Walter Payne

[aksillitoe]

I am pursuing several avenues of research to identify Walter Payne, a soldier who died in France in WW1 probably in 1918 and whose photo (probably taken in 1918) has already given some unexpected information thanks to this forum. However, can anyone tell me :

(1) I came across a Walter Thomas Payne, service number 810748, who according to the CWGC website was a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery, died on 08/09/1918 and was buried in the Bertenacre Miltary Cemetry in Fletre, which is the right area of France in the right period of time. I thought at first that this was a good match because, in the photo, Walter has two stripes or chevrons, however it appears (from other posts in this forum) that a bombardier would only have had 1 stripe in 1918. Can anyone confirm this? Is there any chance this could nevertheless be him?

(2) It appears that Walter must have been in or around Boulogne-Sur-Mer in France in June/July 1918. How can I find out which "units" were in this area at that time? i.e. Rather than looking up where a particular "unit" was, can one find out which ones were in Boulogne and then look for "Payne's" among them? Would they in any case have been in one place for some time or did they always move around a lot?

Many thanks,

Alan

[sotonmate]

Alan

Walter was with 36 Division Ammunition Column at the time of his death. He died with three other soldiers from his unit and is buried only a short distance from the Belgian border near Godewaeresvelde,and behind our front lines. You can check their fate from the unit War Diary which is at Kew under WO95/2496,which covers the unit's story from Sept 1915 to Feb 1919.

I have looked in Soldiers Died in the Great War (SDGW) and see that he was born in Hockley Warwicks and resided in Handsworth Staffs.

Why do you want to know about Boulogne ? It had various Hospitals for the wounded and sick,and was a link port to the UK for the movement of troops and supplies. In Sept 1918 it was unlikely to have had whole units passing through it,probably only replacements en route to joining units or going home on leave/treatment. It was well away from hostilities.

Sotonmate

[aksillitoe]

Dear Sotonmate,

I'm not sure how you found that out, but thanks a lot for this information. I'm sorry for the lack of clarity in my posting.

I do not know if the Walter Payne I indicated is the one I'm looking for or not. In fact, since he has two stripes in the photo, as I understand it, it may not correspond because apparently a bombardier would only have had one in 1918(?), much to my disappointment.

The Walter Payne I'm looking for must have had a relationship with my wife's godmother's mother in June or July of 1918, a sufficiently intimate one for him to give her his photo at least. At least, since she was living in Boulogne-sur-mer, I assume the relationship happened there. I was told that he died, after which she lost touch with him, but then I was also told he was Canadian, whereas I'm told that the uniforms are British without any indications of the soldiers being Canadian.

I'm planning to come over to England in January to go to Kew. As I understand it, with the medal index cards, it is possible to find a person's battalion number in the medal roll (i.e. I have various candidates) and then look up the battalion's movements in the war diaries that you mentioned : does that sound right?

Many thanks,

Alan