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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: WORMLEY HOME GUARD on Saturday 15 June 13 08:52 BST (UK)
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Is there anywhere i can go to look up were the regiment were during WW1.
My Great-grandfather William F Dear, was in this regiment during WW1.
Thanks
Les
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The Long, Long Trail is the place to go!
http://www.1914-1918.net/suffolks.htm
But you will need to follow the links on the right-hand side, following the reorganisations.
3rd Division or 28th Division, depending on which battalion he was in.
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There were ten battalions of the Suffolk Regiment that served overseas, so he could have seen service in a variety of places. His medal index card shows that he was a Private and served overseas from some point after 1 January 1916 (he doesn't have the 1914 or 1914-15 Star medal that was awarded to men who served overseas before that date). The medal card also refers to the award of a Silver War Badge. The medal roll for the SWB shows that he enlisted on 12 December 1915 and was discharged from the Suffolk Regiment Depot, age 40, on 10 April 1918 due to wounds.
Depending on the severity of those wounds he could have been wounded up to a year previously.
I cannot see any surviving Service Records for him (most were destroyed by a fire bomb in the Blitz).
You could find which battalions he served with by reviewing the Medal Roll books at the National Archives at Kew. The book he appears in is referenced on the medal card as K/1/103B6, page 1166.
This translates to the following record:
Reference: WO 329/875
Description: Suffolk Regiment other ranks: medal rolls K/1/103B5; K/1/103B6; K/1/103B7. Pages 928-1236. British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Date: 1914-1920
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former references: in its original department: A874
Legal status: Public Record
These books are not yet online and will need to be looked at personally or by a researcher.
The date of enlistment suggests that he volunteered under the Derby Scheme that meant that a man volunteered for service and then went home until called-up for mobilisation. He may have served in a more local Reserve battalion for training and/or a non-Regimental Training Reserve Battalion and then transferred to the Suffolks upon embarkation.
Steve.