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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Royal Scots Machine Gun Corps..


Guest Brims25

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Hi everyone!

I am trying to trace which unit my Grandfather served in during WW1.

I have quite a bit of info about him and I am thinking of going to Kew soon to see if I can find out some more, but I wondered if anyone with more experience could piece together any of this so far!

The details I have are:

Cpl W M Brims 66225

I have his cap badge from The Royal Scots and a cloth (arm?) badge from the MGC.

I have 2 of the 3 medals that his medal card says he received, but the card did not give any more info about which unit he served in just "MGC". He got the Silver War Badge too (which is the one I don't have), am I right in thinking that there are rolls for that that might contain more info about his unit?

I also have one of his dog tags (the octagonal one) on which he scratched:

"France 1917 - Ypres Somme" but we don't actually know if he did actually fight there (although I can't see why he would scratch that if he didn't).

The dog tag also says "MGC" with his details on the other side.

He survived the war - I think he got a medical discharge (he was bayonetted, and got a punctured lung) - so he was pretty lucky!

He lived in Edinburgh before the war so I would have thought he joined a local Scots regiment.

He died when my dad was very young, hence no-one asked him what he did during the war!

I would really appreciate any ideas on how to research further.

Thank you!

Ailsa Brims

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Hello Ailsa, welcome to the forum.

As a good starter, click on thelink (top left, under teh forum logo) to the Long, Long Trail. Read the Grandads War section. It will give you lots of info on how to research a soldier.

You are quite right, SWB has a roll, often more informative than the medal rolls.

Good luck!

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Hi There,

I would guess he originally joined the Royal Scots and was then trained as a machine gunner and transfered to the MGC. It was quite common in the early days of the MGC that the members kept their original cap badges on as well. Of course this eventually went out. But it would explain having both sets of insignia.

All the best,

Tim

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Hi Ailsa

Do you have the SWB details, ie the swb reference number written on his medal index card. There is about a one in five chance that he may be in some of the few hundred MGC swb roll pages that I have copied into my research files. If he is amongst these pages the roll will show when he first enlisted, and when he was discharged. It will also give a reason for his discharge - probably due to the bayonette wound you have mentioned. It may also give his age at discharge but generally speaking the MGC rolls do not give Coy or Btn details.

Steve

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Hi Steve,

His medal card says:

"SWB List MGC/231"

that's disappointing if the swb roll doesn't give the unit details, how else might we find this out? I can't think if anything else to check.

I look forward to hearing if you can find anything in your records, thank you so much for checking.

Best regards,

Ailsa

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Hi Ailsa

Sorry but that page is not amongst my records, maybe I will look it up on my next visit to Kew, but that won't be for three or four weeks.

Steve

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Ailsa

Silver War Badge Roll Details :-

66225 Corporal William Westerson Brims

Enlisted 13/01/1915

Discharged 07/01/1918

Age at Discharge 20 years 7 months

Discharged due to Sickness

Served abroad

Entitled to Silver War Badge number 355539

Steve

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Guest Brims25

Hi Steve,

That's brilliant, thank you so much. It's very helpful and kind of you.

I will keep on plugging away at the info until I find out his unit.

Thanks again,

Ailsa

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