Continued Service in Ireland after WWI

[John Vickers]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for finding information about my grandfather, Pte Fenwick Vickers. I'm OK with his service and PoW information up to the point of his repatriation after armistice (see separate thread HERE) but know he went on the serve in Ireland, though have no data beyond that bare fact. A few questions:

 

1. His service papers for WWI seemingly didn't survive as they aren't in WO363/WO364. Does his continued service mean they may have been stored elsewhere?
2. If "yes", where can I go to find them?
3. Is it likely that he would retain his regimental association (2/10 Manchesters, attd. 2 E Lancs) when posted to Ireland or would he be in a completely new regiment?
4. Can anyone recommend good books/resources to read about the post-WWI army activities?

 

Any help on these or other words of wisdom would be most gratefully received.

 

Thanks,

 

John

[mandy hall]

The MOD hold the service records for soldiers that continue to serve after WW1.  It will cost £30, and you should get service records for the whole of his service including WW1.

See here.

 

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records

 

My grandad also served in Ireland after the war and left the army in 1925.  There can be a bit of a wait for the service records.  I applied in my dad’s name as he is the next of kin and received records from 1915 to 1938 when he came off the army reserve.  Best £30 ever spent.

 

Mandy

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

If he was born before 1901, then the MOD (as a result of work done here by member Justinth in getting an FOI release of the information) have released a database/spreadsheets of soldiers who were still in service in 1921.

Have a look at this page:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-responses-released-by-mod-week-commencing-1-december-2014

 

Ignore the first 6 documents.

The seventh is an explanatory letter fom the MOD explaining what the database is about. It's written in CivilServspeak.

 

The next 8 attachments are big Excel Spreadsheets (8-10MB in size).

Each contains the names and dates of birth of the soldier andusually the regiment, along with some reference numbers.

You need to search each of the 8 spreadsheets for your man.

If he is listed, then you can follow Mandy's advice on how to obtain copies of  his records.

 

 

[mandy hall]

I don’t think my grandad appears in the above database and he was born in 1896.  I remember looking when they were first released.

 

Mandy

[John Vickers]

3 minutes ago, mandy hall said:

The MOD hold the service records... 

Mandy

Many thanks! I got as far as downloading these earlier today and began filling them in before realising that I didn't know any of the details the second form asked for (especially his unit). I have his d.o.b. and his name is fortunately unique in the army, so will that be ok?

 

John

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

2 minutes ago, mandy hall said:

I don’t think my grandad appears in the above database and he was born in 1896.  I remember looking when they were first released.

 

Mandy

I guess that as with most information released by the MOD, it is neither complete or 100% accurate.

Have a search John, it might give you a lead.

[mandy hall]

I would give them as much as you know including, service numbers and regiments from WW1.  My grandad is Royal Engineers all the way through his service.

 

Mandy

[mandy hall]

22 minutes ago, Dai Bach y Sowldiwr said:

If he was born before 1901, then the MOD (as a result of work done here by member Justinth in getting an FOI release of the information) have released a database/spreadsheets of soldiers who were still in service in 1921.

Have a look at this page:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-responses-released-by-mod-week-commencing-1-december-2014

 

Ignore the first 6 documents.

The seventh is an explanatory letter fom the MOD explaining what the database is about. It's written in CivilServspeak.

 

The next 8 attachments are big Excel Spreadsheets (8-10MB in size).

Each contains the names and dates of birth of the soldier andusually the regiment, along with some reference numbers.

You need to search each of the 8 spreadsheets for your man.

If he is listed, then you can follow Mandy's advice on how to obtain copies of  his records.

 

 

Hasn’t someone on GWF combined them into one big spreadsheet?

 

Mandy

[John Vickers]

Thanks for all of this. I've downloaded the data and searched all but he doesn't appear.

 

By the way, I've combined all 8 sheets into one workbook for future reference and it comes to 65MB - I guess that's why they kept all of them separate.

 

I'll finish filling in the forms, pay the bounty, and see what happens. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

J

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

I think the spreadsheets are limited to that size to give a maximum number of   65535 records per sheet (or something like that), as that was the maximum number of rows that older versions of Excel (97,2003 etc) could handle. I think more recent versions can have unlimited numbers of rows, so you can combine them into one sheet.

[John Vickers]

That was my initial thought, though they limited each to less than 50K rows, and they could have simply put all into one Workbook as separate sheets.

[mandy hall]

Good luck and let us know, how you get on.

 

Mandy