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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: cbhasin on Tuesday 01 March 16 16:40 GMT (UK)
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Hi,My dad was in the North Staffordshire Regiment, The royal warwickshire and the durham light infantry during WW2 according to my mum. Did men change regiments? I have a photograph album with photos of my dad with several others and would love to share with other people(no names on the back unfortunately) but wondered if there were web sites where you could do that.? Several are sports teams football and athletic and i can see they are North staffs reg.
Any suggestions would be very appreciated
Christine
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Hi,My dad was in the North Staffordshire Regiment, The royal warwickshire and the durham light infantry during WW2 according to my mum. Did men change regiments?
All the time...They were sent where they were needed for a number of reasons. If he was in the Infantry for all of his career he would have probably replaced casualties or moved on if the battalion was disbanded.
Do you have a copy of his service records?
Cheers
Andy
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Thanks for the reply Andy no i dont have my dads service record but i do have his number. His mother my gran kept a scrap book during the war so i have a list of where he served and some of the photos i have were taken in Italy in 1945. Would it be my mum who would have to apply for the record (shes 89)?
Christine
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Can you post any of his football photographs, please?
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Thanks for the reply Andy no i dont have my dads service record but i do have his number. His mother my gran kept a scrap book during the war so i have a list of where he served and some of the photos i have were taken in Italy in 1945. Would it be my mum who would have to apply for the record (shes 89)?
Christine
If his wife (your mother) is still alive you can apply in her name and just get her to sign the form and have the records sent to your home address. The records are free to living wives/husbands.
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Hi,My dad was in the North Staffordshire Regiment, The royal warwickshire and the durham light infantry during WW2 according to my mum. Did men change regiments?
All the time...They were sent where they were needed for a number of reasons. If he was in the Infantry for all of his career he would have probably replaced casualties or moved on if the battalion was disbanded.
Cheers
Andy
All the time ...... You can say that again!
I tried to follow three of my relatives during WWI, specifically because I wanted to know where they were on the date they were gassed, injured or killed. I became so confused by the movements, disbandments and joinings up that I gave in and called it a day.
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Hi,My dad was in the North Staffordshire Regiment, The royal warwickshire and the durham light infantry during WW2 according to my mum. Did men change regiments?
All the time...They were sent where they were needed for a number of reasons. If he was in the Infantry for all of his career he would have probably replaced casualties or moved on if the battalion was disbanded.
Cheers
Andy
All the time ...... You can say that again!
I tried to follow three of my relatives during WWI, specifically because I wanted to know where they were on the date they were gassed, injured or killed. I became so confused by the movements, disbandments and joinings up that I gave in and called it a day.
I don't envy you. I stay clear as much as possible from researching WW1 chaps for people. With WW2 soldiers it's easy (used loosely), you just follow the service record trail and get the appropriate unit war diaries. With WW1 you are always going to struggle as most WW1 service records were destroyed in the Blitz.
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Thanks for replies. I am very lucky my Nan kept a scrap book and listed where my dad was stationed . I even have a newspaper cutting from the local shrewsbury paper giving details of when he was wounded and flown home.
On The football team one i assume NSR means North Staffordshire Regiment.
On the athletics one im not sure you will be able to see the logo on their shirts.Its like a line curving round to form two circles underneath then V11 under that ?
I have numerous photos of dad with many other men in Italy ( Cortina and Venice ) would love to share with anyone researching family tree if they know there relative was in same regiment. Perhaps i should look for genealogist websites or post more on here ?. i will research a bit
Thanks
Christine
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unfortunately they are too small to look for any clues.
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Apologies , I tried several times to upload and it kept saying the file was too big. Im not great on the computer ! Will try again.
Chris
Sorry not much bigger now but it wont let me upload original size.
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You need to cut off the white space as this increase the filesize,
By the way you describe it sounds like the Staffordshire Knot the emblem of the Staffs.
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O thankyou yes its the staffordshire knot !!
Chris
Trying again with pictures I need my daughters to help !
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There big Now !!
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Your description of the insignia on the athletics kit sounds like the Staffordshire Knot, used by both North and South Staffs Regiments.
A
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T Bn NSR stands for Training Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment. Whilst that is a step forward it doesn't help you out a great deal. Firstly he would have been posted to a unit after training so he could have gone to whatever unit the Army decided he was needed, battlefield casualty replacement in any unit or increasing the Orbat (Order of Battle) in a local regiment. I'd be pretty confident in saying he stayed in a infantry unit as they had one of the highest casualty rates during WW2. Once the Allies gained air superiority in 1944 over Europe they started disbanding AA Artillery regiments and turning them into Infantry units because the British were so short of men. It happened even earlier in Africa and Italy.
Anyway I digress - I say this all the time but Service Records are what you need to ID what units he served with.
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cbhasin:
As Andy just said, Service records are the most useful things you can get. I will vouch for that having asked my mother about 2 years ago to apply for my father's. It was free for her to do so as Andy said, and the only cost for me was to obtain a copy of Dad's death certificate which is also required by the MoD for Service records to be issued.
It was a very very worthwhile thing to do, so I can only encourage you to apply for them.
RRTB
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great to have some photos from then. 3 of my 4 grandparents were in the forces in WW2 and my father in law too but the only photos we have are one of each of my grandparents in their uniform. nothing else.
Definitely get the service records. 2 of our 3 are really interesting and helpful and much easier than trying to find info online. (the other set of records are very unhelpful and now we trawl the internet trying to find anything that might help piece things together)
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Post up copies of that "unhelpful" set here if you're allowed to and the experts on here will be more than willing to help out if they can, as you already know!
RRTB
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thanks - think they are a bit beyond help to be honest. I am starting to lose the will to investigate.
They look normal enough on the surface but don't match what he said which makes them unhelpful to us!
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Maybe he chose not to tell people the truth for one reason or another.
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yes that is what I am leaning towards now ScouseBoy.
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For example, When my dad got out of France in June 1940, I believe he was in the sea water when the ship sank.
But, I do not think that when he arrived home safe that he told his mum or my mum what had happened, out of consideration for them and them possibly worrying more subsequently in the war.
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ours is the opposite though - the records imply he did nothing, he indicated on a couple of occasions that he did.
I have posted a link to photos of some of his records now. I need to check actually if that is all of them, I forget where I got to with it all.
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Thanks for all the comments and yes i will order dads service record
Chris