RootsChat.Com

Dear Guyana,

Thank you for your reply.  "Your" Thomas Atkins really must have been an old soldier according to his number!!  My OH, ex Coldstream Guards, often receives communications from or meets up with other CG members and he often bemoans the fact that their army numbers are vastly different from his.  I don't know if he thinks of himself as an 'old soldier' or that they are 'mere babies' by comparison!!
Siouxie

I have been researching my OH's family line.  He has a rather nice photograph of his Mum and Dad's wedding during World War Two.  I sent off for the marriage certificate to try and identify everyone in the photograph.  It seems his "best man" was another soldier, probably from the same regiment.  However, on checking the names of the witnesses I found the 'errant' soldier had signed as "Tommy Atkins"!!!
Really?  And if not - why the deception?
Siouxie366

Hello Jim1

Thank you for that information.  I have to confess I'm having a bit of a giggle now!!

Granny was born in 1891, so would have been 31 in 1922, so she would certainly have been a contemporary of Richard in regard to age.

Now, here's where I'm just having to giggle!!  Granny got married in 1917!!!

By that time Richard was serving with the 1/1 Welsh (Caernarvonshire) Heavy Battery.  I wonder if she was carrying a torch for Richard and when he went off to fight in the Great War, decided to hedge her bets and marry just in case he didn't come back.  Whisper it please - she had already had a child out of wedlock (as they say) in 1915.  Following her marriage she quit Wales and went to live in York, where her husband was originally from.

I wonder how she managed to receive Richard's medal???  I'm not sure of how much time elapsed between her marriage and her moving to Yorkshire, as her husband was serving in the Yorks and Lancs Regiment.  His address was one in York, and hers was in Penygroes in Wales!!

Aren't relatives just wonderful!!

Regards
Siouxie

Thank you very much Phil.  Very interesting to know that.  We are still very intrigued as to why Granny always wore his medal!  She, herself, was Welsh and lived in ne of the villages just outside Caernarvon.  I expect that the "why" will never really be known.
Regards
Siouxie

I have been researching my husband's family lately and discovered his Grandmother had a brother and a sister that no-one knew anything about.  The brother died in WW1 in Israel.  Here's the mystery!  "Granny" always wore a medal that had been adapted into a brooch, and we assumed it had previously belonged to one of her family members.  However, the brother who died in WW1 was H.H.Owens serving with the RWF.  The name given on the "brooch" (British War Medal) she wore is that of 310115 Gunner R. Edwards, Royal Artillery.  We have NO idea who this person might be, no date or place of birth, date of death etc.  Does anyone have any idea as to how, with this very scant information we might find out more regarding Gunner Edwards?
Thanks
Siouxie366