Summary
- 952 – Men identified with service number (+3 this month)
- 744 – Confirmed ’08 service numbers (+2)
- 86 – Men identified without service number
- 50 – Portraits (+10)
- 41 – Descendants contacted (+16)
- 26 – Profiles drafted
August was a quiet month, with me focusing on contacting descendants, drafting profiles and having a week away in (surprisingly warm and sunny) Scotland.
Contacting Ancestry Tree Owners
In total, I’ve now contacted 128 tree owners via Ancestry and had a 60 replies – which is a way better response rate than I expected. And of those 60, 27 have led to new photographs and information that have been uploaded onto the site.
It’s been a real pleasure making contact with the families of the men of the Brigade and almost universally, the feedback on both the goals of the project and the information that I’ve been able to share with them about their ancestors has been positive.
This has also been a major factor in the progress of the Portrait Gallery, with 50 portraits now uploaded. Frustratingly, 2 further portraits have been uploaded on Ancestry, but I have been unable to make contact with the owner to gain their permission, so I have not uploaded these.
I’ve been working through the nominal roll in order and thus far, I’m up to Service Number 1333, which means there is at least another month of contacting family members and drafting profiles before I move on.
New Profiles Uploaded
This month, I’ve uploaded almost a dozen new profiles and each has been fascinating to prepare. Its very hard to pick out my favourites, but I’ve given it a go.
The family of 942, A/Cpl Ben Watkins kindly shared a series of photos of their Grandfather. 2 in particular stood out.
- The first was a photo of the Drivers in training in Swansea in late 1914; it appears to be part of a series of photos of the men taken at the time and matches up perfectly with the picture of the Gunners in the Rees Williams album (on the home page).
- The second was a picture of Ben in Egypt dressed casually. I really like this picture as it encapsulates how the men would have looked most of the time (as opposed to the formal ‘staged’ portraits).
To see the Ben Watkins pictures, click here.
I also made contact with the family of 725535, Gnr Idris Evans. It was an absolute pleasure to exchange information with both his son and grandson and I was able to put together a very detailed profile thanks to the combination of the wonderful information that they shared coupled with a very comprehensive series of newspaper articles.
Finally, the family of 795, Dvr Henry Mayberry kindly shared a great photo and some fascinating documents.
Henry’s service record has survived; he enlisted in early 1914, but because he was underage, he did not travel to France in 1915. After a spell in the 2nd Line, he finally went to France in September 1916 with D Battery, 173 Brigade.
Henry only remained in France for 4 months, after which he was ordered to return home by the Ministry of Munitions and to return to his civilian job at Vivian & Sons Ltd, Hafod Copper Works where he remained for the remainder of the War.
His family still have copies of the orders he received telling him to return home which are in his image library.
Next month
As I mentioned earlier, I will be continuing to contact descendants and draft profiles. I also look foward to telling you more about the biggest surviving collection of documentation I’ve seen thus far – it is truly amazing!
