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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: wattspamela31 on Sunday 10 May 15 20:27 BST (UK)
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Can anyone give me any advice as to where i canfind out regimental information or any information about john andrews, trooper, royal armoured corps, died 31/1/46. He died as a result of the war and has a commerative stone in southern cemetery, manchester. I haveno idea what a trooper would have done, what the royal armoured corp did or where he may have served. Thanks for any advice that you can share. Pam
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Hi Pam,
A trooper is the basic rank in the Cavalry which became the Royal Armoured Corps. The headquarters are in Bovington Camp, Dorset at the Royal Armoured Corps Tank Museum. Records for ww2 are still in the war office and only available, at a cost, to next of kin. The address, details and forms can be googled
Rick
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A Trooper is the equivilent of a Private.
I would start by looking at their website.
http://www.army.mod.uk/armoured/23446.aspx
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Commonwealth War Graves Commission (www.cwgc.org) says:
Trooper 7915059 John Andrews, Royal Armoured Corps
Died 31/1/1946
Manchester Southern Cemetery, Sec. K. Nonconformist. Grave 74
Son of John and Sarah Jane Andrews, of Longsight, Manchester; husband of Jessie Andrews, of Levenshulme, Manchester.
His service record will still be with the MOD.
See here to apply: https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records
There is a £30 fee.
Details of Royal Armoured Corps here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Royal_Armoured_Corps_Regiments_in_World_War_II
They were tanks and reconnaissance.
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Just to register an interest in this Thread. Most likely he had been in a Recce Regiment RAC which had been converted from infantry. They were equipped with armoured cars and attached to infantry divisions as a generality. Don't know why no RAC regimental number on his memorial. If regimental number found I would know who it belonged to.
Added Monday:- No regiment RAC given.
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He would probably have been attached to a regiment, such as the Warwickshire regiment or one of the other "county" regiments.
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You say "He died as a result of the war". What is your source for that?
As regards obtaining service records they are not totally confined to next of kin. The details are here:
https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records
The cause of death will be noted on his death certificate.
Imber
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Regarding Service Records:
He died over 26 years ago so no next of kin approval is required. You can use the CWGC details on the link below as proof of death so you don't need to pay for a death certificate, unless you want to. Just click on the download certificate, print it off and send it with your application form and £30.
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2403187/ANDREWS,%20JOHN
His Army No. is from a block of numbers allocated to the RAC during WW2 so he would have been with this Corps from his enlistment, the only way you will find out his unit is via the service records route.
Good luck
Andy