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Remembered Today:

Norfolk Regiment 8th London Regiment


atrf

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There is a Navy medal roll for a C H Filby, No. RME 3646/S (S- Suffix denotes Short Service enlistment)

http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/1687/31793_221371-00310/1227062?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dnavalmedalrolls%26MS_AdvCB%3d1%26rank%3d1%26new%3d1%26MSAV%3d2%26msT%3d1%26gss%3dangs-d%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dFilby%26gsln_x%3d1%26cpxt%3d1%26catBucket%3drstp%26uidh%3d5k3%26cp%3d11%26pcat%3d39%26fh%3d3%26h%3d1227062%26recoff%3d6%26ml_rpos%3d4&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord

He was awarded the British War Medal only, usually denoting that he served overseas but not in an active Theatre of War, though I am dimly aware that the Navy had various extra rules for medal eligibility over and above what the Army had...

Steve.

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many thanks steve, trying to get my head round all this at the moment

any reason we cant find his record as you have that of owen richard denyer?

where do i start?

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Two thirds of records for men discharged before 1921 were destroyed by a fire bomb in the Blitz. However, the younger the man, the more likely it was that he also served after the war, either in the Inter-War years or in WW2. Those men will have their records held by the MOD.

Steve.

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the draft mentioned above ?

can we see when they arrived in france

i have found the war diaries of the 8th

eg : http://qrrarchive.websds.net/PDF/QW00819180512.pdf

30 May 1918

when two of the men mentioned above died?

"two wounded" can i assume James was serving with them?

or better asked : what are the chances that James was serving with them

any thoughts welcome!

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As the war went on it became usual for Drafts to front line battalions to be finalised at the Infantry Base Depot in France. A group of men would arrived, either from a Regimental Reserve Battalion or from a Training Reserve Battalion (which were non-Regimental training battalions set-up in late 1916). On arrival at the I.B.D. men would then be sent to the Regiment and battalion thereof most in need of reinforcement. This meant that you had men arriving at Infantry Base Depots as one Regiment and leaving as another. Because a change of Regiment triggered a number change, this meant that you had a whole group of men being re-numbered at the same time. Being methodical, the Army usually gave the men a group of sequential numbers and also tended to group them alphabetically by surname. For example, the army had number 63001 to 63300 available for the draft and so would give the number 63001 to Pte. Aardman and 63300 to Pte. Zephania. This methodology actually helps us to identify a draft of men and apply the same movements to all the men in the Draft, providing we do the checking (e.g. checking that all of them, or all of a decent sample) went to the same battalion, and that future events (like the deaths of men within the number range) fit our hypothesis.

In this case, the draft appears from the two records I have tracked down (there are likely to be more but I do have other things to do!) to have embarked to France on 2 April 1918 and joined the 8th Battalion on 7th April 1918 when the war diary records a draft of 299 men joining the battalion whilst they were behind the line in training.

I theory, you could apply the same logic (with checks, of course) to William Filby, but in his case the London Regiment medal rolls will actually give you his dates of overseas service with each battalion, so assuming you can get the medal roll ledger looked at that will answer the main question for him.

Steve.

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man ythanks for all your efforts: i am impressed with the assumptions about James which seem solid enough but i can check as you suggest

i will also try and get in touch with his own grandchildren who live in Australia who may or not know this and more

as for William : where would i look at the "medal roll ledger"

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AT the National Archives at Kew. These are books to which the medal index card is an index. Most give the date of discharge from the army and the 1st Battalion of each Regiment served with. Some add all battalions, which is helpful, whilst a few, the London regiment being one, go the whole hog and actually state the dates a man served overseas. These are well worth checking for all (and I would include James), but William's entry would be the most useful. These are archived physical records, so you would have to get a free readers ticket to view them (it takes a short while plus a couple of pieces of ID to obtain one on site), or failing that a researcher can usually look them up fairly quickly.

Steve.

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steve : so do i have to go to kew or can i ask the "researcher" to look it up for me:

i live in germany and was hoping to get as far as i can from here for my family (mum and siblings) in time for the next visit home in december

williams daughter (my dads sister) died in 2012 and with it my brothers were forced to sell the family house and i offered to sort out the boxes of letters and archives (including william richards medals and the photos i have posted) which i have just about done now :

these questions are extensions of this task: still very interested in the postcards i posted as there were many others and this seemed to be typical of him:

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a third Filby (a cousin of William richard and James) died while serving in Palestine on Dec 22 1917

his name varies from Leonard Richard Filby to Richard Charles Lenard Filby

part of Essex Regiment 6th Battalion War diaries December 1917

1700/275215 was his number

he died of fever

i have searched for war diaries of this time to try and discover his last movements

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