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Remembered Today:

Help to find soldier from death penny


Rick Back

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Hi,

 

bought a death penny for a William Holliday and when looked at CWWG site there were several.

 

could anyone help me slim this group down with address given on envelope - it was Mrs E C Holliday 35, Ravensworth Road, Temple Rise NW10.

 

There was also a number on the envelope - I thought it could be his service number? - this was 189039?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

rick

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Hi Rick,

 

I don't think that the number on the envelope is his service number.

 

Starter for 10...

 

In the 1911 Census there is a 26 year old, single William Holliday, living with his widowed mother (Emily) at 35, Ravensworth Road. From the CWGC I would tend to search by the surname of Holliday for men that died in WW1, and download the results. Applying a couple of filters where forename = blank, or William, or William (+ second name something), and initials = W (or W + another initial) you seem to get a set of 26 results, the first few of which appear like this:

 

image.png.2406febc688d18c0bb4f779feaf9be3a.png

 

You should the be able to rule out most of them because the 'additional information' or age details clearly don't fit. That should reduce the list considerably. For the remaining men, I'd then go to, and cross reference the Soldiers' Effects records on Ancestry - link, and (probably best searching their records using just the service number, which hopefully would get around mis-transcriptions of surname, etc) see if any of records record the payment of outstanding pay, and War Gratuity to a mother (probably "mo" in the record) called Emily. If you were to get just one result, I think that you could be reasonably confident that you've found your man, and hopefully use the service number and unit noted to springboard other records for him.

 

Good luck.

 

Regards

Chris

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Great advice from Chris - couldn't help having a quick look - haven't looked at them all (you should check them all) but the 203052 Middlesex Regiment man had a mother called Emily.

 

Regards

 

Russ

 

 

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Thanks Chris - what a detailed answer. I do most of my research around Luftwaffe aircrew lost over the Uk so this is a new ball game to me but your response is fantastic and full of fabulous advice.

 

thanks Russia too but looking at the field created by Chris there is a Royal Artillery loss that has a mother called Emily too. I think I will need some time at the weekend to see what I can fathom out from your replies. 

 

Many, many thanks

 

Rick

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Hi Rick,

 

We have a winner...It's the Middlesex Regiment man. He was hiding in plain sight, as his papers are on Ancestry - link. It sounds a bit counter intuitive, but if you go in to the settings, and switch auto enhance off, for me, you get a better quality/sharper image.

 

Regards

Chris

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