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Andy - thank you for this, it's all really clear and very helpful!

If I wanted to look in a little more detail, would I be trying to find a war diary for 56th (London) Div and that should also cover their attachment to PAIFORCE, 491 RASC etc? I suppose what I really want to do is follow where in Egypt/Italy etc he was. I have a photo of him and his unit (?) in Forli, Italy, for example, but that's the only photo I have that's got a location on it.

Thank you!

After 14 months I finally received my grandad's WW2 records! Hurrah! I've tried to decipher it but would appreciate any help clarifying a few things before I share it with the family. Thank you!

From what I understand, Grandad was a Storeman, part of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 56th (1st London) Division. He seems to have spent the first couple of years in the UK and then on to Egypt/Iraq/Italy.

I've attached 4 pages.

Q - on Pg 1, on the right hand side of the page, on 18.10.39 he was classified as a Class III storeman after training. But there are a few letters before 'Class III'. Is this some kind of indication of a type of thing he was supplying? From what I've seen different storemen were responsible for different types of supplies (clothing, ammo, etc) but I might have misunderstood.

Q - I'm trying to understand the detailed timeline on pg3.  Don't know if anyone can shed any light on:
      > There's a line halfway down that says something like "Adm (?) to 8SA CCS". What does this mean?
      > A few lines after that (date 28/3/44) it says "moved from on TOS ME". What might that be, please?
     > The line 3 rows up from the bottom starts "T.T......ST/I" and then below "Re-? ST/CGI" Can anyone shed any light on this?
     > Last line, what does 491 Coy RASC mean?

Q - He seems to be linked to the RAOS & 56th (London), but also at times PAIFORCE, MEF & BNAF. Would that just mean that the whole of the 56th were deployed with PAIFORCE etc etc?

I'd dearly love to know more detail about where he was specifically and what they were up to - would there be a good resource to go to?

Apologies for any daft/obvious questions!
Thank you.

Ah, that's amazing work, thank you so much to all! Much appreciated. I would not have seen manufacturer in a million years - and that notice in the Gazette is so interesting and I think correct as the family later have links to Lane End.

I will also look up those birth records - I don't know if something's gone awry with my research as I thought his wife's maiden name was Hollins. Perhaps she died and he remarried another Mary. Not sure but I will look it all up, thank you.

Ah! So maybe the Harty entry was the "extra" one done later for some reason. Thank you!