William Gray 8th West Riding Regiment

[Timbottawa]

I'm having to dive into military records, a subject on which I am a complete neophyte!  I'm searching for William Gray, who was born in 1869-70 in Newark, but who spent most of his life in and around Bradford.

I believe he joined the army in about 1904-5, based on a 1906 newspaper article that implied that he had gone bankrupt around 1904, in Otley, and "subsequently joined the army and is serving in India".

He died, aged 44, on 03/03/1915, but not (as you might expect) as a result of WW1.  Causes of death were tuberculosis and cardiac failure, but his occupation is still listed as Master(?) Sergeant, 8th West Riding Regiment.

Without wishing anyone to waste a lot of time on this, if some military expert could find out when he joined up and where he served (e.g., when did he go to/return from India), I'd be most grateful.

[rosie17]

If you have access to Ancestry his  service records are on there
He joined up 8 April 1904 York
He was a sergeant
Regiment number 7824 West Riding Regiment
His occupation on enlistment is Grocer Clerk
He served in several countries

He was admitted  to City Hospital Leeds Road Bradford 20 February 1915: with acute pulmonary tuberculosis and
died  3 March 1915 . His health broke down while home on leave

Rosie

[BumbleB]

William's service records are shown on FindMyPast - quite a lot of pages.  Start date 6 June 1904 - medically fit date of 7 April 1904.

Added: (from service record):

Wife - Helena Jane Boyle, married St Paul's, Manningham - 16.9.1895

Chidren:

William Alfred - 26 May 1896 - Bradford
Douglas - 1 June 1898 - Fulham ?
Cyril - 24 October 1902 - Otley

[mmm45]

Does anything in records mention that military service caused his illness?

If it does there could be a case for recognition by CWGC if he was still in uniform in 1915 he should be eligible

https://infromthecold.org/

Having looked at his record I believe he should be added to the CWGC roll id contact in from the cold

Ady

[rosie17]

It says Pulmonary Tuberculosis an acute rapid type accelerated heart failure
Duration of illness unknown but would have been brief

Rosie

[Andy J2022]

Does anything in records mention that military service caused his illness?

If it does there could be a case for recognition by CWGC if he was still in uniform in 1915 he should be eligible

https://infromthecold.org/

Having looked at his record I believe he should be added to the CWGC roll id contact in from the cold

Ady

He is already on the CWGC roll of honour: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/411374/w-gray/
To be eligible for CWGC recognition it is not necessary that his cause of death was directly attributable to his military service. It is sufficient that he was actually serving in a theatre of operations, albeit he was home on leave at the time.

[Andy J2022]

He died, aged 44, on 03/03/1915, but not (as you might expect) as a result of WW1.  Causes of death were tuberculosis and cardiac failure, but his occupation is still listed as Master(?) Sergeant, 8th West Riding Regiment.

His actual rank was Staff Sergeant (also referred to as Colour Sergeant in most Infantry Battalions) and his appointment was Company Quartermaster Sergeant. That is to say he was in charge of the Company's stores and in wartime he would have been responsible for supplying the rations and ammunition to the fighting troops, along with more routine supplies such as replacement articles of uniform, blankets, digging equipment etc. In terms of the hierarchy, he would have been the second most senior of the NCOs in the company after the Company Sergeant Major.   

[mmm45]

Andy thanks for clarifying that the search I did didn't show him up on CWGC search engine
as id used 3/3/15 and they list him as 4/3/15

[Timbottawa]

Well, thanks to everyone for your very helpful replies - more than I bargained for!

Just a note to BumbleB, who understandably queried the Fulham birth.  I don't know the reason for sure, but I can rationalise this ... Helena Jane's father (my g-gf), Yorkshire born-and-bred, spent about 5 years living in London in the period 1897-8 to 1902/3, when appointed Coordinating Secretary of the Lifeboat Saturday Fund. So Douglas might have been born, whether by design or accident, while his mother (always known as "Nelly") was visiting her parents.