VOLUNTEERS WHO CAME BACK - HOW DO YOU FIND THEM

Discussion in 'General' started by Bobpike, Oct 19, 2019.

  1. Bobpike

    Bobpike Member

    Can anyone help please. I have been asked to research WW2 and the village of Manuden. However there are no WW2 names on the war memorial, but can I find out those who went and came back, if so where and what else is accessible?
    Many thanks
     
  2. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    Can you correct the misspelling in the title? "Volunteers who CAME (BACK?)
    You can access the 1939 Registration details for your village.
    There should be a History Society nearby who can help direct your search, plus a few old codgers left who must remember something about WW2?
    Presumably you have the details of the 11 Manuden residents killed in WW1?
     
    Tony56 likes this.
  3. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Apparently "Manuden did not lose a single man" in WW2.
    Local History of Manuden Village in Essex

    You could also look at the 1911 census and make a list of young men who would have been the correct age for service in WW2 - but where you go from there? Look for local newspapers and see who may have got a mention especially if they were injured, POW or decorated.
     
    CL1 and KevinBattle like this.
  4. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    Your WW1 Memorial is quite weathered, there is a War Memorials Trust who may help with restoration. A William George Sears was born 10 December 1896 in Leysone (Leytonstone?) Essex. Father Henry Charles, mother Phoebe
     
  5. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    I also have problems with "volunteers". In WW2 with the National Service Act there were o very few volunteers outside Northern Ireland where conscription was not implemented in WW1 or WW2. Elsewhere unless you could register as a CO or were unfit if you were called up you went and most just waited for their call up. There were a few who were in reserved occupations who managed to find a way round and joined up and I guess that they were volunteers. I think perhaps you might like to clarify your question.

    In both world wars it's easier to find out about someone who died than it is for someone who survived. In the Teme Valley where I live there is a village that was a WW1 'thankful village' - they all came back but weren't so lucky in WW2. We only really know who the WW1 men were because the village hall has a roll of service and there were quite a few of them. There is another village that was that rarity a double thankful village and has no memorial. It was once much bigger than it is today and one assumes that quite a lot of men went to the wars but finding out who they were is the devils own job.

    I did some work for a display in 2014 in the church of my own village but was only really able to track the men who died - all but one in WW1. I know from reports ion the newspaper archives in the nearby town that a number served in WW2 and came back but just how many and who is next to impossible to discover - I only know about those who came to the local papers attention. I suppose that if I looked at the census and then looked to see if each man of service age had a service record I might be able to do it but even then I'd miss men born there but who had moved to a neighbouring village before being called up
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2019
    CL1 and canuck like this.
  6. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    It appears that you can buy a copy of "Manuden in the Second World War" by Fiona Bengtsen, of Manuden History Society for £2 - and you may even want to join!
     
    timuk likes this.
  7. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    ozzy16 and timuk like this.
  8. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    As far as I am aware there are no figures for 'volunteers' but I would put it at considerably higher than 'very few'. Estimates of around 500,000 have been given but I don't think it can be verified. The problem being that it is impossible to determine from Service Records whether someone was conscripted or volunteered except by inference (ie. Someone aged 30 joining up in Nov 39 was almost certainly a volunteer). At the start of the war the only ones conscripted were those called up under the Military Training Act and there had only been one intake under this Act. Under the National Service Act 20-23 year olds were required to register on 21 Oct 39 and it was not until Jun 41 that those aged 40 were registered. Many volunteered before registration. My father's Regiment was initially composed of volunteers. From the Regiment's history:

    "This Regiment was born on 2nd September 1939 when War was a foregone conclusion - a rash of yellow posters appeared on the hoardings of Oxford appealing for recruits to defend Oxfordshire against air attack - age 25 to 50.
    The 89th was the first Battery formed and it was quickly at strength in October 1939. The 89th were out on Aerodrome defence at the end of October 1939."
    No doubt other Regiments took the same action. Of course by the end of the war conscripts way outnumbered volunteers.

    Tim
     
    ozzy16 and CL1 like this.
  9. Bobpike

    Bobpike Member

    First of all thank you all for your help. it has given me food for thoight. Secondly I must apologise for the error in the oiginal title and the vaguenes of my original posting as I am in France where my email access is poor and I somehow managed to post it incorrectly and without any ex[lanation!
    Bob
     
    CL1 likes this.

Share This Page