the book is his name (Ernest George Shelley, always known as George), his trade (blacksmiths striker) and his unit (Sherwood Foresters).





I also have several group photographs of him with his unit, including this of him and colleagues in full uniform...

Granddad is standing on the far right

 ...and in shirt sleeves with bayonetted rifles on display...

Seated, far right, middle row.

... as well as portraits of him in uniform, seated as well as standing.

I also have a collection of postcards my granddad had written home. They were all dated 1918 and postmarked Newcastle upon Tyne. Some were addressed to his mother and others to my grandmother (they weren't yet married and didn't do so until 1921). Many show views of Whitley Bay but others depict a place called Backworth.

In his correspondence he talks of receiving (or more often, not receiving!) letters or parcels and says he'll learn more soon about where he is to be sent.

But having imagined that with all this information it would be easy to piece together his role in the war, I realised on closer inspection that what was there only told a patchy story.

First of all I noticed in his service book that the date of enlistment was given as April 1918. Surely he'd joined up before then? Yes, he had. A ragged postcard, dated 11^th December 1915, stated that he'd been 'attested' (enlisted) and transferred to the army reserve until required for service. So what had happened then? And why hadn't it been recorded  in his service book?

As I studied the photographs of my granddad in uniform, I realised that the cap badges weren't all the same. I scoured through the remaining paperwork and discovered his demob certificate, which confirmed that while he had indeed been in the 1^st Battalion Notts and Derby regiment (also known as the Sherwood Foresters) when he'd originally joined up, he'd been in the South Staffordshire regiment.

Now this is where it gets complicated. According to the Staffordshire Regiment's website, the South Staffs had only two battalions, 1st and 2nd. But on further investigation, it seems there was a plethora of other battalions within the regular army, plus the territorials and the 'new armies', as well as other service, reserve and labour battalions.

The 3rd (reserve) ended up in November 1916 in Forest Hall, Newcastle - the post mark on my granddad's postcards - and at least one battalion of The Sherwood Foresters also ended up in Newcastle. Did he transfer there? Were the regiments merged? As I'm no aficionado on the British Army and its structure, I suspect it will take me while to unravel the implications of this confusing information!

However I can leave you with one final snippet of intrigue.

When I returned to my granddad's service book, I noticed the name 'Boesinghe' (a village north of Ypes where battles had taken place earlier in the war) and the words '284 P.O.W. Company'. This suggested to me that my granddad could have been guarding prisoners of war.

However when I posted a photograph of him (with his service details) on the Postcard Photos of the Notts & Derbyshire Regiment's Facebook Page  a kind contributor confirmed the 284 P.O.W. Company information I'd read in his records, but added that my granddad was in 'B' company and would have been posted to Abancourt, France.

A browse on the internet suggests that Abancourt did have a prison, but that it was a military prison, holding soldiers charged with insubordination, mutiny and desertion - which would include those poor unfortunates awaiting execution for "cowardice".

Was this where my grandfather was posted? I think I need the assistance of a military expert! 

My search for information continues...

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If you'd like to research your own WW1 ancestors, a good place to start is the Tracing World War 1 Family History page of The Great War 1914-1918 website, www.greatwar.co.uk, which lists the places where you might find the information you need (nothwithstanding that large gap in records I mention at the start of this post).

The National Archives also has information on the relevant records it holds on its WW1 page.

If you have ancestors who were in The Sherwood Foresters, you might like  also to check out the Postcard Photos of the Notts & Derbyshire Regiment's Facebook Page.

The BBC have set up an interactive page 'I wonder about WW1' taking you through various routes to uncover information about your WW1 ancestor.

The Sad Case of Thomas Diggory of the Gloucester Hussars

Almost eight million men (ref PCS) were left disabled after WW1 and my Great Uncle Tom was one of them.

I never met Tom, or Thomas James Diggory to give him his full name, as he died before I was born but I knew he'd served in the war and had been injured. His photograph took pride of place on the mantelpiece in my grandmother's dining room. Tom was her older brother.

Tom was born in 1894 in Sedgley in Staffordshire where the family lived in the lodge of Park Hall, now a hotel. Tom is in the centre of the photograph, standing behind his little sister, my grandmother, Edith Alice.

Before the war, Tom worked in service, as a footman, as seen here in his uniform (he's the one on the left).

Tom joined the 7th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment opting to become a cavalryman in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, and serving in Gallapoli in 1915.

According to the account on the "Glosters" website, The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars arrived in Alexandria, Egypt in April 1915, a mounted force of 537 men. In August, after a period of training, they landed in Gallapoli where the rest of the 7th battalion had already sustained heavy losses. 

Ordered to leave their horses behind, they spent the next six weeks in battle around Chocolate Hill and the trenches around Cator House. By 17th October, with casualties and, more significantly, disease, having taken a severe toll, they were down to an effective strength of only 95. Tom had been badly injured in the leg, having stepped on an explosive.

Tom wearing his "hospital blues", the uniform that injured servicemen were required to wear during WW1, 

a practice first introduced during the Crimean War.

Tom remained in hospital for some considerable time, and I have yet to establish where, though it's been suggested it may have been in Birmingham. But Tom failed to thrive and continued to have problems with his injured leg.

 In 1932 he married Beatrice Wood (Betty). You can just make out his walking sticks in the photograph below, taken at their wedding. He was aged 38 by now and you can see from the photo that he doesn't look a well man.

A short time after this photograph was taken, Tom's injury became troublesome again, the wound refusing to heal, leaving a gaping hole in the flesh. 

But despite medical advice, and the support and encouragement of his family, Tom refused to agree to the offending leg being amputated.  "I came into this world with two legs," he's reported to have said, "and I shall leave it with two legs."

He remained bed-ridden, nursed by his wife Betty, until his death in 1954, aged 60.

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Post update February 2017

I received a comment on this post explaining that Thomas was not in the Hussars, as my grandmother, Thomas's sister always maintained, but in the Infantry. 

Unfortunately, as he/she commented anonymously and left no contact details, I wasn't able to go back to them to clarify matters (I'm confused that Thomas is sitting on a horse in the photo above but allegedly was in the Infantry – I'd love an explanation!).

But if anyone else can unpick the information below and get in touch, I'd be delighted to hear from you!

Sorry to say that Thomas was not one of ours, Gloucestershire Yeomanry, but Gloucesters (Infantry) 7th and 8th Battalions

He was at Gallipoli with the Infantry at the same time as his County cousins in the dismounted Yeomanry.

Name: Thomas James Diggory 
Military Year: 1914-1920 
Rank: Lance Corporal 
Medal Awarded: British War Medal and Victory Medal 
Regiment or Corps: Gloucestershire Regiment 
Regimental Number: 22240 
Previous Units: 7th Glouc. Regt. 22240 Pte., 8th Glouc. R. 22240 

Tantalizing clues...

My husband never met his grandfather, Alfred Joseph Saunders, as he died many years before he was born. All he knew about him was that was born in Fulham, and had been a joiner.

The other day we came across a set of postcards which Alfred had sent to his young daughter while he was in France during WWI. The postcards, 17 in total, generally depicted children, often holding flowers and expressing sentiments such as Anniversaire or Bonne Fete. 

One read: "My darling little girl, I hope you are keeping well also that you will have a happy Xmas. I suppose you will have all your little friends into tea. With love and kisses, from Dada xxxxxxxx"

All the cards expressed similar messages of affection, from a loving father to his daughter and only child.

On closer inspection, some of the cards had an address - Hut Q, RAF Vendome, France. His service number was also recorded on a few.

Vendome was the site of the Royal Naval Air Training Establishment (RNATE) formed in April 1916. Two years later in 1918, the service was merged with the Royal Flying Corps. (RFC) and became the RAF.

A brief check on the forces war records database listed a A.J. Saunders as an engineer. As a joiner, his skills may have been used in the maintenance of the wooden bi-planes of those early days. No doubt I shall find out more as I research our WWI ancestors, as is my intention during this centenary year of 2014.

But for now, our intrigue was piqued by two other postcards in the pile. These were dated August 1929 and were posted in the UK, from Patching in West Sussex. One showed the Music Pavilion, Worthing, the other was of Patching Pond showing the pub, The Horse and Groom.

The Horse and Groom Inn, Patching Pond,
now renamed The Worlds End

So why was Alfred doing in Patching?

One of the messages read: I arrived all right, Bus into Patching (8.30) You can get a bus to anywhere from Patching. Love Dad. Added almost as an afterthought at the top of the postcard were the words Keeping fine.

But was he? And did his trip have anything to do with what happened three weeks later? Did he visit the south coast for health reasons?

Sadly, on 29th August 1929, Alfred Joseph Saunders died of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) aged only 45. No doubt leaving behind a very broken-hearted daughter.

Lest we forget...

This weekend in hundreds of towns and villages across the country, people will have laid poppy wreaths at War Memorials in memory of those who gave their lives in combat.

But an interesting story reminds us also not to forget those who support those fighting in action. At an Antique Evening in our village (something akin to a poor man's Antique Roadshow) our expert was valuing a set of war medals from the Boer Wars. He told us of a war medal, awarded to a doctor for his work in a field hospital, recently sold at auction. It fetched much less than another medal awarded to a solider in battle. He poignantly remarked that it suggested that more credit is given for taking lives than saving them.






Next year sees the centenary of the WWI. Amongst our family photograph collection are several of those ancestors who served in the conflict.

I've done little research in this area, despite my best intentions, being usually more interested in civilian life than in battles and military campaigns.

So my pledge for 2014 is to find out more about these men and their contribution to that devastating war which was intended to end all wars. By Armistice Day next year, I hope to have uncovered some of their stories.

The final word on Remembrance Sunday goes to Harry Patch - The Last Fighting Tommy

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Many genealogy sites have links to records about serving WWI ancestors. Here are a few.

ancestry.co.uk

greatwar.co.uk

familysearch.org

Also December's issue of Family Tree Magazine has an article on POWs during WWI and Who Do You Think You Are magazine has a booklet on tracing your WWI ancestors.

Good luck!