Hello My gramp served with the Royal Engineers during WW2 and was based in Gibraltar. He’s gave me his service number but I can’t seem to find any information about it, he’s adamant that it’s 14904637, I noticed that it’s 8 numbers? Is that normal? Any information is greatly appreciated Matt
14904637 indicates that on joining up he was in the General Service Corps. Army Number Block Allocations Tim
Have a search for the 'General Service Corps' on the forum. Ron Goldstein & some other late-members of the forum joined the GSC. There the army gave them basic training & where they should then go. Then they were sent on their way to whichever Regiment or Corps the army thought best. Ron was posted to the Artillery , the late-Tom Canning the Royal Armoured Corps.
He would have retained the same number throughout his army career. This avoided the many duplications of numbers across the army & even within regiments that were seen up to 1920.
Matt, you need to take into account that there is not a great deal of personal information out in the public domain due to confidentiality issues, if you want to trace his service there is only one way to go and that is his official service records. They will tell you when and which units he served with - essential for tracing his route. Note if you are unsure about his service number, you DO NOT need any military information to apply. There is however a rather long wait at present, but worth it. Get a copy of military service records: Apply for the records of someone who's deceased - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) One item of info that is available are the army casualty lists, that give details of soldiers being wounded or missing as well as those that died - that service number does not appear on them.