Please Identify Regiment and Rank

[ogohogoh]

Hello - this is the only known photo of (hopefully) my Grandfather William Henry Edward Wilkinson b.18.1.1887 in Kennington. I am pretty certain the baby is my father William Frederick Horace Wilkinson b.11.11.1914.

I have only just obtained my Grandfather's birth certificate but beyond that nothing personal is known of him as he split from my Grandmother within a few years of their marriage, and was never seen again.  If it is my grandfather he would be about 27 or 28 when the photo was taken. 

This photo has just been discovered and comes as something of a revelation as I have another believed to have been taken at the same place and time with my father in the ams of an older lady assumed to be his grandmother.

Any help in identifying my grandfather's Regiment and Rank, or anything else relating to him, would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,  Fred

 

[ainslie]

Can you scan the right shoulder area of his uniform, which may reveal the abbreviated title of his regiment?
His rank looks like Private [or equivalent, depending on his unit].  No chevrons or other indications of rank are visible, to me at any rate.
If you post his name in full, that may help towards a clue.
A

[Hackstaple]

The white lanyard on the left at that time seems to show that he was in the Royal Artillery. He is a private or gunner to be correct.

The lanyard moved to the right shoulder in 1924.

[t mo]

hello fred
can you post his wifes name as well please i,ve had a look at the 1911 cen but so far can,t find him
trevor

[ogohogoh]

Hi Ainsley,

His full name is William Henry Edward Wilkinson, born 18.1.1887 in Kennington, London.  He married Lilian Maud Tabor on 5.8.1913 in Hackney, London.

I've scanned his right shoulder but there's not a lot of definition...the last character looks like a 7.

Hello Hackstaple,

Thanks for your input.  There's an Edward Wilkinson from Kennington  b.about 1888 in the Tank Corps in the WW1 Service Records, and a William Henry Wilkinson, a 2nd Lieut. gunner in the RFA in the WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards (Regimental number: 1620, 680443)  - but no idea if either are him.

Regards, Fred  

[Hackstaple]

It is not the tanker nor the second lieutenant. The number on his shoulder is possibly the battery number.

[ogohogoh]

Hello Hackstaple - He's a very elusive man!  He vanished into thin air a few years after marriage and, as far as I know, was never seen again.  My grandmother had a child by another man in 1922 while she was still married, and she eventually married someone else in 1941, so presumably she was and her first husband were divorced by then.  I believe I found a death cert for him under William H E Wilkinson of Ealing in the 1916-2005 Death Index for 1962 at the age of 76.  I wish I knew more!

His full name is William Henry Edward Wilkinson, born 18.1.1887 in Kennington, London.  He married Lilian Maud Tabor on 5.8.1913 in Hackney, London.  His father was Henry Richard Wilkinson b.1861 and his mother Clara Jane Mostran b.1860.

Cheers, Fred

[Hackstaple]

There are no surviving military records for him on Ancestry - a pretty common occurrence. He could have been Royal Field Artillery or Royal Garrison Artillery or Royal Horse Artillery or even have moved from one to other.

The 2nd Lieut by the way came from Bolton.