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Remembered Today:

Date of Entry, Serial or Training number.


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Hello All,

Researching my Great Grandfather Henry Nichols who served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. I have come across some papers using the CWWG newly released grave papers and found it gave my Great Grandfathers serial number as 20731 (instead of his Territorial Army number 242557).

I presumed that this was his original serial number for when he joined up and so went on a search with hope of finding a possible year that Henry joined the army. I wondered if this number was allocated at training and if anyone could give me some details.

Hope someone can find me a date when this soldier joined up (He was killed in March 1917). I get the impression he was rather eager to join up as at 31 with 2 children he tried to join up in September 1914.

Any help or clarification would be of great help.

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Two adjacent numbers from the Silver War Badge Lists suggest May 1916:

20702 16 May

20788 8 May

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The Warwickshire Medal Roll is in alphabetical order, but I could not find his name. Have you found his MIC?

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I have yet to find his Medal Index Card this seems to be the limit my research any ideas how I can get hold of his MIC ? I virtually have everything else.

SWB are different to the serial number arnt they ? Would Henry have a record on SWB ? He was

Discharged in 1914 for bad teeth but 20731 and 242557 (allocated by Territorial Army Renumbering). Thanks for all your help I've confused

Myself with this.

The Warwickshire Medal Roll ? What is this ? And he should be on there possibly as H Nichols ?

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He is on the Medal Rolls as 242557 PTE Henry Nichols. Served 1/7th and 1/6th Bns Royal Warks. Awarded British War Medal and Victory Medal meaning entry to theatre of war after 31 Dec 15.

I would look for service papers for men either side of his number on Ancestry. This should give you a steer on whether the two service numbers fall into line.

A look at the 2073? series on Soldiers Died certainly seems to indicate the majority of men in this series served with TF battalions. Some doubling up on numbers in the Medal Index Cards also indicates that there were likely TF and Service battalion numbers issued in the 20??? series. There is however a TF man who was issued 20731 (Carrington).

Rgds

Tim D

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Well done Tim. I looked at the medal roll and could not find him. Is he on the alphabetical order rolls or somewhere else?

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Micah,

The number 20731 has only been found referring to Pte Nichols on the grave registration of his original grave, later documents show 242557. There are two MIC's for 20731 in the R War R shown on National Archives, neither are him, and there is further duplication in the 2073* series. I would again suggest to you that this number is a training reserve number without the prefix shown and not a regimental number and so dating it by comparing it to regimental numbers will give a false date.

Pte Nichols' MIC only shows the number 242557, which means that he went to France after the renumbering of the TF. I estimate from looking at SWB rolls for others in the 2425** range that he enlisted Nov-Dec 15.

You say he tried to join up in Sept '14 and was discharged in 1914 for bad teeth. I presume from this that he later reenlisted. He would not have received an SWB for being discharged with bad teeth unless they resulted from something that happened as a result of his service. I cannot find an SWB record for him

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That may indeed be the explanation, though I would have thought it quite unusual to have such a number recorded on grave papers with CWGC. Maybe it's a CWGC typo? Look at the Glosters man's number below Nichols (20931) on his CWGC entry.

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That could be an explanation. It was odd to see a CWWG typo.

Henry Nichols originally joined in October 1914 but was put out of the army due to bad teeth (his serial number was S/2018) The interesting thing on his record says that he was Vaccinated in February 1915 (does anyone have an idea to what this could mean) It is written on his army record Vaccinated Feb 1915 (maybe a hint he had joined up again).

The next bits of info I had was this serial number (which seems to be a training number) and his final number 242557. I thought maybe the typo hinted that they received these numbers after they were killed (having read that territorial renumbering was gradual).

He served with the 1/7th Battalion this is quite some news for me but it would make sense as the battalion was raised in Coventry in 1914. It would be interesting to predict a date of entry into service or entry into the war.

Having been to the Somme and seeing serial numbers similar to Henry Nichols I have often wondered if Henry was there on the Somme in around September.

Thank you so much for the medal role, Is there any further steps I can take with this information.

Thank you so much.

20730 Pte Martin Kehoe- This is a another person who served with the Royal Warwickshires I will look into him (Possible more information to be found)

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Where did you get the information about his number 2018? What records are you referring to?

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Nothing much to tell I'm afraid. Enlisted in Rugby and allocated to 12th Service Bn, Rifle Brigade. As you says discharged with bad teeth. The standards were pretty high at that time.

Rgds

Tim D

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No idea I'm afraid! A pity his other papers are missing as they may well have had a explanation.

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Hello All,

Big big big news today. I found that the place where Henry Nichols lived in Brinklow had just created a War Memorial with Henry Nichols name on in September 2014. Having visited today I have come back with more information than I could of wish for. It seems someone researched the lives of those on the memorial and as it turns out I discovered some new things.

The local newspaper recorded Henry's death in 7th April 1917 and reported that "he joined up in March 1916 and has been in France for 8 months. Although of a reserved disposition he made a good soldier"

It is wonderful to find this information and to again thank you all. I hope to find this newspaper. But it seems that after trying to join in 1914 he eventually got in in March 1917 with the 1/7th Battalion RWR and was transferred to 1/6th Battalion RWR.

I am wondering where to go next with my research.

thank you all.

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