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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: Roy G on Wednesday 08 February 12 16:06 GMT (UK)
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Shown below is a photo of a distant relative who served in the British army. Unfortunately both his insignia and cap badge are obscured and his medal ribbons are not in colour, but I am trying to find out more about him.
To complicate things further, I believe he went under numerous variations of his own name so could have been known as Kurt/Teddy/Theodore or Kenneth - Goldschlager or Clark. He was a former Austrian Jew who may have fought with a Jewish brigade or may have been attached to an HQ as an interpreter. Any Ideas?
Roy G
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Possibly The Royal Norfolk Regiment. The medals 1939-45 Star and the France and Germany Star.
Not enough of the Div Sign visible to check on.
Ties only came out post war years.
Good luck,
G.
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Thanks F.I.
I have since been into the National Archives and found papers that described him as an 'acceptable alien' which were issued before he joined up and became a British subject. He resided at a place called 'Clouds' in Roydon, north London. I wonder if this was some sort of internment camp? Roy G
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"Clouds" sounds more like a house name... ;)
As for badge...Ummm Quite indistinct, but only x1 infantry Regt used a black beret, and that was the Northamptons...He certainly isnt a Northampton, which then leaves a cavalry unit....Its a shame that the Div patch on his arm is missing most of the detail as well.
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The cap badge could possibly be the Royal Norfolks' Brittania, I believe the shoulder patch could well be that of Combined Operations.
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Thanks to all of you for your input. Clouds was in Royden at the crux of Essex, Herfordshire, and a few other counties besides, but as a displaced Austrian Jew, I get the gut feeling he would have been snapped up by some Headquarters group for his linguistic abilities during their final advance into those territories formally occupied by the Germans.
Nice tips about berets and ties, which helps place the picture post war, and makes the insignia more likely to be the last regiment he served in. Combined Ops suggested by Sharki might be just the ticket.
An unusual social comment is that he was highly educated and came from a very wealthy family, but I suppose an underlying distrust of anyone with a former Germanic background, still only saw him get two stripes rather than a plethora of pips.
Roy G
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The divisonal patch section that is visible maybe the left hand fluke of the anchor under the tommy gun and the wings.
google combined Operations division patch
James
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Hi Roy,
I note that from this morning's messages that one of the iitems I had written in a few days ago had not appeared ? Namely that " I had come across many of these 'persons' working post war years with the C.C.G. (Control Commision Government) referred to by many of us in those far off days as - Charlie Chaplin's Grenadiers - no disrespect intended to either Charlie or The Grenadiers !!
How come no one spotted 'Brittania' - so distinctive a badge??
However, alls well that ends well .
Cheers.
G.
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To F.I. Ironically, after loosing some relatives to the Holocaust, and spending the later years of the war dodging bullets, he only lived until c1949 when he died as a result of a London gangland reprisal. Hence, little is known of Teddy (Theodor). The Special Ops (Commando?) badge Sharki suggested, (which I now feel has been almost certainly correctly identified for I have since obtained a better picture where the barrel of the gun above is clearly visible) and general physique, seems to suggest gangland activities are the post war circles he could have gravitated to.
So I now need to find out more about his unfortunate, untimely demise. Danm time consuming this family history lark. Roy G
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I wish you well, my own ventures to FH took me back to 1559 only to find that according to the parish registers of that area, and I quote 'Regretably the first fiveor six pages of the register have been removed....'
My predecessor was possibly fortunately to have been one of the six shown as having Married in 1559 ( dates pages Blank) but pages noted as ' 7 daye of Maye 1559.' Ever had that feeling that you should never have bothered in the first place. ;D ;D
Cheers anyway,
G.
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Thanks everyone for your invaluable help, I have now had it verified from further source that Special Ops is spot on.
I also found the guy actually mentioned in a piece on the Internet By Martin Sugarman regarding No 3 (Jewish) Troop, No. 10 Commando.
It looks as though he was attached to them, probably from the 9th if the roundness of the patch is anything to go by. A subnote states that although he and others were not in a Public Record Office account of the 10th, he is amongst those who appear in Ian Dear’s book “Ten Commando” published 1987, and Peter Masters book “Fighting Back”, published 1998. So I am progressing.
Furthermore, living as Cpl K E Clark(e) he even got a Mention in Dispatches for something he did in Osnabruk. Being a total novice over military matters, where should I go to find a copy of that MID record?
Roy G