Thomas Edward Flynn

[Guest]

I wondered if anyone might be able to help in my research on my great great grandfather Thomas Edward Flynn. Thomas was born in Dublin in around 1886, he enrolled in the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1915, shortly after leaving his wife in Knaresborough and moving to Leeds to work as a railway porter. I know this from pension records which show him enrolling in April and being discharged in December for 12 months due to sciatica. The number on the top of these papers is 3/17697. We know from family he then went back to Dublin around 1916 and worked as a milkman (with horses). I found another set of WWI army records from 1919. He enrolled in Edinburgh and this time claimed not be married and to be the same age he was in 1915. His next of kin was listed as his brother Michael who was a labourer in Fife. On this record his service in the East Yorkshire Regiment is noted and it also says T4/142858 RASC Driver, transferred to AR Class Z 18/7/19 in consequence of demobilisation. On the 1919 record he is enlisting in the Royal Army Medical Corp, no 206842, 1 year service, occupation porter. We know he worked with horses quite a lot, possibly as a horse trainer. Would anyone be able to suggest a possible time line for his service that might explain how he ended up in Dublin in 1916 and what he did in the army or why he may have enrolled again. The 1919 service record is the last trace we have of him until he turns up in Cambridge in 1952, where he dies working as a labourer - his sister sent my great great grandmother a letter to say he had died, she had not heard from him since around 1915. We have a photo of him in army uniform, but we have been advised he is wearing an officer's uniform, when he was only ever a private. Any help on clarifying how he managed all of this would be much appreciated! 

 

Best wishes,

 

Emily

[charlie962]

Emily,

Welcome to the forum. Somehow your post has slipped through the net and been missed by all those experts keen to help. Your GGF is a bit of a puzzle and you have done well to find the 2 different service records with some conflicting info. But the family information presumably has satisfied you that they are indeed the same person. As you say the RAMC record clearly links RASC service number and mentions East Yorks service (but not service no).

 

Timeline:

   12th April 1915  Attested in 3rd Bn East Yorks, where he remains

    3  Nov    1915   admitted East Leeds War Hospital, bedridden, sciatica, from which he has suffered 8 years

   31 Dec  1915    Discharged  no longer physically fit, noted as likely to be incapacitated (not permanent) 12 months

 

    1916 you say he managed to work as a milkman in Dublin ? Did he find a miraculous cure to his bedridden condition?

But from a sample of Army Service Corps numbers very close to his, it is likely that he joined either No 1 (Park royal) or no 2 (Blackheath) Reserve Horse Transport Depot, ASC in late Jan or early Feb 1916;

The Service Records I have seen show

  T4 142842 Mabbitt, joined  No1 RHTD Park Royal 31/1/16

  T4 142847 Chamberlain joined  "     "          "              1/2/16

  T4 142856 Arnold            "            "          "            15/2/16

  T4 142858 Flynn     ??

  T4 142862 Bone               " No2   "      Blackheath 25/1/16

  T4 142864 Bethom           "   "       "           "             26/1/16

 

All the above men seem to have followed very different paths subsequently so no pattern to copy. I note that Chamberlain (previously a Carman, ie knows horses) went to France almost immediately, 2/3/16 to the Base Horse Transport Depot at Le Havre. 

 

Thomas Flynn is on the Medal Roll for the British War and Victory Medals, meaning he served overseas. But when and where he went I don't know. Perhaps with his health problems it was to a depot in France?

 

    10 July  1919    He was transferred to Class Z  Army Reserve

    8   Oct   1919  he joined the RAMC at Edinburgh on a 1 year attestation

    23 Oct  1919   He was Discharged under para 392 iiia Kings Regulations.

 

So this gives you some more on which to reflect and will perhaps attract an expert to interpret properly?

 

Charlie

 

edit:  any chance of seeing the photo?

 

 

 

 

  

Edited 20 August , 2017 by charlie962