Summary
- 966 – Men identified with service number (+5 this month)
- 811 – Confirmed ’08 service numbers (+9)
- 91 – Men identified without service number (+1)
- 70 – Portraits (+4)
- 61 – Descendants contacted (+4)
- 46 – Profiles drafted (+2)
My plan for December was to focus on the Image Library and to start a second run through family trees on Ancestry. Although I did make progress on both of these, as usual I got a bit distracted and ultimately found another 5 new solders.
A new block of soldiers in the 726xxx series
I started the month looking at the Morriston Roll of Honour to find unusual names and then look for them in the records, it was a bit of a gamble, but it definitely paid off. After I focussed on 726143, Aaron Williams, I broadened my search and found a new block of numbers in the 726xxx series associated with the Brigade running from 726139 to 726143 and this in turn led to me finding 5 new men.
This block of numbers relates to a transfer of men from the 3rd Line of the Welsh Howitzers to 4A Reserve Brigade on 14 September 1916. Once again, all of these men subsequently went on to see active service in various different units and theatres.
Linked to this block of numbers is also a set of Regular Service Numbers in the 169xxx series. It appears whilst these men were serving with a Regular unit at the start of 1917, they were initially assigned a 725xxx number, which was subsequently cancelled when they received their 169xxx number. After the August 1917 order (see the 1917 Renumbering section), these men were redesignated as Territorial Force members and, because their original numbers had been cancelled, new numbers were issued within the 726xxx block.
Slow progress on drafting profiles
This month I only completed 2 new profiles. 720, Dvr P Hill was a pre-war territorial from Neath. Unfortunately, there are very few records relating to his service, but it is possible to deduce that he, along with the rest of the Brigade, was mobilised in August 1914 and travelled to France in November 1915. It is also likely that he went to Egypt and served there from 1916 onwards. His family kindly shared a great studio portrait.
I also completed the profile of 985, CT Deacon. It a pleasure to work with his family to research their ancestor and I was fortunate that they had already done a lot of work.
Cliff Deacon enlisted on 14 September 1914 and after training was posted to A Sub of the 2nd Glamorgan Battery where he appears in a number of my Great Uncle’s (985, RJ Williams) pictures. After travelling to France and Egypt with the Battery he transferred to the RFC at the start of 1917 as a Motor Cyclist. His family reported that he had always been interested in flying and in early 1918 he was passed fit for flying training.
His flying training started with 58 Training Squadron in Suez, but after a reported injury, he returned to the UK and completed his training at Driffield, Yorkshire, completing his basic flight training and receiving his pilots license at the end of 1918.
I have also been in touch with a couple of other families and hope to finish several more profiles in the coming weeks. Each one is a fascinating little piece of research.
Image Library
And finally, as promised, I’ve started work on the new image library.
This is going to be a long job and has started with categorising (date, place, subject, etc) every photo of the Brigade that I have received to date (I think there will be somewhere between 200-300). Once I have completed this, I will upload all of the photos and start building topic relating photo albums.
My plan is that when finished, visitors to the site will easily be able to find relevant pictures or documents – be it recruits training at the depot in 1914, soldiers visiting Cairo in 1916, examples of demobilisation papers or Original Grave Photographs from the Imperial War Graves Commission.
Thanks as always.
