Uniform identification please

[annie24b]

Ady, Gobbo - thanks for that. I'll have to see what I can find using his discharge number then.
Pete - No, it doesn't really solve who it is in the photo. He didn't have any brothers, only sisters and I can't see anyone else who  was born around that time. As you say, its the uniform thats the puzzle.

Anyway, if nothing else I found out about his war service. All I had up to then was his birth and marriage. I have searched for ages for his death - I did find one in the GRO Marine deaths overseas, but dismissed it as the age was wrong. Now that I know he lied about his age, that record fits  - but now I can't remember how I found it! I remember it was 1924, age 51 and vessel Fernhill & thats it.
Never mind. I'll keep on looking!
 Thanks for the Harry Tate link by the way - very interesting.

Annie

[Pete Keane]

What about the lady sitting down, could she be a sister?

[annie24b]

I suppose she could be, but he looks so much like my dad, I'm inclined to think it is my g father

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Annie

I am guessing that the medal card you found was in the Board of Trade series for merchant service medals or possibly an Admiralty series.  I have looked for him but without success in the "military" cards on Ancestry and did not find him.  He may have enlisted as a soldier in 1914 or 1915 but then been discharged during his training, perhaps because of a medical problem or perhaps because they found out that he was too old.  In this case he would not have been posted to a war zone and would not be eligible for any military medals.  Even so he would have had a military service record: unfortunately a large proportion of these were destroyed in a fire in the 1940s and I cannot find a service (or pension) record for him.

Your best bet is to chase up his seaman's record and attempt to reconstruct the history of his voyages during WW1 - if there is any large gap that may indicate a period when he was in the army and conversely if there is no large gap then he probably was not in the army.

All the best

Gobbo

[km1971]

A man discharged during WW1 due to sickeness or injury would be entitled to a Silver War Badge, whether he went overseas or not. This would be recorded on a medal card, and so should be on Ancestry.

Ken

[O1dgobbo]

.... but he would not get a SWB if he was discharged because he had lied about his age on enlistment.

[annie24b]

Just a quick update, and an aside from the uniform identification.
 I now have the death certificate from the Marine deaths overseas, and it is indeed my g father.
We were always told he died in Buenos Aries....in fact it was Hospital Bel Air, Bordeaux 
I'm so happy to have found him -  now I need to find out where he was buried - would he have been buried abroad I wonder?

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Annie

Shipping bodies home is a very modern development and I imagine that he would have been buried in Bordeaux.

All the best

Gobbo

[annie24b]

thanks Gobbo.
One mystery solved, another to start on