Royal Engineer Research

Hi

I'm new to this group and hoping that someone can help. My father served in the Royal Engineers (he was a bricklayer by trade) during WWII. I sent off to Army Personnel Centre to get his service record but most of it seems all gobbedly gook to me at the moment.

First mention is that he disembarked France 31 Jan 1940 Tried and tested as Bricklayer Group B Class 1 and promoted to Lance Corporal (9th March, 1940). Next mention is of him being busted down to Sapper at Plympton (16th June, 1940) - nothing to do with his inefficiency in his trade - probably upset his senior officer.

My question is - would anyone know where his group were in France during the period 31 Jan 1940 until June 1940?

Grateful for any help you can give.

 

A belated welcome Rich.

And you too Jane.

 

Hi

I'm new to this group and hoping that someone can help. My father served in the Royal Engineers (he was a bricklayer by trade) during WWII. I sent off to Army Personnel Centre to get his service record but most of it seems all gobbedly gook to me at the moment.

First mention is that he disembarked France 31 Jan 1940 Tried and tested as Bricklayer Group B Class 1 and promoted to Lance Corporal (9th March, 1940). Next mention is of him being busted down to Sapper at Plympton (16th June, 1940) - nothing to do with his inefficiency in his trade - probably upset his senior officer.

My question is - would anyone know where his group were in France during the period 31 Jan 1940 until June 1940?

Grateful for any help you can give.

Jane,

First, welcome to the forum.

I will try and alert an admin to move your post to it's own thread you will get more responses that way.

Why not scan and post the sections of the documents you have, everyone here will try to help as much as they can - the skills at deciphering gobbledegook here are amazing.

Mark

 

welcome to the forum

 

Moved this to its own thread.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

If you have his service records they should say what his unit is. I maybe able to help with this information.

Regards
Andy

 

Many thanks for your quick responses and helping me out. I will scan the documents I have and upload these - when I can fathom out how to do that. You all seem willing to help so hopefully someone will be able to unravel what I have.
Once again, many thanks.

 

Do the records mention a unit? it could look something like 246 Field Company or 246 Fld Coy RE.

 

Jane,

Check out this post http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/network-information/12816-how-insert-pictures-videos-into-your-posts.html#post121799, for help on images, etc.

Mark

 

Welcome to the forum


Cheers
Paul

 

Hi
I asked for help in deciphering my father's war record. Whilst I could read most of it I couldn't understand what most of it meant. Many offers of help and so I am uploading the sheets I have for SKS to hopefully tell me what my father did and where.

Many thanks.

Jane

 

He was with 661 General Construction Company at the start of the war and went to France with them as part of the BEF.

He then went to 691 EW Company RE. He appears to have been at a few depots too at sometime before and after the other two units. I only know EW in Signals terms which is Electronic Warfare. Not sure what it will be from the RE back then.

 

Jane -
what we seem to have here is one big fed up soldier - possibly as he served all of his time in the Uk fixing up bomb damaged ports and other such buildings - one thing though - the army recognised his ability as Bricklayer with him passing their trade test - so that was a plus - they usually made them into cooks - and his objections came early as he was absent in 1940 for a whole 18 hours- then he seemed to accept it until 1944 before starting to become sick and was in Westbury hospital on 7th Aug -posted to a different unit - then back to Westbury Hospital in Ocrober
- he was then medically examined in feb 45 before heading to two different hospitals- first one was the Naval Hospital at Southampton in Aug 45 then on to Mettifort at Romsey where he finished up being re graded down from A1 - to A3- then with his age and service group number of 22 - he was demobbed - so not a happy experience for him - and I would suspect TB or similar sickness..but if so his grading should havebeen much lower....!

PS - missed the entry for the BEF when he pased his trade test ...
Cheers

 

Hi Tom
I know the reason for his "absenteeism" - marital problems with his then wife. Can't remember him saying about being in hospital but he did have quite a large scar on his back - where that came from heaven knows - I thought it could have been from being down the pit - he was a miner in South Wales for a short time but he moved to the Hertfordshire area with other members of the family to find work around the time of the general strike. Can I assume he would have been building POW camps if up in Scotland?

Any help most appreciated.

Jane

 

661 General Construction Company has a war diary running has a diary running from Jan to Nov 1940 which will cover his time in France and ref the 691 one-The only RE unit I can find in the Home Forces is a Field Company and like your father they stayed in the UK for the rest of the war. They have one diary for each year.

Let me know if you want a copy of any of them.

Regards
Andy

 

Jane -
that scar down his back could mean that there was a problem with his lungs as that usually is the best way to go into them..so it might be interesting to get his death certificate and see what the cause was..as it is interesting to see that he was sick for a long time...and Netley was infamous for TB as the Navy had their share of that disease....can well understand his abscences as marital problems were fairly high during the war..but nothing like to-day with some people being married eight times...

Cheers

 

Lungs are worked on from the front Tom unless they weren't sure where they were in the 1940's. The main organ operated on from the back is the kidneys.

 

Drew -
You would know more about that sort of surgery than I would - but whatever it was - it kept him sick for a long time..
Cheers

 

Hi Guys

Death cert. (which I have) was for cerebral haemorrhage and not linked to service. I'm really after where he was and what he did during the war period. It's unfortunate that he died when I was only a teenager - and he never really spoke about the war - and I was probably too young and ignorant to ask. I'm going to upload the last 2 documents I have which might give you the info you need to point me in the right direction.
Andy, yes would like details of the diary - can you tell me how I go about this.
Many thanks.
Jane

 

Hi folks
Uploading the last 2 documents regarding my dad's war record. Hope you can have a look and give me any more info - if the record throws up anything.

Many thanks once again - you've all been brilliant.

Jane