WWI - British Army discharge papers

Ponster

I'm doing some research for my family tree project and am spending some time on the military side.
My dad was 26 years as an MP. Not all that exciting but easy to get info for

All of my wife's family who fought in WWI and WWII were ranked at least lieut. colonel but died in battle while the people on my side were bog-standard gunners yet managed to live through it

My great-grandfather was John Egan and I have his enlistment papers (very lucky to have it as many were destroyed by fire) but I don't have his number. I think I can make out some of the numbers but I'm not too sure.

Can anyone say if in the following image the numbers on the top left would refer to his service number?






cheers !

arybvtcw0eolkf

My suggestion would be to get onto The British Legion here in Dublin, I've worked closely with them in the past and they're a fantastic group of people.

They'll bend over backwards for you.

.

iceage

Last three digits look like 849. I see his Regiment is the Royal Artillery by the looks of it and he was attested in Clonmel!

You might have some luck if you contacted http://www.forums.theraa.co.uk/
or, its a long shot Kickham Barracks Directly in Clonmel.

+1 on the British Legion suggestion.

Ponster

Thanks for the replies. I'll contact the British Legion aand see how I get on.

btw, I always thought that Clonmel was a Royal Irish Regiment barracks?
When you signed up back then was it just pot luck as to which regiment you got or I wonder could you choose?

iceage

Sorry I couldn't reply last night, had an early one as I was knackered!! Some places for you to check out Kickham Barracks history.

http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/html/place-details.php?show=134
http://www.tipperarylibraries.ie/local_studies/kickhambarracks.shtml
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CoTipperary/2003-01/1041896138

The last one seems to have been a reply for info on details of when the Royal Artillery were present there, I haven't followed the two links within that message but might be fun for you to do so.

To the Mods,these details are freely available from the local Library so Opsec is not an issue I believe. If you think otherwise please feel free to do with as you wish.

Fratton Fred

Ponster wrote: »

I'm doing some research for my family tree project and am spending some time on the military side.
My dad was 26 years as an MP. Not all that exciting but easy to get info for

All of my wife's family who fought in WWI and WWII were ranked at least lieut. colonel but died in battle while the people on my side were bog-standard gunners yet managed to live through it

My great-grandfather was John Egan and I have his enlistment papers (very lucky to have it as many were destroyed by fire) but I don't have his number. I think I can make out some of the numbers but I'm not too sure.

Can anyone say if in the following image the numbers on the top left would refer to his service number?

cheers !

Did you get that from the national archives at Kew?

I got my grandfathers record from there and it was quite an unusual feeling to think that a man I had never met yet was fairly closely related to, had signed the piece of paper i was looking at (or at least a copy).

Good luck in your search.

Ponster

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Did you get that from the national archives at Kew?

www.ancestry.com

14-day free trial available and it searches through WWI service and pension records.

johnny_doyle

having looked at his record on Ancestry, his number is shown as 205809. Later 703078, Labour Corps.

this tallies with the Medal Card record on the National Archives website

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?queryType=1&resultcount=1&Edoc_Id=2883995

A good place for WW1 service queries is the Long Trail at :


http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?

Ponster

Johnny...I didn't reply until today as I was waiting on information from my dad. I wasn't too sure if it was the same "John Egan" that we were talking about until he casually mentioned that his grandfather, after the war, went back to France to help with burying the dead.

This ties in exactly with the medal roll you linked to as I'm guessing that this would have been typical labour corps duties. (was it normal back then to have a different server number with each corps?)


I wonder now though after having found out this much what else is left to do?

johnny_doyle

I think it was he norm for different regiments/corps to have their own numbering system though there were changes to numbering as the war progressed.

Have you got his medal roll (copy attached)? Does your family have his medals?

You might try looking for the unit war diary. It's unlikely that he's named in thee but you never know.

Ponster

Thanks for the medal roll information.
I hadn't realised that in ancestry that when you find one document for someone you just need to hit the 'next' button to cycle through all of the other docs that refer to the same person.
So I now have 25 different scraps of paper (enlistment/discharge/pension) and am somewhat surprised to have found so many.

I've decided to other copies of both medals (Victory & British) and present them to my grandfather for his 90th birthday this November!

johnny_doyle

yes, lot of pages for John Egan. You get all the info about his wife, the date of marriage, the date of birth of the 3 children, his year of birth, colour of hair, skin, religion, home address plus a bit about his weight and some mesurements. Fab resource.

Hope your grandfather enjoys getting the medals!

Ponster

johnny_doyle wrote: »

Hope your grandfather enjoys getting the medals!

zombie thread but it's mine so....


Yes Johnny, we presented the medals to my grandfather who was clearly touched by them. While he was always a very opinionated person who had very vocal thoughts on "England" and their historical role in Irish history, he seemed to not at all associate the "bad history" with what his father has done in WWI.

He never made it to his 90th but died in October 2009. The impulse I had to give him the medals and tell him the story of what his dad had done in June rather than waiting for his birthday is still one of the luckiest things that I've ever done.