Ancestry put service records online ...

I had no great hope of finding any relative's service papers when the A-C records went online at Ancestry, only about 30% of records having survived WWII bombs, and only 2 known Clay ancestors of an age to be eligible for service - and one of them, Grandad Charles Henry Clay, had, I'd already found with help from GWF Pals, almost certainly served in the Volunteer Training Corps, the Great War fore-runner of 'Dad's Army'.

So, I was intrigued when I found records for a Thomas Clay. Could this be Grandad's half-brother?

What a wonderful place this internet is ...

Well. yes, it could. He wasn't using his middle name, Archibald and the papers recorded his mother's name as Hannah, not Ann as on all other records I'd seen. But the points which convinced me this was our Thomas were his age - only two Thomas Clays of the right age appeared in the freeBMD index to birth registrations - our Thomas Archibald, registered in Warwick, and a Thomas Henry, registered in Chesterfield; his location - Leamington Spa, where he had been born in 1892; the fact that his mother was living in Birmingham, where his father had died in 1912; and his trade - he was a tailor, like his Grandfather and at least one uncle before him.

Thomas enlists under the Derby Scheme

Like millions of other Britons, Thomas had not enlisted in the initial surge of patriotic fervour. As more and more men were needed for the front as the War moved into its 15th month, and insufficient numbers were volunteering, the newly appointed Director-General of Recruiting, Lord Derby, took steps to remedy the situation; Lord Derby was appointed D-G on 11 October 1915 and his programme for raising the numbers, known as the Derby Scheme, which required men to attest with an obligation to come if called up, was quickly put in place. A detailed description of the Derby Scheme can be found on The Long, Long Trail

Thomas attested at Leamington Spa on 11 December, 1915. His attestation form (below) appears to show that he was initially assigned to the RAMC, service number 16592 (but other papers indicate he was assigned to the Royal Warwicks) but, before posting to the BEF, he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, with new service number 36360.

Having attested, and been assigned to the Army Reserve, Thomas returned home to await mobilisation. This came just a few weeks later - on 9 February 1916, he was posted to the depot of 3rd Battn, Royal Warwickshire Regt at Warwick, where he underwent time-honoured enlistment procedures. He was medically examined on 10 February and the Medical History form (below) shows that he was a man of slight build - 5 ft 4 1/2 tall, weighing 8 stone 5 lbs and with a surprising entry under 'marks indicating ... previous disease' - he was absolutely bald, due to alopecia areata.

Thomas remained at Warwick until 17 July, undergoing training, but on 13 May was transferred from the RAMC (or the RWR) to the MGC. On 17 July he was posted to the BEF in France, and was assigned to 100 Coy, MGC on the 21st. Thomas was at war.