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Ask the expert – RAF Muster Roll

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Lawrence Plaskett:

‘I am amazed, since I have a family chart of 1600 names, to find a surprising absence as late as WWI. My grandfather was Herbert Charles Plaskett. He was born in June 1875 and died in 1964. I knew him fairly well and I possess a short account of his life but I have little idea about his war service in WWI. I have had periods of searching for it but to no avail. I also have the 1911 census record of his family.

It was said in my family that Herbert went to Italy, where he backed up the forces as a lorry driver. Apparently he found it very pleasant because he could get around and visit the various art galleries of Italy, something that his menial railway job at home could not provide for him. There was no mention of warlike activities but I think that since this was often repeated it is likely to be right. I have a photo of him wearing an Air Service badge but I have no idea whether he was always in the Air Service and do not know in which year he went in and came out, but suspect 1915 as the year for entry.

Recently, on contacting my cousin, a daughter of Herbert’s sister, I was told surprising things. She lived with Herbert during his later life and said that he had a respiratory symptom that he blamed on gas that he had been exposed to on the Western front. She said he was at Ypres, where he experienced a ‘hard time’, being finally invalided out due to the exposure to gas. Was he in the Air Service there?

There were some WWI records destroyed in WWII in London. Could they have been among them? Or is there a special place to look at the Air Service records?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for the interesting question about your airman grandfather Herbert Charles Plaskett.

Generally speaking, records for servicemen in the Air Force and Navy are less well served online than those of the Army. At present, on findmypast.co.uk we have one interesting record set which does provide certain information about your grandfather. This is the RAF Muster Roll as at 1 April 1918. There was no RAF as such prior to the spring of 1918, when it was formed out of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. This set of records shows Air Mechanic 1 no 16183 H C Plaskett. He is described as having been previously a Driver (Mechanical Transport). He joined the forces on 11 December 1915, enlisted for the duration of the war, and was promoted on 1 June 1917. His normal rate of pay in RAF from 1918 was 4s 0d per day.

So he certainly was in the RAF and in one of its precursors, although which isn’t clear at this juncture. The National Archives holds a very nice record set, series AIR 79, which includes service records of men such as your grandfather and which will be digitised and appear online in the fullness of time – probably within the next one to two years. In the meantime, you could either visit The National Archives at Kew, or hire a local researcher there, to look at the original papers. This should clarify what your grandfather got up to during WWI.’

If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – elusive Royal Navy ancestor

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Graham Browster:

‘My grandfather served in WWI – he was 28893 Dvr E Browster RFA and he won several medals which I have. While trying to trace his date of birth I have learnt that he served on HMS Queen Elizabeth and had been in the Royal Navy for several years.

I have not been able to trace him under the name we know him as but I know he was quite good at boxing and used the name ‘Gunboat’. Can you assist please?’

Paul says:

‘Dear Graham,

You’ve done better than I have in managing to dig up information about his Royal Navy service. I searched the Royal Navy ratings’ service records on The National Archives website but came up with a blank.

No service record appears to survive for his time with the RFA during WWI but he has two campaign medal index cards, one of which notes that he arrived in France on 22 July 1915 and was later awarded the Military Medal. The award was gazetted in the London Gazette of 16 August 1917. The card for his Military Medal notes that he served with B battery, 93rd Brigade.

I note that there was an American boxer by the name of Edward ‘Gunboat’ Smith who served with the US Navy but I’ve not found evidence that this man and your grandfather are one and the same person.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – missing service number

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Derek Franklin:

‘I am trying to trace Arthur Hollingsworth’s army record but I have no service number. He was born in Bermondsey on 2 February 1898 and is believed to have served in WWI under General Allenby, possibly in the artillery. Arthur’s UK address was 165 Lynton Road, Bermondsey. He is a long lost uncle. I would be most grateful for your help.’

Paul says:

‘Dear Derek,

The National Archives lists 17 men with medal index cards who served during WWI and so it’s going to be a tough call for you to narrow down those men to your ancestor, particularly if you don’t know the regiment he served with.

Two of these men, however, are listed as having served with the Royal Artillery: one with the Field Artillery and one with the Garrison Artillery. The former arrived in France in 1915 and so we can rule him out because your relative would have been too young to serve overseas at that time. So the other man, 151141, would be a possibility. From my own research I can advise you that this number would have been issued towards the end of March or early April 1917 and so this certainly fits the scenario of a young 19 year-old soldier being called up to the colours.

General Allenby led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918 but this doesn’t help you to narrow down the search a great deal and unfortunately there does not appear to be a surviving service record for our 151141 Gnr Hollingsworth.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – missing father

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Pauline Woodcock:

‘I am trying to trace information regarding my father’s WWI army service. He was Gerard Patrick Phillips, born on 17 March 1898 in Birkenhead. I have been through all the online WWI records available but cannot find a record. I haven’t got a regiment for him apart from the fact that it was a Cheshire regiment. His job was to carry ammunition to the front. He was gassed two days before amnesty and was reported missing. My grandmother saw him on a cinema news reel in a convent, possibly in Belgium. I would be grateful if you could give me any direction in where to try searching.’

Paul says:

‘Hello Pauline.

I couldn’t find him when I looked through medal index cards on The National Archives’ site. If he was born in 1898, however, he wouldn’t have been eligible for overseas service until 17 March 1917 at which point conscription had already been in force for a year. Nevertheless, if he served overseas he would have received medals and, therefore, a medal index card should survive.

It’s a possibility, I suppose, that he enlisted under an assumed name and if that is the case it will be difficult to track him down. I found one G P Phillips who served with the 2nd County of London Yeomanry and later the RAF, but that’s the only man with the same initials as your father.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – Chelsea Pensioner ancestor

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Roslyn Berthelsen in Queensland, Australia:

‘I have been trying to find out what campaigns my grandfather fought in during WWI and the Boer War etc. His name is George Jull and he was born on 24 April 1874 in Kent, England. He married my grandmother Lizzie Kemp and she was born on 15 September 1882 in Kent. They migrated with their family to Australia in about 1920. I know my cousin’s son has my grandfather’s war medals but he hasn’t been very co-operative in letting me know what campaign’s he fought in and now my cousin has died I don’t have his son’s address to contact him again.

George’s father’s name was Alfred Jull, born in 1846, and his mother’s name was Amelia Eve born 1850.’

Paul says:

‘I couldn’t find a medal index card for George Jull for WWI. Two men are listed: George E Jull and George Norman Jull, neither of whom are your man. Two possibilities here then: either he enlisted under an assumed name or he enlisted under his own name but did not serve overseas. The medal index cards only record men who received medals or a silver war badge and if he had no overseas service he wouldn’t have received a medal.

The good news is that his pre-WWI papers do survive in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records (WO97) on findmypast.co.uk. A potted history reads as follows:

• Attested with King’s Royal Rifle Corps for seven years with the colours and five years on the reserve at Canterbury on 10 February 1892 aged 18 years
• At the time of his attestation he was working as a labourer and was also serving (part time) with the Thames Medway Division Submarine Miners (Royal Engineers)
• He gave his place of birth as Boughton near Faversham
• He was 5 feet 4 ¼ inches tall with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He had a mole on his left shoulder and a tattooed dot on his left forearm
• He had a somewhat chequered military career (which you can read all about on the four pages of his service record) but he spent time overseas in Gibraltar, Malta, South Africa and Mauritius and in fact spent over 11 years serving with the colours and just 10 months on the reserve. It was while he was on the reserve that he married Lizzie Kemp in 1903
• He served during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasps Belfast and Laing’s Nek and the King’s South Africa Medal with clasps 1901 and 1902
• He achieved a number of educational certificates and qualifications during his time in the British Army

The King’s Royal Rifle Corps was a well-respected infantry regiment and George served with the 3rd, 2nd and 1st Battalions. I hope this is helpful.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – WWI ancestor?

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Alan Theobald:

‘I have been trying to find any records of my paternal grandfather’s army service for several years, without success, and would be grateful for any advice you can offer.

He was James Theobald, born in 1870, died in 1950/1 in Romford, Essex. He lived all his life within a few miles of Romford except for military service. He was unlikely to have been a commissioned officer. This is all I know about him:

• Found on the 1891 census as a civilian
• Not found on the 1901 census, which could suggest that he was overseas at the time
• Described on the 1911 census and on the 1909 birth certificate of one of his sons as an army pensioner. I know that he was partially paralysed as a result of wounds and/or sunstroke
• Not found in Chelsea Pensioners records, which could suggest that he was not a British Army pensioner. Who else would have paid him an army pension?
• Not found in any 2nd Boer War records. Not found by a researcher in WO97
• Reputed to have described the sun as the Bengal blanket
• Granted the lease of a smallholding in Crow Lane, Romford in around 1930, until his death, under a Royal British Legion scheme for disabled ex-servicemen. RBL say that they have no archive material

Hope you can help.’

Paul says:

‘Hello Alan.

Admittedly he’s a bit of a mystery and you’re really struggling without a regiment.

The survival rate of documents in WO97 for men discharged to pension between 1883 and 1913 is very good; in fact Michael and Christopher Watts, in their book My Ancestor was in the British Army (Society of Genealogists 2009) describe finding a document as ‘a near certainty’.

The fact that nothing appears to survive for your grandfather could suggest a) that he was discharged overseas (the survival rate for these men’s papers is low) or b) that he subsequently served during WWI. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he could have joined up again in 1914, his papers being moved out of what is now WO97 and into WO363 where they were subsequently destroyed during bombing in WWII.

I’m tempted towards WWI because you mention the Royal British Legion, an organisation formed after WWI to look after WWI veterans and their families. As far as I’m aware they did not concern themselves with veterans of previous conflicts, although it would be worth verifying this with RBL.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – absent service record

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Mary Gregg:

‘My father served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps in WWI. His name and number was Pte George Brunt 44919 – he later joined the 6th London regt. number 348277. I have his card but it gives no details of his actual service and I cannot trace his service records anywhere. I do know he served in France and was mentioned in two despatches as I saw the typed out pages which said he had captured a German trench. I also saw one that said he had captured some Germans single-handedly but these were lost by my family in the move to Australia. I would be most grateful for any information you can discover.’

Paul says:

‘Hello Mary. Thanks for writing to me.

The numbers date to quite late on in the war. 44919 for the King’s Royal Rifle Corps dates to March 1918 (almost certainly the first half of the month) and 348277 for the 6th London Regiment is a month or two after that. It’s possible that he was transferred from the KRRC to the 6th London Regiment under Army Order 204/1916, which dealt with compulsory transfers.

In the absence of a service record (which could have been destroyed as a result of enemy bombing during WWII) you could at least obtain a copy of the 6th London Regiment’s war diary from April 1918. This would give you an idea of what the battalion was up to at this time. The diaries are held at The National Archives in Kew but you could ask a researcher to obtain copies for you. As far as I know, this particular war diary is not available via documents online at TNA, although many are.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the Expert – elusive war records

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Lin Moorman:

‘My grandfather Thomas Pilsbury, born on 18 February 1877, volunteered or was called up quite late in WWI. He never recovered from the experience. I tried to find his war records some time ago but no luck. Have you any advice?’

Paul says:

‘The medal index cards for WWI list two men with the name Thomas Pilsbury. The first man went out to France as a private with the Shropshire Light Infantry in September 1915 and so this is probably not your grandfather as you say he was called up quite late in WWI. The other Thomas Pilsbury served with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF) and later the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR). There is a service record in WO364 which will show you that he was a brass locksmith by trade and that he enlisted on 13 April 1918 aged 41 years and two months.

Thomas was posted to the 3rd Bn RDF on 15 April 1918 and sailed for France as a draft for the 6th Bn on 27 August. Two days later he was transferred to the RIR and appears to have joined the battalion in the line on 3 September. It looks as though he spent three weeks in the line before being admitted to a casualty clearing station with haemorrhoids.

He was discharged from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment on 12 March 1919 giving his address as 58 Victoria Road, Bradmore, Wolverhampton. He applied for a pension but this was rejected in 1919 as he had ‘no disability’ (although he had suffered from scabies and haemorrhoids and been hospitalised at various times in Camiers, Trouville and Etaples).

The scabies was possibly as a result of lice, although this is not stated on his pension record. Thomas was a married man (married to Edith Ann Sarah on 13 November 1904), and they had five children: Winifred (7 December 1905), Edith (5 September 1907), Thomas (31 August 1909), Lucy (19 May 1912) and Muriel (22 January 1915). It’s not much I’m afraid but I hope it helps.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Five new military collections just launched: over 480,000 new records

We have just published five fantastic new military record collections on findmypast.co.uk which comprise 482,879 records.

See below for details of each set of records and for more information about each of the collections:

WWII Prisoners of War – 104,838

Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations – 24,928

Ireland’s Memorial Records of the Great War – 49,602

Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War – 259,581

WWI Naval Casualties – 43,930

More information about the records

WWII Prisoners of War

The register of over 107,000 British Army prisoners of war held in Germany and German occupied territories. On findmypast.co.uk you can search for each individual soldier’s number.

Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations

This award was instituted in 1854 during the Crimean War to recognise gallantry for Other Ranks (i.e., non-officer rank). Second only to the Victoria Cross in terms of prestige, this award was prized as much by the soldiers of the time as it is by medal collectors today. Bars were awarded in recognition of further acts of gallantry meriting the same award.

This set of records lists the full citations of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (and second and third award bars) in the Great War, and when you search, you’ll discover fascinating and rich detail about each soldier.

Ireland’s Memorial Records of the Great War

Eight volumes of details of over 49,000 fatal casualties. The men and women commemorated either served in Irish Regiments or were born or resident in Ireland at the time of their death and were serving with units from Britain and its empire. On findmypast.co.uk, you can search by each soldier’s number.

A remarkable feature of the volumes is the beautiful symbolic borders designed by the artist Harry Clarke, best known for his work in stained glass.

Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War

A unique database for genealogists, military historians and medal collectors: a quarter of a million records of men and women who served in the British Imperial Forces during the war in southern Africa: soldiers, sailors, nurses and civilians. You can search over 258,800 names, including a completely revised casualty list of 59,000 casualty records.

WWI Naval Casualties

These records contain details of naval other ranks deaths in service during the First World War. The original records are held by The National Archives and are in a perilously damaged state.

When you search these records you’ll find the soldier’s full names, rating, number, branch of service, name of ship or unit, decorations etc., as well as other valuable information. The date and cause of death, location of their cemetery and reference of grave (where applicable) is shown together with the name and address of the relative notified of the death.

Find your ancestors in our extensive military collection 1656-1994.

Five new military collections just launched: over 480,000 new records

We have just published five fantastic new military record collections on findmypast.co.uk which comprise 482,879 records.

See below for details of each set of records and for more information about each of the collections:

WWII Prisoners of War – 104,838

Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations – 24,928

Ireland’s Memorial Records of the Great War – 49,602

Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War – 259,581

WWI Naval Casualties – 43,930

More information about the records

WWII Prisoners of War

The register of over 107,000 British Army prisoners of war held in Germany and German occupied territories. On findmypast.co.uk you can search for each individual soldier’s number.

Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations

This award was instituted in 1854 during the Crimean War to recognise gallantry for Other Ranks (i.e., non-officer rank). Second only to the Victoria Cross in terms of prestige, this award was prized as much by the soldiers of the time as it is by medal collectors today. Bars were awarded in recognition of further acts of gallantry meriting the same award.

This set of records lists the full citations of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (and second and third award bars) in the Great War, and when you search, you’ll discover fascinating and rich detail about each soldier.

Ireland’s Memorial Records of the Great War

Eight volumes of details of over 49,000 fatal casualties. The men and women commemorated either served in Irish Regiments or were born or resident in Ireland at the time of their death and were serving with units from Britain and its empire. On findmypast.co.uk, you can search by each soldier’s number.

A remarkable feature of the volumes is the beautiful symbolic borders designed by the artist Harry Clarke, best known for his work in stained glass.

Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War

A unique database for genealogists, military historians and medal collectors: a quarter of a million records of men and women who served in the British Imperial Forces during the war in southern Africa: soldiers, sailors, nurses and civilians. You can search over 258,800 names, including a completely revised casualty list of 59,000 casualty records.

WWI Naval Casualties

These records contain details of naval other ranks deaths in service during the First World War. The original records are held by The National Archives and are in a perilously damaged state.

When you search these records you’ll find the soldier’s full names, rating, number, branch of service, name of ship or unit, decorations etc., as well as other valuable information. The date and cause of death, location of their cemetery and reference of grave (where applicable) is shown together with the name and address of the relative notified of the death.

Find your ancestors in our extensive military collection 1656-1994.