Help Identifying Royal Engineer Info

[xpress4]

Hi All,

This is a picture of Alexander Moore (front row, center), b. 1893. He was in the Royal Engineers is all I know of him aside from having this great picture. Wondering if any of you smarter than I, wish should cover about all of you, can help me pull information out of these photos. I don't know when they were taking or were and with who he served.

Many thanks!
Brenda

[liverpool annie]

Hi Brenda!

Great photo!! just wanted to say - look how young those two boys are !! 

There are 8 medal cards - see if you can see which one might be his !

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0bb/

Do you know if he came home from the war ?

Annie 

[xpress4]

Thank you Annie!

Oh I know, can you imagine being the mother of one of those wee boys and having to say goodbye as they headed off? Breaks your heart doesn't it?!

Anyway, thanks for the list of medal cards. Unfortunately I can't tell which is his. I did look back at a postcard from he to his sister and his address is a bit cut off but reads "Sapper A. Moore, R.E., No 1869) 2/7 (or 217) Comp (I think, hard to make out). P(?)itt Corner Camp, Winchester, Hantsfordshire. I tried to look for these numbers in the list you sent but didn't have any luck.

We don't know if he came home from the war or not.

Thanks again!
Brenda

[Wendi]

Hi Brenda

I found this link, which although it is not "?? Corner Camp" gives a good description of how things would have been.

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0bd/

Winchester is a historic military town, in Hampshire, which is on the south coast of England. 

It looks to me like this photo was taken in training, before going to France, so it is possible that his number changed on embarkation.

Did Alexander have a middle name?  Parents names would be good too if you have them.

Wendi 

[old rowley]

Futher to the Pitt Corner Camp, there is a hamlet called Pitt as well as an area known as Pitt Down, south west of Winchester. If there was an army camp by that name near Winchester then I would hazzard a guess and say that it was within this area.


I would also agree with Wendi by saying that this appears to be pre going to the front and would be at a training camp. The two youngsters are "boy soldiers" ( a term that I had never heard of until an ex "boy" told me that he had joined the army at a very young age as a drummer and it was a general term that was handed to them by the older soldiers) and were most probably from the band section as they are both holding bugles.

old rowley

[xpress4]

Thanks you two!

Wendi, thanks for the great link! It does give me some idea of it all.

So the 2/7 appears to be his batallion number. Now I just need to figure out which one. His family lived in Milton during this time, so that could explain the locale. His parents names were Mary Ann and Fenton Moore. He had no middle initial. His birthdate was April 15, 1893.

I do have a postcard written by him that wishes Merry Christmas from the Royal Engineers and the photographer was based in Portsmouth. But that's a vague clue.

Old Rowley, thanks to you too. There must be some historical information somewhere on the hamlet of Pitt. I will keep digging on that. Thanks!!

[Wendi]

Just to recap I think it was probably taken around 1915

Sapper is his rank = to a Private Soldier
RE = Royal Engineers
No. 1869 His Army Number
2/7 (or 217) probably 2/7 Comp - is the Company, within the Battalion, within the Regiment, but I'm not totally sure the Royal Engineers had Battalions.......perhaps someone else can put us straight on that.

It would appear that he survived the war, as I could not find him on The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web Site.  A thorough search of the Medal Cards website Annie gave you the link to should establish if he went to France, as a rule of thumb, if he has no card he did not go ( but it's not conclusive).

Winchester Library might be able to help regarding Pitt, but it would appear that today most of the area around the hamlet is a golf course.

I looked it up on Multimap.com 

Wendi

[xpress4]

Thanks again Wendi! Would you suggest that my next step be the National Archives based on the numbers on that postcard? I was trying to find a short cut as I'm in the U.S. but it appears the only resource for me on the matter.

I think if he'd been born one hundred years earlier, I'd have an easier time finding him! 

Thanks for all your kind help,
Brenda

[liverpool annie]

Hi Brenda!

Any chance you can post the back of the card ? - maybe somebody can see something that can give us another clue !! 

Annie