A very human-faced lion

Great to see more records from the War Office being rapidly added to Find My Past, and as I've mentioned somewhere else (and I'll be blowed if I can find exactly where), the Royal Coats of Arms are worthy of study in their own right.  The image above is taken from a discharge paper in WO 122 and dates to 1803.  If I didn't know better, I'd say that the lion has been modelled on a person.  Take a good look.  It's certainly doesn't appear to be an animal's face. Can anyone speculate as to the lion's identity?  Duke of Wellington perhaps?

Undertones of Worley

I have been re-reading Edmund Blunden's Undertones of War and was pleasantly surprised to find that pages from Edmund Blunden's minute book are available online at the First World War Digital Poetry Archive. These include photos of his much loved sergeant Frank Worley (above) as well as fellow officers and other personalities mentioned in his memoir.  This was a real find for me and I hope it may be for others too.

Frank Worley's service record does not survive but we know that he joined the 11th Royal Sussex on the 11th September 1914 (probably at Worthing) and that he was given the number SD/555.  His medal index card incorrectly records his name as WARLEY. Frank Worley was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, his citation reading:

He was discharged due to wounds in December 1918, married in 1922 and died at Worthing in 1954 at the age of 63.  The register entry for his death records his name as Francis J (for Joseph) Worley.

The British Army & The Indian Railway

A while ago, wearing another hat as a so-called "military expert" for Find My Past, I attempted to answer a query from Jean Field regarding her British Army ancestor who was apparently, at some point in time, serving concurrently with the Indian Railways.  Jean's original query and my response is here, on the Find My Past blog.

Last week, re-reading Old Soldier Sahib by Frank Richards, I came across this passage which explains how the arrangement worked.  Frank was a regular soldier serving in India at the turn of the last century with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers and he later served with distinction throughout World War I, winning the DCM and the MM into the bargain. I wish I'd recalled this passage from Old Soldier Sahib when I originally replied to Jean.

"One railway company invited men of good character to go through a six months' course of railway training. The only men who were eligible for this course were those who had six or twelve months to serve before they became time-expired. If they went through this course they were away from the battalion for six months but drew their ration money and pay; the railway company found them lodgings and also paid them a rupee a day for the duration of the course.  At the end of it they had to pass an examination, but even if they passed it they could still please themselves whether they took a job on the railway or went back to the battalion. If they accepted a job they were transferred to the Army Reserve, in spite of having perhaps six months still to serve before they became time-expired.  They generally began work as passenger guards, and rose from that to something higher."

The Regimental Missus

Chanced upon this whilst doing some research on the 1st Bradford Pals:

My curiosity whetted, I clicked onto the image:

Married to the regiment, indeed.

Facially disfigured servicemen from WW1

findmypast has published an expanded index of facially injured servicemen from WW1.  Due to the graphic nature of the majority of the images, just the indexes have been published, although parent company brightsolid paid to have the complete archive scanned and digitised and has provided digital copies to the Royal College of Surgeons which now holds the material.

The remarkable archive charts the work of Dr Harold Gillies and his pioneering teams who painstakingly reconstructed the faces of injured servicemen with remarkable results.  The photos on this page show the injury sustained by Lieutenant William Spreckley who - according to the index on findmypast - sustained a gunshot wound to his nose on the 14th January 1917.  In actual fact, his nose was completely blown off, as can be seen.  All the more remarkable then, that he should have achieved the appearance he had in later life  - see below:

William Spreckley, born in Derbyshire, died in 1974 at the age of 80.  His service record survives at The National Archives in London.

Harold Gillies's seminal work, Plastic Surgery of the Face, can be downloaded free of charge from The Internet Archive.  Click on the link.

WW1 Remembrance - all change

I've just changed the design template over on my WW1 Remembrance blog.  I'm hoping that having done so, the pages will be quicker to load and visitors will find it easier to navigate around.  One of the beauties of the new layout is that you can choose the way you want to view the posts.  I had a look at the mosaic layout on WW1 Remembrance and was surprised to see my grandfather - Walter Nixon - and his brother Jack, staring out at me side by side.  Although I've had those photos for a while, I'd never actually bothered to view them next to each other.

Walter, on the left, served with the Royal Garrison Artillery and survived although he was wounded and gassed.  Jack was not so lucky and was killed in action on the 3rd October 1918. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois memorial in France.  I am assuming his body must have been discovered as I have both of his identity tags which were presumably taken from his corpse.  That's why he has no known grave.  The correct procedure should have been to remove one of the tags and leave the olther on the body so that it could be identified.  As soon as both of those tags were removed he was destined to be buried in a grave identified only as "known unto God".

Manchester City Battalions

Great to see that findmypast.co.uk has now added the platoon, officer and band photos for the Manchester City Battalions.

The photo on this post shows men of Platoon IX, C Company, 22nd (Service) Battalion, Manchester Regiment.  Read the story of one of the Manchester Pals - Harry Toplis Bardsley - on my World War 1 Veterans' blog.

South Lancashire Regiment 1914-1919

Here's a nice site which I don't think I've mentioned before: The South Lancashire Regiment in the Great War 1914-1919.

Although the site is still a work in progress - as any site of this nature will be - there is some good information appearing and it will become an increasingly useful resource.

Cap badge courtesy of North East Medals.

Poor VC database added by Ancestry

Not had a chance to properly go over this yet, but Ancestry has jusst added a VC database to its military collection.  That's a good thing of course, although VCs are a well researched topic and there probably won't be anything new here for anybody.

Unfortunately the collection, such as it is, is only browsable by surname letter, and the quality of the images leaves much to be desired.  My recommendation: Google your VC hero first and scoop up all the free stuff that'a already on line.  You'll probably end up with as much, if not more, than there is on the Ancestry VC collection.

Crimean War VC winners on findmypast

The following men, all awarded the Victoria Cross for service during the Crimean War, have surviving service records in WO 97, now accessible on line thanks to findmypast.co.uk. To view a record, follow this WO 97 Chelsea Pensioners link and enter the details below (Note, you'll need Pay-Per-View credits or a subscription to view the records).

Crimean War VC holders

Alfred Ablett, Grenadier Guards
Thomas Beach, 55th Regiment of Foot
Joseph Bradshaw, Rifle Brigade
Daniel Cambridge, Royal Regiment of Artillery
William Coffey, 34th Regiment of Foot
George Gardiner, 57th Regiment of Foot
Thomas Grady, 44th Regiment of Foot
Matthew Hughes, 7th Regiment of Foot
Peter Leitch, Royal Engineers
John Lyons, 19th Regiment of Foot
John McDermond, 47th Regiment of Foot
Roderick McGregor, Rifle Brigade
James McKechnie, Scots Fusiliers Guards
James Owens, 49th Regiment of Foot
Anthony Palmer, Grenadier Guards
Saumuel Parkes, 4th Light Dragoons
John Perie, Royal Engineers
Joseph Prosser, 1st Regiment of Foot
William Reynolds, Scots Fusiliers Guards
John Ross, Royal Engineers
John Joseph Sims, 34th Regiment of Foot
Francis Wheatley, Rifle Brigade

In addition, the following Crimean War VC holders are referenced in the 1861 Worldwide Army Index:

John Farrell, 17th Lancers
William James Lendrim, Royal Engineers
George Strong, Coldstream Guards

If I had to pick out one record from those listed above it would be Roderick McGregor of the Rifle Brigade.  His service record notes that he was recorded 12 times in the Defaulter's book and court-martialled seven times.  No Long Service and Good Conduct medal for him then, but he did get the VC.