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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Colonel John Alfred Lawrence Billingham


PeterSt

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Hello everyone,

 

I would very much appreciate your assistance in learning what a Colonel John Alfred Lawrence Billingham did during the Great War. I have already asked for his war records and unfortunately they have disappeared. I do have his medal war card and pension records and know that he was with the Royal Engineers and that at the beginning of the war he was at the Dover Fortress from then until February 1915. He then went to Ceylon until February 1917 when he moved on to France.

 

Unfortunately I do not have his service number. I am hoping that by seeing the locations and dates I have given someone can work out which part of the Royal Engineers he was in and hence what battles he would have been a part of.

 

Any info. on his Great War experiences would be greatly appreciated. By the time he retired in 1933 I know he was Chief Inspector of Works, War Office. However surprisingly given his status there does not seem to be any newspaper records of his retirement or obituaries for him when he died in 1955.

 

thanks in advance,

 

Peter

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As an officer he would not have had a service number. and as a survivor of the war who continued his army career, his service records will not be on the family history websites. You say you have his pension records, so I assume you have got those from the National Archive? do they not give any details of his service?

 

In the 1881 census he is living with an uncle in Bedford, who was a surveyor
In the 1891 census (Wales) he was at his grandfathers house and is listed as a surveyor (Royal Engineers)
in 1911 he was already a Captain in the army, living in Dover

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I received the pension records from the Army records at Glasgow. These were the only records they had left for him. Im already aware of his overall life and have seen his census records but what I would really like is to know which battles he was involved in during the Great War.

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His medal inex card shows him only claiming the British War medal but not the Victory medal so I would presume he was not directly involved in any battles. see Longlong trail

 

I see that his card says France Feb 1917 but perhaps he did not go to a part considered as a Theatre of War? For example someone crossing France to catch a boat from Marseille to go to India didn't qualify for the Victory Medal. but I don't know where the lines were drawn!

Edited by charlie962
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