Genealogy Chat

We have had conflicting results from my grandfather's WW1 records. He received a war pension until his death in 1948, so we thought there was a reasonable chance of finding his records at Kew. What we found was confusing and we wonder whether anyone can shed any light on our results or -- best of all -- suggest how we might proceed? The record we found was for the wrong regiment (Middlesex), was attached to someone else's file and said nothing about the overseas service we know my grandfather undertook. The Medal Rolls show that my grandfather did indeed serve with the regiment we had expected to find him associated with -- the East Surreys -- so clearly he re-enlisted until he was discharged on medical grounds in 1916. But we can find no trace of this record at all, and we have searched Burnt, Unburnt, Misfiles and possible name variants or (as far as we could imagine them) mistranscriptions. The Medal Rolls also show that my grandfather then joined up with the Labour Corps -- date unknown -- and was discharged in 1919. Any suggestions about where we could search for either the missing East Surrey service or for anything we could discover about the Labour Corps would be very much appreciated. Also, we believe his brother was killed in the war -- but we have had no luck with CWGC, with 1837online, or the Kew archives: anything else we could investigate?

My grandfather's ww1 photos shoe him with a banner of which we can read 'Queen's Own' in the background. I'm tol this was part of the Surrey Regt. CWWGC has him as in the London Regt. (He was killed in Sept 1918.) It seems that he was injured and then returned to France in a different Regt. Dave

hi angela, long shot but you could try army vets agency blackpool fy3 3wp free phone 0800 1692 277 ,and army pensions norcross blackpool, hope this helps, tony

Could there possibly be two different medal index cards for him? I have a similar situation with my grandfather's half-brother, who I know from various birth and marriage certs was in the Army Service Corps in 1916 and in the Essex Regiment in 1919. I found a medal card with his surname and initials for the A.S.C and Essex Regiment but it only seemed to cover the beginning of the war. Eventually I paid somebody to look at the records at Kew, and they found that another medal index card was also his, stating he was in the Labour Corps and the East Surrey Regiment. (spooky coincidence, eh?) There don't seem to have been any other records relating to him at Kew apart from the medal roll though, so it didn't get me much further forward, but it does show that the same person can be on more than one medal card. Kate.