Ancestry.co.uk Free UK Records access up until Sunday 10th May

PemburyAddick said:

LargeAddick said:

thanks for the heads-up DA9. I have now discovered, despite my Dad's insistence otherwise, that my paternal grandfather did serve in WW1 in both the London Regiment and the Labour Corps and was in fact injured on 09/07/2017, in France or Belgium (not sure which as he served in both), an injury which I believe led to his discharge. I am now going to make further investigations. I now find it bizarre, and also quite sad in a way, that I have organised two trips in recent years to first Ypres and then the Somme and listened to stories from those on the trip of their relatives who had served and died, and who knows I may have stood on or close to the place my own grandfather was injured without even knowing it. I will have to revisit once I know more.

Very interesting to read that Large. my Grandad served in the London Fusiliers, but ended the war in the Labour Corps as well. When I was researching some 20 years ago I couldn't find much about the formation of the Labour Corps, but got the impression it was for soldiers with injuries or from regiments that were shattered in the German 1918 Spring Offensives. Did you find anything definitive on the Labour Corps? Because he finished in the labour corps there were no records to indicate which London Battalion he joined, and I believe there were over 30 which made it difficult to work out where he served exactly. I'll pick up the research again when I retire in a couple of years

I found my Grandad's War records on ancestry.co.uk which gave great details as to his service. If you sign up in the next couple of days you can view the records for free and even print them out to keep. Then, thanks to Clive being able to tell me what Regiment he was in, I signed in to the National Archive and was able to download the War Diary for his regiment and printed out the pages for the dates he was injured which gave details of exactly where it happened. National Archives are also free to access during lockdown although you have to register which isn't a hassle.

PS - I will say hello when we are both next allowed on the Hastings coach to The Valley.

PemburyAddick said:

LargeAddick said:

thanks for the heads-up DA9. I have now discovered, despite my Dad's insistence otherwise, that my paternal grandfather did serve in WW1 in both the London Regiment and the Labour Corps and was in fact injured on 09/07/2017, in France or Belgium (not sure which as he served in both), an injury which I believe led to his discharge. I am now going to make further investigations. I now find it bizarre, and also quite sad in a way, that I have organised two trips in recent years to first Ypres and then the Somme and listened to stories from those on the trip of their relatives who had served and died, and who knows I may have stood on or close to the place my own grandfather was injured without even knowing it. I will have to revisit once I know more.

Very interesting to read that Large. my Grandad served in the London Fusiliers, but ended the war in the Labour Corps as well. When I was researching some 20 years ago I couldn't find much about the formation of the Labour Corps, but got the impression it was for soldiers with injuries or from regiments that were shattered in the German 1918 Spring Offensives. Did you find anything definitive on the Labour Corps? Because he finished in the labour corps there were no records to indicate which London Battalion he joined, and I believe there were over 30 which made it difficult to work out where he served exactly. I'll pick up the research again when I retire in a couple of years

ken_shabby said:

Is it me  or is that website crap? I signed in, and gave my name and date and place of birth, and pressed search. It then gave me a list of 60 pages with variants on the name, place of birth anywhere in the UK. The dob was also spread over a wide range, which made me wonder why they asked.. By accident I found my dad on page 4, but again, it demanded names of his parents plus birth/death details, which I sort of assumed it would find for me. If the search engine ignores the data  it seems like I'm doing all the work. And as I doubt I'm related to anyone wildly important, I gave up.