1
Armed Forces / Re: Help deciphering abbreviations from 1945 Christmas menu
« on: Wednesday 16 July 25 07:28 BST (UK) »
Thank you everyone for your expertise, this will help narrow it down!
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
2
Armed Forces / Re: Help deciphering abbreviations from 1945 Christmas menu
« on: Tuesday 15 July 25 16:32 BST (UK) »
Thanks ShaunJ! That's a really interesting read.
3
Armed Forces / Help deciphering abbreviations from 1945 Christmas menu
« on: Tuesday 15 July 25 10:15 BST (UK) »
Hello everyone,
My mother in law has asked me to find out some information about her father's war service (he never spoke about it before he passed away). I'm going to apply for service records using the .gov link helpfully provided in this forum but am trying to find more information to make the search more specific, especially the regiment he might have been with, as there are a number of personnel with the same name and year of birth (Thomas Alcock born Nov 1912)
She has shown me this wonderful menu her father kept from a Christmas dinner in 1945 in Baghdad(I believe he'd stayed on until 1946 to help with rebuilding). I've tried to search what 345 REWS might be but nothing comes up. CRE I believe is Corps of Royal Engineers, but when I google that with BR 31 nothing comes up. What might BR 31 be, please? And is CRE different to REWs? She believes he had something to do with maintaining pipelines in Iraq during the war. Sorry for my bumbling questions, it's a whole different language to me! Thank you for any pointers you might have, it's much appreciated.
My mother in law has asked me to find out some information about her father's war service (he never spoke about it before he passed away). I'm going to apply for service records using the .gov link helpfully provided in this forum but am trying to find more information to make the search more specific, especially the regiment he might have been with, as there are a number of personnel with the same name and year of birth (Thomas Alcock born Nov 1912)
She has shown me this wonderful menu her father kept from a Christmas dinner in 1945 in Baghdad(I believe he'd stayed on until 1946 to help with rebuilding). I've tried to search what 345 REWS might be but nothing comes up. CRE I believe is Corps of Royal Engineers, but when I google that with BR 31 nothing comes up. What might BR 31 be, please? And is CRE different to REWs? She believes he had something to do with maintaining pipelines in Iraq during the war. Sorry for my bumbling questions, it's a whole different language to me! Thank you for any pointers you might have, it's much appreciated.
4
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Thursday 03 July 25 18:22 BST (UK) »
Ah yes, that's the one. Thank you for the link.
5
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Thursday 03 July 25 17:43 BST (UK) »
I'm travelling overnight so haven't had a chance to look at what's been posted recently but I just wanted to thank you SS and ShaunJ for still looking. I don't know if I've got the wrong end of the stick (again!) but yesterday I googled CHC's name and his location at death and it came up with some possible info. If it's the relevant CHC it looks like he lived at the same address with a lady (I imagine his wife?) called Jean Clarke in the 2000s.
6
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Wednesday 02 July 25 10:03 BST (UK) »The marriage to Lily I Lawrence in 4Q 1927 looks very likely.
You're right, I'd come back to say I'd got my dates in a muddle and to delete my previous post.
7
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Wednesday 02 July 25 09:37 BST (UK) »
ShaunJ - oh well done Lily for raising him! And brilliant find, thank you ShaunJ
8
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Wednesday 02 July 25 09:11 BST (UK) »
deleted
9
Armed Forces / Re: Locating John Henry Clarke - Company Quartermaster Sergeant, RE
« on: Wednesday 02 July 25 08:10 BST (UK) »
Oh that is very sad! Poor Charles, the son, to have lost both mother and father by the age of 6 too.
Thank you Jon for your brilliant research skills and also for the pointer towards Woolwich Cemetery, I have family there so next time I go I'll pay my respects to John Henry too. Thank you ShaunJ for the articles, much appreciated as always.
ALAMO - you questioned whether his marriage to Florence in 1920 was his first marriage. There is a record of a John Clarke aged 25 marrying a Julia Elizabeth Walford aged 32 in Trichininopoly, India in 1903. I do wonder if it's him. It says he's a Private in the Lincoln Regiment so there's that army link (though I imagine a good portion of British people in India in that time had an army link).
Anyhow, thank you everyone for your help, I'm very grateful. I would not have got as much information on John Henry Clarke on my own.
Thank you Jon for your brilliant research skills and also for the pointer towards Woolwich Cemetery, I have family there so next time I go I'll pay my respects to John Henry too. Thank you ShaunJ for the articles, much appreciated as always.
ALAMO - you questioned whether his marriage to Florence in 1920 was his first marriage. There is a record of a John Clarke aged 25 marrying a Julia Elizabeth Walford aged 32 in Trichininopoly, India in 1903. I do wonder if it's him. It says he's a Private in the Lincoln Regiment so there's that army link (though I imagine a good portion of British people in India in that time had an army link).
Anyhow, thank you everyone for your help, I'm very grateful. I would not have got as much information on John Henry Clarke on my own.