Who is the R. Smailes on the Radcliffe War Memorial?

No idea what the Commonwealth War Graves website have done to their search facility. It's useless now. :mad:

Hi,
I hope you're still interested in this and still on the forum.
The R Smailes on the Radcliffe memorial is my great-grandad but it was a mistake. He wasn't killed just wounded, (lots). It was a source of family laughs allegedly.
Richard was Jack's brother and their mother was Isabella Taylor, so I reckon the Taylor's who Jack signed up with were cousins, not just mates.
All Jack's military info says Northumberland Fusiliers after a certain point, but the fact that he's called John Thomas and was known as Jack smcauses some issues with the research.
If I find a definite link between the Taylor's who signed up with Jack, I will post it up here.

In this new data set the western front association has (pension ledgers) shared with ancestry and Fold3 sites, there is a Richard Smailes, Pte 34630, Northumberland Fusiliers, address looks like "School House, Hansby, Acklington, North'd", also says ' GSW Back' (GSW = gun-shot wound)


I assume Hansby is Hauxley and the rest ties in nicely with the AVLs (apart from the nature of the wound which is new info)


If you have an ancestry account they are here for a few more hours for free:

https://www.fold3.com/image/643595988?xid=1022 (that's the smailes card)

or the search page is here: https://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61588

Hi,
That's the correct service number for him. My dad has his certificate hanging in his house. I knew about three wounds; shot in the nose, shot in the head, shrapnel to the leg. I never knew about the GSW to the back.
Thanks for the link. I think I need to do some more digging on Ancestry and Fold3.

By the way, what are AVLs, please?

AVL = Absent Voters' List March 1918

Here's the relevant page for Amble and Hauxley (Radcliffe) on the other site =


https://www.fusilier.co.uk/northumbe...fe_togston.htm

I can see lots of new names on the latest pension documents release. We can probably get quite close to a definitive list of those that served in the Great War, although I can think of a couple of groups of men that will still be missing.

How interesting those pensions ledgers are! Discovered some info about one of my great uncles. Enlisted in the NF in 1909 but never posted overseas in WW1 and discharged in 1918. He got himself a pension.
Found more stuff on FMP in the NF service records.
Looking for my other great uncle's records, he had what seems to have been shell shock. Only one that is a possibility was classified as having dementia at age 30. Wonder if that covered shell shock back in the day :(

Do any of you know why a soldier might be listed as being at the Command Depot N.F. Catterick. H.D.L?
There is a family rumour that Richard was investigated, along with others, for shooting at an officer.

I think it's just men recuperating from wounds or at home for some other reason had to have a parent unit to which they were allocated, it's very common to fine these men allocate to the 'Depot Battalion' or '3rd Battalion' in the UK. Their original active service battalion still being overseas in most cases.

Regarding 'H.D.L.' I never got to the bottom of that abbreviation, but almost certainly Home..D.. something. All the men marked 'H.D.L' are in the UK I believe.

Cheers. That makes sense. The family thought he might have been investigated in Canterbury but I can't find any records alluding to an officer being shot by their own men in the NF.

Rob, I don't know whether you have access to the FMP website which carried service records for the NF. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcr...SILIERS/047623

The site usefully explains abbreviations used:SGG, St George's Gazette; SWB, Silver War Badge; AVL, Absent Voters List; MIC, Medal Index Card; MR, British War Medal and Victory Medal Roll Books. On the notes it also states that information from the family gives a service number 7/2657.

That's great. Thanks.

Well, this new resource is turning out to be the rosetta stone for me. Finally -- finally found my Great Grandfather, not on the AVLs, but at 2 Swarland Terrace Red Row on the pension ledgers with his inlaws. His brother-in-law at that address is on the AVLs. G-G Served 10th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers from 1915. Gunshot wound to the knee. He served many years on the Amble Colliers after the war - fireman to 2nd engineer. died 1967, I can clearly remember him. I played in his backyard in Newburgh Street as a kid.
My Gran said he would not talk about the war but he was Battalion stretcher bearer at one time.

Kitchener's 10th battalion N.F. serve Italy and France and Flanders. Perhaps shot by the Austrians in Italy?

So... 30 year puzzle put to bed as I had no idea what battalion or unit he served, just that he was 'in the war'.

Remember Who was William Griffiths? Ground to a halt with that one - gave up on it.

Have him now with the pension ledgers, he was renumbered 290319 and with that number he appears in the ledgers at 82 Hartside Terrace, Chevington Drift.

Ecstatic about that as I don't have many medals to Drifters.