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Remembered Today:

F B Young - West Africa Regt ?


corisande

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wa.jpg

 

I am trying to research this man. All I know about him that is that he was a Captain, born about 1893 and F B Young.

 

This man is the only candidate in WO338, but it gives "W A Regt". I started a thread in soldiers, as a result of someone suggesting it was "West Africa Regt" I am trying here. Can anyone help with Capt F B Young

 

I will lock the other thread now, and hope someone with more African knowledge than I can suggest who he was.

 

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 Concerning the Regiment, there is mention of the West African Regiment in an article by Forum member bushfighter Harry Fecitt

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/300143.html  Togoland 1914: The Anglo-French invasion

 

The West African Regiment is also mentioned in History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Military Operations, Togoland and the Cameroons, 1914-1916 by Brig.-General F J Moberly 1931. Hathi Trust Digital Library. (Lacks maps and illustrations).  The following link is to the Index page which includes the entry for the West African Regiment

 

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015019366734?urlappend=%3Bseq=498

 

You may find some details of Young in various online Army Lists, links on the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Military periodicals online

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Military_periodicals_online

 

Cheers

Maureen

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Thanks Maureen for the references, I will check them out

 

Yes, I was hoping that Harry would drop by here sometime :-)

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corisande

 

The "22" in your WO338 extract is significant as that implies 22nd Regt of Foot...or Cheshire Regiment as it became.  If you have access to Ancestry there is a MIC for F. B. Young of the Cheshire Regiment, it shows his full name as Frederick Benjamin Young but doesn't mention the West African connection as by 1914 he was on the Reserve of Officers.

 

Checking Harry's 'The Soldier's Burden' website that Maureen's first link goes to, if you scroll down to Somaliland 1903-04 then F. B. Young (Cheshire Regiment and 2nd K.A.R.) gets a few mentions which I presume is the same man.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Steve

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Thanks Steve,

 

That is extremely useful. Thought I needed a fresh mind or two on the job :-). I had missed the 22nd there, mistook it for a doodle!

 

Still leaves me with the problem of the man's age, so I will need to go back to the original documents with his age.

 

Certainly WO338 shows only this entry for any officer with initials FB. Now that you have established a possible link, I will have another go at him.  Sometimes trying to separate men is difficult.

 

You do get sceptical in this sort of research - I have just spent the morning trying to separate two candidates for "ND Lees" an RAF 2nd Lt born 1898. But Norman Dempster Lees  and Norman Davies Lees beat me in the end. Though Norman Dempster was interesting in that he was arrested in Argentina in 1950 with 2 cwt of gelignite and 300 detonators in his office in Buenos Aires!

 

 

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The only F B Young I've come across in the African papers is a brief mention of the one from the Cheshire Regt.

Aled

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In Hart's Army List the date of birth of Frederick or Frederic Benjamin Young is given 2.2.1867. Gazetted 2nd Lt. into the Cheshire Regt. 5.10.1892 (he was formerly a Serjeant in the Seaforth Highlanders.), Captain 15.12.1900, and retired to the Reserve of Officers 7.2.1912. He died in Canada 27.11.1931.

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Nothing like going back to originals. He was a Lt on leaving the Army, not a Captain :unsure:. This is from a entry in Aux Div of RIC in 1921

 

 

adric.jpg

 

I must have got carried away by the WA Reg man who was the only FB Young I could find.

 

I think I need to take several paces back - it looks as if the Cheshire man and the WA/KAR man were the same and not my man - too old

 

I am very grateful for the help on this - I need to go back to basics to see who it really was.

 

Once one has doubts, he may not even be "Young" though I cannot find anything else with wild cards

 

And it is Young, I found him on another page

 

adric2.jpg

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This is a suggestion which might be worth following. In the medal index cards on ancestry there is a card for 493 Frank Young, Army Cyclist Corps. This card is linked to the M.I.C. for Frank Boniface Young, R.A.F., one and the same man, but the latter in his full name [Actually not his full name as that was Franklin Boniface Young]. 

Lce. Cpl. Frank Young  was gazetted to serve in the R.F.C. on 5.10.1916 (London Gazette issue 29807 of 27.10.1916 page 10514, under MEMORANDA). Lt. Frank Young was transferred to the unemployed list, R.A.F., in the 4th quarter of 1919 (London Gazette page 12422 which I am unable to view and find the issue number as presently the L.G. search engine just churns away and produces no results!).

There is a Royal Air Force Officer's Service record on findmypast for F. B. Young. I am unable to connect to findmypast at the moment for some reason, but looking at the record earlier there is no date of birth given or N.O.K. details.

Franklin Boniface Young was born in Lewisham on 28.7.1893, son of Cuthbert Thomas Young. Franklin Boniface Young died in the Newport, Monmouthshire District in 1974.

He was granted a commission in the R.A.F. in 1922 in the name of Frank Boniface Young (again, because of the L.G. search engine's failings this morning, I cannot give a link to this). 

So, if he served briefly in the R.I.C. whilst unemployed by the R.A.F., he may be a possibility (being F. B. Young, a Lieutenant, and born 1893).

If the L.G. search engine gets an overhaul during the day I will try to give some more precise links later.

 

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Thanks very much, I will look at that

 

Surprising how many "odd" FB Youngs there are.

 

I spent yesterday afternoon checking out one FRANK BENNET YOUNG who was a Canadian commissioned in RAf in 1917. He was born Aug 1892. So I thought I was on the right man, however he was in 1921 Canadian census. I knew the FmP record was Overseas and trawled Canadian & Aus records to see if there was a suitable candidate

1921 Jun 1. Census Canada. He is listed with his wife. He is a Civil Engineer. They are living in Strathmore, Calgary, Alberta

And my man was in ADRIC

1921 Apr 4. Accepted in England. Joined ADRIC with service no. 1879 . The register entry then says "Cancelled" and DRO also cancels his enrolment, so he never got to ADRIC

 

So it could have been the Canadian. The RAF record on FmP does not give much, nor does his Canadian enlistment sheet. I am fairly sure he is the Canadian on the RAF record - Overseas commission.

 

There would have been, just time for him to decide to return to Canada, having signed up for the ADRIC in April

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This is the link to the service record of Frank Boniface Young, R.A.F. Officers' service records. Date of birth 28 July 1893. He is indexed as Frank Young but the record images show his full name as Frank Boniface Young. If this is the F. B. Young of interest, he married on 21 June 1921 Dorothy Evelyn Westbrook.

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbm%2fair76%2f566%2f0%2f0306&parentid=gbm%2fair76%2f100861&highlights=""

 

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Harry

 

Having been in as much detail on all the options, I think that you are right. Of the possibilities he is the correct age in 1921, while the Canadian is a year out.

 

I have trolled news reports to see if anything came up that might have identified one or other with the ADRIC ( eg a number got sent down for crimes and it came up in court). These all are clean, so on Ocrams Razor Frank Boniface is the man

 

Thanks you ^_^

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Corisande

Greetings

In Brig Gen E. Howard Gorges' book The Great War in West Africa - which is mistitled as in fact it is a Great War history of the West Africa Regiment (an Imperial Service Regiment financed by London and recruited in Sierra Leone) - there is NO mention of a Young.

 

Good luck    Harry

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Harry

 

Thanks I think we can definitely eliminate him. All pointing to Frank Boniface

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