Summary
- 946 – Men identified with service number (+8 this month)
- 739 – Confirmed ’08 service numbers (+8)
- 86 – Men identified without service number (+1)
- 27 – Portraits (+5)
It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster this month. Its felt that some weeks I’ve made great progress and others, every lead I follow is a dead-end. But as you will read, there’s been a couple of things that mean I’ve finally felt that I’m starting to achieve the most important goal of this project – To identify and remember the men who served in the 1st Welsh (Howitzer) Brigade.
New Profiles
The high point for me this month was working with the family of 268, Bill Hughes.
I got in touch with his grand-daughter through the ‘Memories of Neath Old and New’ Facebook page and she kindly shared some recollections of her grand-father, some amazing photos and a new photo of Officers and Senior NCOs of the Brigade. Together, we then wrote a detailed profile of her grand-father and uploaded it, along with the pictures.
Bill Hughes had a long and distinguished military career, serving with the Brigade in both France and Egypt and was mentioned in desptaches multiple times.
Following the war he re-enlisted in the Territorials for another 4 years years as a BQMS and joined again in 1939, serving in an Anti-Aircraft battery. He finally left the army in 1942 and promptly joined the Home Guard.
Bill died in 1948 and the Neath Guardian wrote a lovely epitaph – The father of three sons who served during the last war, he was a member at the Neath Branch of the British Legion, where he was held in very high esteem by his many friends and comrades. Of a quiet and most unassuming character, he was respected as one of Nature’s gentlemen….. Members of the RA assisted as bearers, the “Last Post” being sounded at the graveside.
To read more about Bill and see the photos, click here – 268, Bill Hughes
A couple of other lucky finds
By pure chance, last month I stumbled on a partial service record for 685, Stanley Howe which I hadn’t previously found and he has now been added to the Nominal Roll.
I also took a look on Ancestry to see what else I could find out about him and noticed an interesting photo had been uploaded, so I contacted the tree owner. The tree owner turned out to be a descendant, and whilst they didn’t know much about Stanley’s military career, had some photos which they have now shared, many of which from his time with the Brigade. In the next few weeks, I plan to work with his family to complete his Profile and will update you with what I found.
I also started a more focussed search for descendants of members of the Brigade from Neath. Whilst I was preparing for this, I went through my research to date and noticed something that I had overlooked previously. In an article about 304, WC Canfield, it mentioned that he had a brother in the Brigade. After a quick search, I found a 770, DA Canfield, who received a Silver War Badge. Using the enlistment date given on the SWB, it was possible to confirm that this was the right man – it fitted perfectly in the the date sequence associated with the 1908 service numbers.
And finally, whilst I was browsing through Facebook, I found an article about 1602, NG Chew that said that Norman Chew had worked for Lloyds Bank. As luck would have it, I already own a copy of a Memorial Album that Lloyds published after the war with pictures of employees who had lost their lives. Armed with this knowledge, I quickly found his picture on page 114. His portrait has now been added to his profile and the Portrait Gallery.
Understanding Service Numbers
This month, I also added a page focussed on Understanding Service Numbers.
Throughout their service, soldiers often had several different Service Numbers and in the absence of a Service Record, these Service Numbers can give an insight into the units that a soldier served with as well the dates when they transferred.
Its quite detailed but it’s worth reading if a soldier you are interested in has multiple service numbers. To go to the page, click here – Understanding Service Numbers.
In the process of writing this, I went through all of my notes again and found I had missed 5 men when I originally worked through these. These men have now been added.
