Medals For Serving in Mesopotamia

[MargP]

Could you do a close up scan of the boy soldiers hat pse (he looks about 14!) ?As this may hold the key.

The standing chap appears to be Machine Gun Corps, and the Field Service cap (worn by the lad ) at this point (about 1917/8) was usually associated with but one Corps

Hi scrimnet

Do you mean a close up of  my dad's cap the one sitting in the chair he's about 30 there and can you name the Corps you think it may be.

Thank you MargP

[jds1949]

Dear Margp

if your man was in the artillery, either RFA or RGA then he wouldn't have been in any regiment; the artillery had their own structure which existed alongside the infantry regimental system. That's not to say that his Battery did not support the Worcesters, just that the two groups would have been quite separate. Artillery Batteries are notoriously difficult to track as they tended to be sent all over the place, wherever the need was greatest.

jds1949

[forester]

Hello MargP,

2/104 Heavy Battery RGA are quite easy to trace and were in Mespot from March 1916, although I don't know when William transferred. They were initially part of 3 Indian Corps.

158 Battery is giving me a bit more of a problem.

Phil

[jds1949]

All right - so I was half right :]

jds1949

[forester]

Long Long Trail and the National Archives Catalogue. 

Phil

[scrimnet]

Could you do a close up scan of the boy soldiers hat pse (he looks about 14!) ?As this may hold the key.

The standing chap appears to be Machine Gun Corps, and the Field Service cap (worn by the lad ) at this point (about 1917/8) was usually associated with but one Corps

Hi scrimnet

Do you mean a close up of  my dad's cap the one sitting in the chair he's about 30 there and can you name the Corps you think it may be.

Thank you MargP

30!!?

Blimey...He had an easy life then....I would still opine he is a teenager!

The cap badge does indeed look alittle like the RA, but the FSC...?? Weird...

[rmt1]

MargP

I would be really interested in sharing any facts that you manage to discover in your research. My g-g uncle, Joseph F Swinburne was also a driver who served with the RFA in Mesopotamia. I have copies of letters sent to his sister (my g-grandmother) with a Bahgdad address.

Rmt1

[MargP]

Hi RMT1

Thank you for your interest I have not really found out much more than the Root's member's have kindly given me, what I did note from studying the the medal card was that they only record the first theatre of war and not all of them my father went to France first so I think he was in Mespot in the middle of the war I have had a look at your chap on Ancestry so I could compare the information but I need more details if that's ok, would it be possible to send me the letters you have if they are not too personal to glean an insight of there life in Mespot.

MargP