Hi to all, literally just stumbled upon this forum and have already become engrossed, falling down down a rabbit hole of all the posts. My mother recently gave me her father’s WW2 medals (inc Burma Star) and it obviously started me asking questions about my grandfather and a period of his life he never discussed. She knows very little about her father’s time during the war, he wouldn't talk about it. But he compared it to the suffering his older brothers endured during the First World War. Suffice to say she, thinks he served in the Suffolk's, served under Col Slim in Burma and wasn't demobbed until '48. She was born in '47. She thinks he was TA to begin with as he has the Territorial Efficiency medal, but other than that knows nothing more. She added he was old when called up as he was born in 1908, doesn't know when he was enlisted, where from, to which unit or know his army number. Can anybody point me in the right direction to try and find out about his service history and flesh out his war years for her? Any help or pointers would be most welcome. Many thanks heath
Welcome Heath One thing you need to urgently do is apply for his official service records from the MOD - link to forms here Request records of deceased service personnel No other site will provide these, and they should answer quite a few of your questions, and provide the framework to fill in other details Suggest you start a new thread for him so that all his details are together and not spread across several threads TD
Territorial Efficiency Medal - Wikipedia The Territorial Efficiency Medal (TEM) was a United Kingdom award for long service in the Territorial Army. It superseded the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal when the Territorial Force became the Territorial Army in 1921. It was superseded by the Efficiency Medal in 1930. The recipient's service number, rank, name, and unit were impressed on the edge of the medal But it seems with the Efficiency Medal the same details of the recipient were not impressed - similar to the difference between WW1 & WW2 medals Efficiency Medal - Wikipedia The Efficiency Medal was instituted by Royal Warrant on 23 September 1930 TD
Hi TD, ALL T.A medals were impressed T.F.E.M ,T.E.M and The E.F all named ,All Monarchs ,Service number ,Rank,Name and Unit. Best Kyle
I've got about 94% of the dates of birth of the 1289 Allied men on board the Hofuku Maru in September 1944, which includes the Dutch on board. On the point about being old rather than date of being called for active service one was born in 1894, one in 1895, one in 1897, one in 1898, four in 1900, one in 1901, two in 1902, eleven in 1903, ten in 1904, eleven in 1905, sixteen in 1906, twenty-two in 1907, nineteen in 1908, and twenty-eight in 1909. One survivor reached his 100th birthday earlier this year. Amazing. They were not fighting in Burma, most were captured in Singapore in February 1942.
