Hoping for some help tracing my grandfathers war record

Hi,

I have tried various options and suspect that my grandfathers service number may be incorrect in his Pay Book. As best as I can ascertain he served in the Essex Regiment during WWII and below are the details I have from the paybook:

Service Number - 6029169
Surname - Margerrisson (Possibly spelt Margerisson or Margerrison)
Christian Names - Harry Alfred
DOB - 29-3-14
Enlisted - 12-9-1940

There is also a stamp in it for B Company with a date 27 Feb 1946.

Sadly he never really talked about his service and his brother was killed during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Many thanks for any help or clues you can provide

 

Welcome to the forum
Apply for his service records all explained on what you need to do in the link below


Get a copy of military records of service

 

is this the chap

regards
Tim

 

Welcome and this I expect is his brother: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2095490/james-margerrison/ The home address of his parents matches.

 

Tim Checkley Thank you so much, could you let me know how I can go about getting more into on his service and service awards please? davidbfpo many thanks for finding that info too, we did manage to locate James grave some years back and I have had far more luck finding info on him than on my Grandfather.....until now obviously

 

Hi your Welcome
As for his Army service the best way, as CL1 has stated is to apply for his service record
Get a copy of military records of service but you now know his last regiment and medal awards thats a good starting point


Regards
Tim

 

There may be circumstantial clues from the paybook entries.

Post scans if you'd like us to take a look.

Essex Regiment, enlisted 1940, but has an Italy Star without an African one...

Might have hopped around between units earlier in the war.

 

These are all the pages with info on them and I really do appreciate the help

 

Thanks Tim sent that request off fingers crossed

 

You can certainly start a simple timeline from the displayed documents.

The medals card shows his last regiment as the 30th Battalion Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment? Unknown to me now whether their battalions went that high (research next).

Wiki says it did as a Territorial Army unit which came from the:

From: List of battalions of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment - Wikipedia

There is an old 2007 thread that indicates they went to Italy in 1944, as Line of Communication troops (protecting them I think). See: Bedfordshire& Hertfordshire regiment This is the only thread here about theme.

A website with a warning do not go further, which has on Google:

From a website no longer working: ordersofbattle.com

Help from a researcher linked to their museum - in 2019 - though I doubt the 30th will feature much. You can ask! See: https://www.culturetrust.com/sites/default/files/attachments/BedfsHerts FHGuide.pdf

 

Not an expert, but the seven days embarkation leave ending 12-7-43 are likely just before his move overseas to Italy.

Do you have any other reference apart from his army number that points to the Essex Regiment?

An awful lot of men were enlisted and trained by them before being transferred to other units.

 

You have all been so much help thankyou. Sadly he never spoke abou his time at all, even my late mother never knew what he did or where. The only clues I had were the Essex Regiment from a photo of him in a heavy winter trench coat and a few photos of him somewhere warm in a more summer style short sleeves uniform infront of what look like a bunker with cammo netting. I was lucky to stumble on his payboo by chance otherwise I would never have known he served at all.

 

here is the other side of your grandfathers medal card with the date stamp

Regards Tim

 

Managed to reformat the table:

 

It would also appear that he didn't qualify for the 1939-45 Star, which would indicate that he did not complete 180 days overseas operational service.
A possibility, since the 39-45 and Africa Stars are crossed out differently from the others, is that they had already been issued.

Tim

 

42nd Infantry Brigade in Wiki:

It also lists other battalions, nearly all 30th, in the brigade.
From: 42nd Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia

Some info on the brigade, especially Post 15 on the Bed & Herts with them: 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Another battalion's history in the brigade: 30th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment