Summary
- 966 – Men identified with service number (unchanged)
- 811 – Confirmed ’08 service numbers (unchanged)
- 91 – Men identified without service number (unchanged)
- 84 – Portraits (+9)
- 72 – Descendants contacted (+10)
- 52 – Profiles drafted (+5)
This month I’ve continued the second pass through the nominal roll.
The first time I did this, my main objective was to quickly find ancestors via Ancestry family trees to attempt to gather more information. On reflection, I didn’t document my findings as well as I should have, so this time, I’m taking a slower and more careful approach.
For every soldier – if I am able to identify them in the records – I am starting to add working notes to their profiles with elements like date of birth, occupation and address. I’m also checking the military sources to see whether any other information has survived, like FMP medical records or wound stripes. The final step is to check to see whether it is worth contacting any other Ancestry tree owners.
I’ve now completed over 100 of these and it has resulted in making contact with 10 new families, finding 9 new portraits and completing a further 5 profiles. Every new profile is a fascinating piece of research and its always a pleasure to work with the families to tell the stories of their ancestors. Here’s a couple of the new profiles from February:
916, Farrier Sergeant Jack Rees
I made contact with the grandson of 967, John (Jack) Rees, who kindly shared a wonderful collection of pictures that his family held.
Jack was born and brought up in Cardigan. He was a pre-war regular soldier and later an early Territorial Force Artillery member (possibly in a different unit). In early 1914, he moved to Morriston to work as a Blacksmith in one of the Works, married a local girl and left the Territorials.
When War broke out, he immediately re-enlisted and was posted directly to the Brigade in Northampton. By the time the Brigade left for France, he had been promoted to Shoeing Smith Corporal.
No other official records have survived, however the photographs held by his family give a wonderful insight in to the remainder of his war. Jack Rees went on the serve in Egypt and Palestine with the 1st Battalion and ultimately became a Farrier Sergeant. He also appears to have been a popular man as many of his comrades gave him signed pictures of themselves. To take a look at this family photographic archive, please click here.
922, Gunner Tom Rees
Tom Rees was the son of a Swansea-based sailor and another early wartime recruit, having previously served with the Brigade. His service record has survived, so it is possible to give a detailed description of his service.
After enlisting, he was posted to the Ammunition Column and later to the 53rd Divisional Column. On 23rd November 1915, he travelled to France with the 53rd DAC and remained there when the Brigade travelled to Egypt. Shortly after, the 53rd DAC became the 29th DAC.
In the run up the the Battle of the Somme, he was transferred to S/29 Trench Mortar Battery which was set up to support the 29th Division during the offensive in the Beaumont Hamel area and was disbanded shortly after – it is therefore reasonable to assume he was directly involved in the Somme battle. This is confirmed by his grand-daughter who recounted: he was blinded for some time after being gassed in the battle of the Somme.
When S/29 TMB was disbanded, he joined 256 Brigade and in December 1916 returned home on leave where he contracted blood poisoning, finally rejoining returning to France in May 1917. In September 1917, he transferred of D/86 Brigade who he served with for the remainder of the War.
His grand daughter added: My mother always told me her father was a wonderful man and they were both very close. After a long hard day at work my mother as a little girl would wait for him to come home at the door and when she saw him walking down the road she would run to him and he would open his arms and lift her up onto his shoulders and they would laugh and play around until reaching the house.
967, Gunner Trevellian Wilcox
Trevellian Wilcox was born and bred in Swansea, joining the Brigade shortly after War was declared – leaving his job with the GWR.
His service record was destroyed, but we know that he was a member of A Sub of the 2nd Glamorgan Battery because his name appears in a list in the RJ Williams photo album. This tells us that he was the Trumpeter, Cold Shoer and rode a horse called Black Bess.
His grand-son kindly shared a lovely portrait, taken in Egypt, with his future wife, Ivy inlaid in the corner.
And finally, a small disappointment
Last month, I mentioned that I had tracked down a number of Officers Service Records at the National Archives and had submitted requests for copies. Despite confirmation and taking payment, they then came back to me saying they did not have the records. Its disappointing and means we will have to wait another few years before we can add Messrs Hyett, Dangerfield and Morris to the Nominal Roll
Next month
In March, I plan to carry on with the second pass through the roll, focussing on the numbers between 600 and 1200. In April, I am going back to work full time, so this will be the last push for some time.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.
