Hello I have two relatives that we know signed up for the Army but cannot find any record at all of them or a service number First is Thomas Hornby, born in May 1917, died in 1972 born in Bolton, we believe from his Daughter that he was with the REME and she thinks he was stationed in the desert somewhere (his Father was Henry Hornby who served in WW1 for Loyal North D Company) 2nd is William Jackson, born November 1919, St Helens, Lancs, emigrated to Australia in 1950 we believe, (his Father was Josiah Jackson who served in WW1 South Lancs Regiment and Labour Corp) Ive trawled Ancestry for the names to try and find any info of a service number but fallling short , found all other family members who joined up , but really struggling with these two, but dont actually know if either of them saw active service Neither are on the 1939 Register , which could imply they had joined up by then Steve
Apologies yes for Thomas but not applied for his service records I did read it can be really hard without a service number especially if a common name, or rather its much easier with a service number Steve
To be honest I don't know, but in most cases they go through OK without a service number. With so little in the public domain, and if it is a common name and you happen to find a service number how do you know it is the right person, it is just an assumption? You could end up with someone else's records.
Can do that for Thomas, but as William emigrated to Oz in 1950 , all we know is he died at some point, maybe prior to 1975, as William's neice remembers very vaguely a letter from someone in Oz saying he had passed away
I have applied for Thomas Hornby records now, I imagine it will be a good 6 months or so before hearing anything and I did sign the cheque this time Thomas it is believed he was sent to prison for hitting a superior officer , served 3 months in Prison, but he tried telling all the kids he went on a mission
Thanks, and will do Someone on another forum has said theirs took 18 months due to Covid and the backlog
Ironicallly foudn the difficult one really easy , all we knew was he emigrated to Australia in 1950 , found where he lived, who he lived with, (he was in Oz army too) his grave, when he died, his headstone too , the people he stayed with buried him and had his REME crest put on his headstone and marked him as Sapper William Jackson
I now have Thomas Hornby Army Number, but cannot find anything at all using that number He was Private Thomas Hornby 3856949 Royal Army Ordnance Corps
The number is from the Loyals block and I think enlisted 11/8/38 (I have a Service Book to the man 4 below him and that was his date of enlistment)
Thank you We know from his Daughter that he was in the REME but nothing else, and he told her he spend a short time in prison for hitting a superior officer, and told his Mum he was away on training or similar I have applied for his military records but they will take quite some time, his Army number above came from his Daughters Birth Certificate which arrived today
Also we assumed he joined up in Bolton, but wasnt sure as his Daughter said she thinks he signed up with William Jackson at the same time, and he was REME but signed up in St Helens we believe at Mill Street Barracks
Unless he was on the casualty lists (he wasn't) , was awarded a gallantry medal or MID (nothing in London Gazette), or someone has put something on the internet before, it is unlikely that you will; most WW2 personal information is not available in the public domain which is why the recommendation must be to send off for his records, they should show when and where he signed up, when he transferred between units (research is useless unless you know for certain).
Got a letter back from the MOD today, basically retunring all of my applicaiton and cheque for Thomas Hornby, saying he has now been transferred to the National Archives and I have to contact them I note that they will only allow you to view the records and not send them to you or view them online by the looks of it Has anyone else had similar being transferred to the National Archives Steve
I’ve answered your query on this topic - my understanding is that they will send you a hard copy of the file. MOD ALREADY TRANSFERRING WW2 SERVICE FILES TO UK NATIONAL ARCHIVES 2021 You are lucky that as one of your men served in REME (at the time of his discharge?) his papers are likely in the first tranche of records NA announced are available there earlier this week. I’ll leave it to you to use the NA search engine to identify the reference for the file. Good Luck Steve