Another "Grandad's Regiment"

[MrNev]

Apologies to the other poster for stealing and adapting his topic title but as you will see in a second the two enquiries are pretty closely related. I am also trying to trace any further information about my grandad, who also served in the Royal Field Artillery in WWI and entered theatre just days apart from the other poster's grandad. All the info I currently have also comes from the Medal Roll and from family "folklore" as his army records were one of the many destroyed in the Blitz.

The info I have gleaned is -:

Surname Brookes
Firstnames George Richard

Regiment : Royal Field Artillery
Rank Driver (was promoted at least once during war but then stripped of his rank due to an argument with an officer).
Regimental Number 44163 (possibly 44363 or 44563 as 3rd character is difficult to read)
Enlisted in late 1914 as he always said it was before his 18th birthday which was Jan 1915. He would have enlisted somewhere in East London as at the time he lived in the Stepney area (Commodore St, Mile End Old Town). Discharge date is unknown. What is known is he trained close to Salisbury.

From the medal roll, his qualifying theatre was W? France and he entered theatre on 18-9-1915. From family folklore he served at what he called the “Second battle of the Somme”, Ypres and the Balkans. He was on a transport ship when news of the armistice came through in 1918, possibly heading for another place in the Balkans?

Going from info on his medal roll, the reference next to his award of the Victory Medal was RFA/72B/44..... – you cant see any more as the scan of the medal roll unfortunately cuts off a the last few characters. I am assuming that RFA is Royal Field Artillery and 44 is the start of his regimental number (44163). Would the 72b be a battery or battalion number? If so is there anyway of tracing any more info about that battery?

The reference next to his 15 star looks (and this one is very difficult to decipher so could be totally wrong) like RFA / 5A 07… again the last bit is cut off. Could it be a reference to his battery at the time? If so, would the 07 be the start of 072 as in the 72 of his Victory medal reference.

Can anyone can decipher any of this, add anything or point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[MarkCDodd]

I have since discovered that the number on the medal card does not always align with their regiment/unit.

You need to access the roll with the number shown and go to the page to find the regiment/unit.

[MrNev]

Mark

Thanks for that. As a complete beginner at this Military research, can you explain that a bit further? When you say "access the roll with the number shown", what roll do you mean etc? Sorry for the real basic questions and thanks for your help.

[apowell]

Hi,

Check this link which explains fully about Medal Index Cards and how to understand the information listed however for the larger Corps like Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery, Army Service Corps, Army Veterinary Corps and Army Ordnance Corps can be very general in detail.

http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/medals.htm

Check the link I've given and please ask for further help if required.

All the best
Adrian

[MrNev]

Thanks for that, it explains it all very clearly.

I will try the newer scans of the Medal Index cards to see if they captured the full reference unlike the older scan that I have seen to date. Then it looks like a trip to Kew is in order. Hopefully there will be some further information available, even though he served in the RFA.

Thanks again.

Mark