Author Topic: Please help with this record  (Read 1329 times)

Offline snowyw

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Please help with this record
« on: Saturday 26 October 19 11:44 BST (UK) »
My friend has just given me a copy of her father's army service document.
I do not understand it at all. 
Any help with why his record was changed - or indeed any other information would be grateful. 
I absolutely have no clue. 
I'm not young enough to know everything.


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Offline MaxD

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 26 October 19 11:59 BST (UK) »
The clip on its own tells us simply that he enlisted in the Polish Resettlement Corps on the date given and was allotted the service number shown.  Detail of the PRC here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Resettlement_Corps

Post amended - see next post

MaxD

I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



Double  Essex/Suffolk
Randle/Millington Warwicks
Sokser/Klingler Austria/Croatia

Offline MaxD

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 26 October 19 15:56 BST (UK) »
Snowyw

I think you may have seen my response - it was not correct.

It appears to be indicating a break in service and that he previously had a different service number.  "Enlisting" suggests a new start so I would expect his record to show that break in service.

I have amended my original post.

MaxD
I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



Double  Essex/Suffolk
Randle/Millington Warwicks
Sokser/Klingler Austria/Croatia

Offline snowyw

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 26 October 19 16:04 BST (UK) »
Thank you.  I have just read the link that you posted.

The number in black must have been his original number and the red on was issued when he was 'resettled'? 

Do you think there is a possibility then that he had been a POW?

Beneath this clip it also shows in red a change of surname.  Do you think this was normal?
I'm not young enough to know everything.


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Offline MaxD

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 26 October 19 16:10 BST (UK) »
His name would help!  Alojzy was presumably his forename?  What else is there on the record you have?

MaxD
I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



Double  Essex/Suffolk
Randle/Millington Warwicks
Sokser/Klingler Austria/Croatia

Offline snowyw

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 26 October 19 17:11 BST (UK) »
This is the only details, apart from his description.
I'm not young enough to know everything.


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Offline MaxD

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 26 October 19 19:55 BST (UK) »
Observations:

The initials G E D are obviously the end of the word discharged, presumably from the Polish forces. Does the document give no clues at all relating to previous service?

The original number is not a British Army number, perhaps Polish.

The PRC was a British Army unit.  I assume that his record from that time would be held, with all other British Army records of the time, by the Ministry of Defence.  Your friend may wish to consider applying for them with the name Kitzinger and the new number.  The process is described here:
 https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records

His name does not appear on the National Archives listings relating to POWs.

There is a naturalisation certificate record of 1954 in the name of Alojzy Antoni Piotr Kitzinger at the National Archives.  If this is your man then presumably the family know this.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=alojzy+kitzinger

Why change his name - unlikely to be anything to do with the army.  Perhaps tied up with the complicated history of Poland in his life time.

This web site may be worth contacting?
http://www.kresyfamily.com/9-polish-armed-forces.html

I see nothing else that can be squeezed out of this record from a military standpoint.

MaxD


I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



Double  Essex/Suffolk
Randle/Millington Warwicks
Sokser/Klingler Austria/Croatia

Offline snowyw

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 26 October 19 20:42 BST (UK) »
Thank you for this information.
There is no other information on the document.  I am aware of his nationalisation in 1974 because my friend helped her father get it. 
I will pass this info to her. 
What sort of information is likely to be on his military service record? What we are really trying to ascertain is where he was born and possibly how he came to be in the UK.  He never spoke of this to his family.  Possibly too difficult.  All we know is that his father was Josef - this came from his marriage certificate.
I'm not young enough to know everything.


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Offline MaxD

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Re: Please help with this record
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 27 October 19 09:24 GMT (UK) »
His PRC record is unlikely to have anything more than bare detail about his previous life although it would fill a gap in his life that your friend knows nothing about.

What she is looking for will, I would suggest, be found in his Polish Forces service which was surely the reason why he was in England at the end of the war.

This site: http://www.polandinexile.com/index.html would be worth contacting I think.

Other than that, I don't have anything else to offer.

MaxD
I am Zoe Northeast, granddaughter of Maximilian Double.
 
It is with great difficulty I share with you that in the early hours of 07 August 2021, Maximilian passed away unexpectedly but peacefully.

With deep sadness,
Zoe



Double  Essex/Suffolk
Randle/Millington Warwicks
Sokser/Klingler Austria/Croatia