651 Artisan Works Company, R.E.

I have a photograph, taken in March 1944, of 651 A.W. COY. R.E. which I am assuming is the Royal Engineers? My Grandfather, Edward Slater, served with them and I wonder if anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of this regiment in 1944? As a long shot, I wonder if anyone out there served with my Grandfather as I would love to share a copy of the photograph with any other families of the men who also appear on it.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. The 651 were based in the UK throughout 1944 and indeed through out most of the war. Although they were part of the British Expeditionary Force during the first half of 1940 until Dunkirk.

The war diaries will give you an exact location.

These are the references to the war diaries at the National Archives:

WO 166/3836, ROYAL ENGINEERS: COMPANIES: 651 Artisan Works Company. (1940 July - 1941 Dec.)
WO 166/8257, 651 Coy. (1942 Jan.-Dec.)
WO 166/12193, 651 Coy. (1943 Jan.-Dec.)
WO 166/15319, 651 Coy. (1944 Jan.-Dec.)
WO 166/16987, 651 Coy. (1945 Jan.- Oct.)
WO 167/1019, 651 Artisan Works Company Royal Engineers (1940 Jan.-June)

Lee

 

You presume right it is the Royal Engineers, to find out who 651 Artisan Works Compoany where and their location in 1944, you need to review their war diaries held at Kew, these give you the day by day company information/history

 

Hi. My (late) dad went over with the BEF as a Sapper in 651 AW Coy RE in January 1940. He was captured after missing the boat at Bolougne. So unfortunately spent five years in captivity. I don't know if anyone from his unit as it stood in 1940 would still have been around in 1944? I assume enough got away to re-form the unit?

 

Hi. Following info provided by Lee on this post I asked National Archive to quote for a copy of WO 167/1019 651 AW Coy RE Jan to June 1940. It came as a bit of a shock to be quoted £102.60 !!

I had at the same time also got a quote for WO 167/3836 651 AW Coy RE July 1940 Dec 1941, this was much more reasoanable at £37.35, although I was interested mainly in this units activity before the fall of France. More in line with what I paid for digital copies on a CD & a couple of hard copy papers.

Presumably 651 AW Coy must have been rather busy in those six months of the Battle of France as the archive runs to 228 Units (whatever a unit is, A3 paper used?).

I scoured the NA website, but I can't find very much information on pricing, or the cost of DIY copying in person. Any advice from WW2talk would be welcome. Nick

 

As Diane has mentioned its free if you go yourself and I would definately recommend it if you can get there.

Failing that me and Lee offer a copying service for war diaries. I'm not sure on Lee's current rates but I am currently charging 7.5p a page for the month of January.

Cheers
Andy

 

As Diane has mentioned its free if you go yourself and I would definately recommend it if you can get there.

Failing that me and Lee offer a copying service for war diaries. I'm not sure on Lee's current rates but I am currently charging 7.5p a page for the month of January.

Cheers
Andy

Hi Andy. When I have thought it over re DIY visit, as I have a bit of a health problem getting to Kew from NW & doing loads of copying would really be impractical for me. I had seen a post of yours offering copying, but I understood from later posts you were off the scene your self on sick parade? I had therefore mailed Lee to enquire after a quote and I'm awaiting reply.

Do you & Lee work as team or individually? your quote looks reasonable. But are NA "units" the same as pages?
P.S Don't want to start a bidding war! Nick

 

Hi Nick,

No...I'm currently fit and well.

Lee is my friendly rival-although he doesn't buy as much coffee as I do when we are at Kew together

If 228 is the amount of pages they quoted you £102.80 for I would charge £17.00 for the file this month. I am assuming though that is the amount of pages and avoid giving quotes because I never know how many pages are in a file until its ordered and copied.

Cheers
Andy

 

Do you & Lee work as team or individually? your quote looks reasonable. But are NA "units" the same as pages?
P.S Don't want to start a bidding war! Nick

Nick, my understanding is that the NA unit effectively equates to the number of copies made. Practically the same as the number of pages that have content on them.

E.g. most of the pages in a war diary will have text only on one side of the page so will equal one unit, a double-sided page would be two units.

Andy and myself work individually.

Best wishes,

Lee

 

My father in law served in 651 AW coy 39--46, he spent hardly any time at all in the uk, went abroad at start of war, sent to desert and was part of the "big push", following desert and a couple of weeks leave was then sent to Burma, have photo's etc, so do not understand the view that 651 spent entire war in blighty.

Thanks

 

Hi hopefully the person who started this thread is still active on here I also have I think the same photograph he has it is a long panoramic photo of the whole regiment with 651 as coy re. March 1944 my father is on it and I would love to know more about his war years . No names have been written on the back which is a shame .any information would be appreciated

 

Jacee56, would be worth sending the original poster a Private Message through the forum which should be forwarded to their email address.

Lee

 

Thank you I have private messaged and hopefully it will get there

 

Can anyone tell me what I doing wrong I private messaged a member didn't get an answer so thought I try again and it keeps saying I haven't got permission to do it so my original message couldn't have gone .Just wondering why

 

I have just had a copy of the photo restored, my Dad Ernest Walker was 19 at the time, he passed away in November 2008. I have letters of 1945 sent to him by Mum to an address in Preston where they must have been stationed after the war, so I wonder if the photo was taken there and are they all northerners, we are from Bradford, I applied for his war record but it doesn't tell us very much. it would be good to know if any of the younger ones might still be alive and some of the other names. I might take a trip to Kew as I live in London.

 

correction I have found the letters, he was in No 1 Welding Platoon, No 1 Camp, Blackshaw Moor, Leek, Staffs

 

hello there i would love to see any pics you may have on the engineers, attached is a picture of my grandad and I amtrying to find out more about him and what he did. I know he was an engineer at artisan works and I have a letter dated 2nd May 1942 from him to my nan. His name is Walter W Thompson, going by his writing it looks like SPR is at the front of his name.

Any information or pictures would be fantastic

 

Hi,
My Dad was posted to 651 AW in January 1940, immediately after a months training at RE Center, Clacton and went with the BEF to France with this unit. He was later transferred to No 1 General Base Unit in France and then No 1 Docks Group also in France before being evacuated from Dunkirk. I would dearly love to see the photograph of the 651 unit to see if he is on it.
Barbara