Lancashire Fusiliers soldier

[high wood]

Could someone please be kind enough to see if the service papers for 203227 Arthur B Reece of the 2/5th Btn Lancashire Fusiliers have survived? I particularly need to know if he was captured and held as a prisoner of war and what his home address was. A copy of his medal index card would also be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Simon.

[Retlaw]

Could someone please be kind enough to see if the service papers for 203227 Arthur B Reece of the 2/5th Btn Lancashire Fusiliers have survived? I particularly need to know if he was captured and held as a prisoner of war and what his home address was. A copy of his medal index card would also be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Simon.

When searching the burnt and unburnt records, there could be a dozen men with the name Reece and the number you quote, might not be the number on his attestation paper, even the town or birth place would make a search easier.

Retlaw.

[Stebie9173]

The "R" surname WO363 records haven't yet been uploaded. The WO364 papers have only Arthur David Reece (1584, 12th Londons) online at present.

Nothing on the back...

Steve.

[high wood]

When searching the burnt and unburnt records, there could be a dozen men with the name Reece and the number you quote, might not be the number on his attestation paper, even the town or birth place would make a search easier.

Retlaw.

There is definitely only one man with this service number in the Lancashire Fusiliers. It is within the TF number block issued to the 5th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers (200001-240000).

Arthur Bernard Reece was born in Crewe in 1892.

[high wood]

Steve.

many thanks for the MIC and for taking the trouble to look for the service papers. It is much appreciated.

Simon.

[ralphjd]

Simon. The only ARTHUR B(ERNARD) REECE on the 1911 census resided Nantwich Cheshire. The only ARTHUR BERNARD REECE on FreeBMD was born Nantwich 1892 and the only ARTHUR B REECE on the 1901 census birth as Crewe Cheshire resided 59 Bedford Street (civil parish of Monks Coppenhall) Crewe. All one and the same person I would suggest. Ralph.

[high wood]

Ralph,

thank you again for your contribution to my attempts to positively I.D. photographs and other documents. I am 90% sure that Arthur Bernard Reece is the man in my photograph, (see Home and PoW's section: 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers POW from Crewe), however, before I can add him to my photographic archive as a confirmed identification I need to have evidence that he was captured whilst serving with the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers.

I have established that a man called Leonard Robert Reece (age 51) was living at 59 Bedford Road, Crewe in 1911. I presume that Arthur Bernard was his son. I have only looked at the index for the census but it appears that there were two other brothers, Albert and Harold.

It appears that no 1918 absent voter's list has survived for Crewe, which is a shame as it would probably have confirmed that Arthur was a PoW. The best bet now would be for me to trawl through the Crewe newspapers.

Simon.

[high wood]

Identity now confirmed.

Image courtesy of F.M.P.

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

My attention was caught by the heading to this thread, as my grandfather, Captain Norman Hall, was with the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers from May 1915 to September 1916, and I wondered whether he might have mentioned Arthur Reece in his diary, A Lancashire Fusilier's First World War. However, on getting to the end of the thread, I see that the most recent post, which I assume shows an extract from the IRCR records, shows Arthur's Battalion as the 3/5th, and, as (according Latter's The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers 1914-1918) the 2/5th were at Ypres in April 1917, while the 3/5th had just arrived in France at the beginning of March 1917, and in April 1917 were in the Givenchy area, it looks as though 3/5th is correct.

I see that the regimental number in the record reproduced in the previous post is given as 283221, rather than 203227, which presumably is the result of mistranscription in the IRCR records.* Also, the date of birth is given as 1891, rather than 1892. Presumably the latter is correct, as it seems to accord with the 1911 census, so is 1891 another mistranscription, or might he have lied about his d.o.b. when enlisting? There is no obvious reason for mirepresenting his age, as, with a birth date of 1892 he would have been 22 when war broke out, but I have come across an older brother lying about his age so as to facilitate a younger brother's lie e.g. in this thread  https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/285017-did-these-two-men-lie-about-their-age-and-if-so-why/ . As Arthur had two brother, I suppose that might be a possibility.

I do not have access to Ancestry of FMP to check further details there.

*The final figure on the reverse of the photograph in the sister thread https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/91784-25th-lancashire-fusiliers-pow-from-crewe/?tab=comments#comment-3036386 is a little ambivalent between a "1" and a "7".

 

Edited 7 August , 2021 by A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy
To add the footnote referring to the other thread