WW2 Royal Engineers Yorkshire

Discussion in 'Royal Engineers' started by Dawnbird, Apr 15, 2009.

  1. Dawnbird

    Dawnbird Junior Member

    Hi Im a newbie here, have allways been fascinated by WW2 since I was a girl, while other teens read Romance comics I read every WW2 comic I could find:)

    When I was growing up the war was talked about & I used to love to listen to the old soldiers stories, every family I knew had members who served somehow.

    One Granpa - J.H Reynolds - served in the Pacific
    another - Sam Green - served in Burma both are from Yorkshire.

    Another Granpa I would love to find out more if I can was an Irish Catholic man called James Ward who 'took the Queens shilling' around 1932 , joined the Yorkshire ? Halifax ? Royal Engineers & served in WW2.
    He allso lived in Halifax Yorkshire.He survived the war.
    Thats all I know

    How can I find out more ? where they served etc

    Thanks for any pointers

    Oh I'm in New Zealand so cant go to the local museum or anything
     
  2. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Welcome to the forum.
    Hope we can help.
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi and welcome to the forum..

    I would say your best bet is to try and find out his date of birth. With this info you may be able to get his service records from Glasgow which will identify any units he served with. This info them leads on to the units diaries etc.

    Regards
    Andy
     
  4. Dawnbird

    Dawnbird Junior Member

    Thanks for the suggestion but Records area no go as we have no birth or death date and he is not named on the birth certificate ...I tried allready :(
    I'll keep trying all avenues I want to find out what U can , what his service record was like , where he served etc anything really

    Thanks :)
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    This maybe a stupid Q. Have you looked through the census's then?

    Alternatively do any of your relatives have his medals? Some will/may have his service No. on them (Depending on what ones he received) and you can use this instead of a DoB.

    Andy
     
  6. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Remember WW2 period medals are not named, so if he has campaign stars and medals, they won't help much. The only source for information is sadly the MOD, as there is nothing online or in the Public Domain which could help you.
     
  7. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Remember WW2 period medals are not named, so if he has campaign stars and medals, they won't help much. The only source for information is sadly the MOD, as there is nothing online or in the Public Domain which could help you.

    Cheers for that Paul. I thought it was just the Defence Medal and 39-45 War Medal that wasn't named.

    Learn something new everyday :)
     
  8. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    Sadly none of them were officially named. Boots The Chemist, and a couple of others, offered a naming service in the 50s, but very few ever bothered; my dad never did for example.
     

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