Please help - cannot find gg grandads death!

[kat2004]

Hi, I'm at a brick wall and it is driving me mad, if anyone can help me out here I would really really appreciate it.  My GG grandad Thomas William Fisher b1874 was a sargeant in the Cheshire Reg in 1907 (it says so on his marriage cert).

In 1909 Thomas is a shipyard worker in Barrow in Furness according to my G grangmothers birth cert (this is definately correct, Thomas must have demobbed from the army sometime beween 1907 - 1909).

The problem I have is that my G grandmother always told us that Thomas died in ww1 and she never knew him really.  I've searched rolls of honour, Barrow war memorial, the medals index and the gro registers and cannot find a suitable entry for his death! If he was 'missing in action' would there be a 'missing in action' list?

I have wrote to the Cheshire Reg to see if they have anything in their archives, but this might not help with his ww1 history as he may have joined up in 1914 with the reserves to a different regiment.

If Thomas died from his injuries after the war, abroad or in England, who would register his death? I've searched the gro army indexes abroad but to no avail.I would hate to think he languished in some nursing home as many others did, forgotten about.  His wife married again in 1922 and is a widow on her second marriage cert so this is a possible option, he could have died as a result of his injuries after the war ended.

The brick wall is all that more important to me because we are visiting the war cemetaries around the Somme and Ypres this summer and if we could at least know where he went missing we could lay some kind of rememberance for him.  His brother Herbert was killed at Gallipoli and we have all his details, I really want to do the same for Thomas. 

Please, if anyone can help or advise I would be so grateful.
Kathryn

[liverpool annie]

I really don't know if this is your GG Grandad ...... but this soldier is a possibility !

In Memory of

Private T FISHER
16904, 11th Bn., Cheshire Regiment

who died

on 03 July 1916

Remembered with honour

LONSDALE CEMETERY, AUTHUILE

Medal card of Fisher, Thomas

Cheshire Regiment
16904
Private
Date
1914-1920

http://www.rootschat.com/links/019w/

Annie 

[kat2004]

Oh thank you Annie, you are a star!

I suppose I will have to wait for my Cheshire reg search to come to verify if this could be him, if it is my Tom why is his name not on the Barrow war memorial? I will definately chase this up if it is the right Thomas Fisher!

Thank you once again,
kat

[lizdb]

If Thomas died in this country, either from war wounds or anything else, then his death would be registered in the normal way and will be in the GRO death registers.

We know he was alive in 1909 and had died by 1922

I have been through the death registers from 1910-1921 and the only Thomas W Fisher that dies in those years of the correct age was:
Jul/AUg/Sep 1913 aged 39 Gravesend (Kent) ref 2a 649

This is unlikely to be him, unless he went down to Kent for some reason.
But worth keeping up your sleeve to pursue if all else fails.

[liverpool annie]

Maybe  a look up request in Soldiers Died Great War might bring out some information .......

I hope maybe Mack or Harribobs will see this ....

Annie 

PS Carl's Cam has 2 Thomas Fisher's in Cheshire .... though not in Barrow ! 

http://www.carlscam.com/index.html

[kat2004]

Hi,thank you once again! Is Soldiers Died Great War not the same as the army death indexes? I dont think Ive come across this data before, he should be in there shouldn't he?

I don't think the Kent Thomas Fisher is mine, but it is worth keeping a tab on and thank you fo pointing him out to me.

The only other thing I have to go on is that Thomas had a son (Herbert Fisher) who joined the army when he grew up. Now, my G nanana told my nanna that Herbert joined the Shropshire Reg because it was the one his dad was serving for when he died. I've never regarded this info as solid fact because my nanna is quite frogetful (god bless her) and I thought she had got Shropshore mixed up with Cheshire because we knew he definately was in the Cheshire reg before WW1.  Its so hard when things happened so long ago to know what to take as factual and what to dismiss (for now). 

If I go to the local records office to research the local newspapers dating furing the war, would they have obituarys of soldiers reported dead? Im starting to realise tht enormitude of those who were killed/ missing in action, its quite upsetting isn't it to see all those names? My G nanna would be so pleased if she were still alive toknow that I was looking for her father, that someone remembered him.

[harribobs]

the thomas fisher Annie is refering to was born in Stafford, enlisted Manchester, killed at the somme

[kat2004]

Aw, Im gutted! Im starting to wonder if  my Thomas W Fisher did actually serve in WW1 now! Until I get some details from the Cheshire Reg I'ts going tobe hard to identify him isn't it?

Thank you all for helping me, as soon as hear back I will let you know what they say.
Kat

[Missprim]

Hi,

I've been searching for the death or burial of Thomas William Fisher for about 18 years on and off.  I have come to the conclusion that there is a mistake somewhere in the records - perhaps his name is misspelt in some way that I haven't yet thought of. 

I can tell you from official records his service number in the Cheshire Regiment was 4546.  The number 7659 appears in the Barrow-in-Furness Roll of Honour with the words "Ex-Sergeant". This particular Roll of Honour also named men who came home so it is not an indication that Tom was dead by the end of the war. His name is not on the war memorial though his brother Herbert's name is there.  Herbert was killed in action in 1915.

Tom joined the Cheshire Regiment on 9th January 1894; he was promoted to Corporal on 1st June 1900 and to Sergeant on 1st December 1902.  He was discharged from the army 5 August 1908 and placed on the reserve for six years.  So when war broke out in 1914 he would be called up being just within the six year period.  If the war had come later that year events might have been very different.

I suspect that Tom would be put into a regiment probably a local one as a private, whether he rose again through the ranks I do not know but I would have thought it would be likely if he lived for any length of time as from the army's point of view experienced men would be hard to come by. 

missprim