Frederick John Charles Royal Fusiliers

[Guest Sue Lecca]

I have been trying to find my grandfather's service records and I went to the PRO at Kew and looked through their records but did not find anything. I only had his name at the time. Since then however, as my grandfather sadly committed suicide in 1925, I found an article in the local paper reporting the Coroner's Inquest. From there I learned that he was in the Royal Fusiliers and he had been "blown up" in the war and had received a pension of 9s and 2d for a while.

Is it worth me going back to Kew to see if I can find out more about him? Even if his records do not survive will I be able to find out where his unit was posted and perhaps what happened?

Thanks

[Chris_Baker]

Now you know his regiment, you could look him up in the medals documents. (Medal index and then the appropriate medal rolls). These will tell you his battalion. There is a possibility, as the RF was a big regiment, that there may be more than one man by the name.

If he was discharged to pension, make sure you look in WO364 and PIN26 as well as WO363, for these contain records of men who were pensioned (sadly, not all of them, only a sample).

It is also possible that if he was discharged he was awarded a Silver War Badge. There is a roll for this, and if he got it, it will be mentioned on the medal index card. The SWB roll often gives additional useful information.

Once you have the battalion, look through their war diary. The chances are that he will not be mentioned by name, and unless it was something unusual, men being hit by shellfire (or mine explosion?) will get only passinmg mention. But you'll have the best possible fix on what they were up to.

While you're there, go into the library and look him up in the National Roll of the Great war, just in case he is listed.

Good luck!

[Guest Sue Lecca]

Thank you for all your help