WakefieldWomble
13-11-11, 14:19
Hello everyone. I'm a newbie here, I met Zoe Linkson yesterday who told me about this site.
My Dad has been researching the family tree for more than 30 years and after my Grandmother died in 2005 I started to take an interest and now help him out with research.
Being an old soldier myself I am more interested in the military side of things and it is this that excites me most.
Dad was up against a bit of a brick wall when it came to his own Grandfathers war service and had decided that he was either and Bombadier in the Royal Artillery or a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps. I decided to find out.
After much searching I eventually found an enlistment form that looked like it might be the one I had been looking for and as it turned out it was.
My consequent research discovered that:
Great-Grandfather Leonard had enlisted in the Army Pay Corps at Aldershot in 1914 and had been posted to Woking where he would remain for the whole war. Soon after arriving there he was appointed temporary Lance Corporal and shortly after appointed temporary Sergeant, he was still a temporary Sergeant when he was discharged in 1919
When the Second World War broke out in 1939 he signed up again but by now he was 60 years old. He was commissioned into the Royal Army Pay Corps and then promoted and appointed Paymaster. Dad remembers him as a Captain but that rank wasn't Gazetted.
We don't know but we think Leonard continued to work at the same place in Woking as a civilian between the wars and advanced to a position that meant he would need to be an officer to continue in it in war time.
I know where he worked, the place is or was a hospital after WW2 and photos of the WW1 staff exist that I plan to get my hands on.
My Dad has been researching the family tree for more than 30 years and after my Grandmother died in 2005 I started to take an interest and now help him out with research.
Being an old soldier myself I am more interested in the military side of things and it is this that excites me most.
Dad was up against a bit of a brick wall when it came to his own Grandfathers war service and had decided that he was either and Bombadier in the Royal Artillery or a Private in the Royal Army Service Corps. I decided to find out.
After much searching I eventually found an enlistment form that looked like it might be the one I had been looking for and as it turned out it was.
My consequent research discovered that:
Great-Grandfather Leonard had enlisted in the Army Pay Corps at Aldershot in 1914 and had been posted to Woking where he would remain for the whole war. Soon after arriving there he was appointed temporary Lance Corporal and shortly after appointed temporary Sergeant, he was still a temporary Sergeant when he was discharged in 1919
When the Second World War broke out in 1939 he signed up again but by now he was 60 years old. He was commissioned into the Royal Army Pay Corps and then promoted and appointed Paymaster. Dad remembers him as a Captain but that rank wasn't Gazetted.
We don't know but we think Leonard continued to work at the same place in Woking as a civilian between the wars and advanced to a position that meant he would need to be an officer to continue in it in war time.
I know where he worked, the place is or was a hospital after WW2 and photos of the WW1 staff exist that I plan to get my hands on.