Bardess Posted 10 October , 2013 Share Posted 10 October , 2013 Whilst waiting for his membership to this Forum, a friend of mine, Steve Colesby, has given me permission to post the following for discussion and enlightenment Steve is the son of Lieut W E Colesby and has a number of documents that he wishes to share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 10 October , 2013 Share Posted 10 October , 2013 D WO374/14721 is his service file.I will take a look later and advise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rflory Posted 10 October , 2013 Share Posted 10 October , 2013 Colesby received a commission as a Temporary 2nd Lieutenant, RFA on 17 June 1918 and served with one of the RFA brigades of the 39th Divisional Artillery. He was once wounded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 12 October , 2013 Share Posted 12 October , 2013 Hello guys... I'm Steve Colesby and William is my father Thank you Di for making the original post, and thanks guys for your response... I am a novice at all of this, so forgive me if I ask some very basic questions... I am keen to discover as much as I can about my fathers service; we have had a few documents in our family which we have cherished without fully understanding. The first two posted above have taken pride of place and seem to be confirmation of two of his promotions.... do these documents have a name or title?... I'm simply wondering how we refer to them I have recently obtained documents concerning his service from the National Archives and am slowly working my way through them to try develop a time line of sorts. I'm struggling to understand some of the documents, so I will probably be asking some of those basic questions with which you guys may be able to help. He was born on Christmas day 1892, his attestation is dated 1910, when he was little more than 17 years old, for the Army Service Corps. He died in 1957 when I was 11, so I remember him well, but didn't chat to him much about his earlier life. We were aware that he has wounded in action and we also knew that he was blind in one eye, although we are not certain that was related to the wounding, although we suspect it probably was... We have a wonderful photograph of him in uniform on horse back, I will share that soon and see if you guys can comment... Thanks again guys Steve Colesby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggers Posted 12 October , 2013 Share Posted 12 October , 2013 Steve Welcome to the forum. It is good to see the documents you have in the family. The first is a King's commission, appointing your father to be an officer in his 'Land Forces', as the army is quaintly termed. I have not seen a warrant before, and assume that is the title of the document. Others will probably know more. The Medal Index card shows his entitlement to the British War and Victory Medals, but not the 1914 or 1914/15 Star, probably indicating that he did not serve overseas during the qualifying period for them. We look forward to seeing the photo. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 12 October , 2013 Share Posted 12 October , 2013 thanks Major-General, its appreciated... I'll post the picture within the next couple of days... BTW... I see you are in Liverpool, in the internet world, that makes me a neighbour... I'm in greater Manchester...(I'm not a Manc tho) Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 12 October , 2013 Share Posted 12 October , 2013 ooops sorry, daggers, I referred to you by your rank, rather than your name... apologies.. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 15 October , 2013 Share Posted 15 October , 2013 as promised this is the picture of our father.... we know very little about it, we don't know where or when taken... we don't know what rank he held at the time... perhaps you guys may be able to shed some light... we do know that we just love this picture... thanks... Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bardess Posted 15 October , 2013 Author Share Posted 15 October , 2013 Slightly larger version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 15 October , 2013 Share Posted 15 October , 2013 thanks Di... Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 16 October , 2013 Share Posted 16 October , 2013 can I ask a question please... in the photograph of my father, is he wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Field Artillery, thanks Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 18 October , 2013 Share Posted 18 October , 2013 can I ask again please... in the above photograph of my father, is he wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Field Artillery? thanks Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 4 November , 2013 Share Posted 4 November , 2013 god loves a trier I'm told.... so... can I ask again please... in the above photograph of my father, is he wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Field Artillery? thanks Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggers Posted 5 November , 2013 Share Posted 5 November , 2013 The image is not very clear, but I think that the rider's tunic collar is closed - buttoned to the neck - where an officer's would be open, showing a shirt collar and tie. The cap badge is very difficult to interpret and there are no clear badges of rank on the cuff, though there might be some on the epaulette. Sorry to be negative on this. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsc Posted 9 November , 2013 Share Posted 9 November , 2013 no need to be sorry daggers... I really appreciate your comments... thank you.. we know that he reached the rank of Lieutenant in the RFA and that's the important issue I suppose... we just thought it would be good to know his rank at the time of the photograph to try to establish his age and possible whereabouts... thanks again daggers... Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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