Thomas Galloway - what happened to him in 1920?

[Stephen Nulty]

Ancestry’s latest pension records have an entry for Pte 33952 T Galloway of the Gordon Highlanders. He was a Prescot man and is commemorated on our town memorial although I have never been able to identify him until coming across this pension record (An application by his mother)

 

On the card is noted “Missing 16.05.20”

 

CWGC has an entry for 2867597 Thomas Galloway, 1^st Bn., Gordons, date of death 16/05/20 and commemorated on an Addenda Panel of the Helles Memorial. He was 20 years old

 

The only Medal cards I can immediately locate show a man of this name with number S/2047 and as he has a 1915 Star I assume he isn’t our 20 year old

 

So it seems he enlisted after the war (hence the 7 digit number). But what happened to him and how did he end up commemorated at Helles             

 

Grateful for any insight.

Edited 16 October , 2019 by Stephen Nulty

[helpjpl]

Constantinople 1920:

https://gordonhighlanders.com/1920-1939-inter-war-era/

 

JP

Edited 16 October , 2019 by helpjpl

[Stephen Nulty]

Cheers JP

 

I'm intrigued as to his report of being "missing" and am wondering if there are any records detailing the events of May 1920 

 

Edited 16 October , 2019 by Stephen Nulty

[travers61]

Army of the Black Sea discussed in this thread recently:

 

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/84457-black-sea-army/

 

[PRC]

I take it there is nothing helpful on his Army Register of Soldiers Effects entry. I don't subscribe to Ancestry but from the publicly available search on that site there appears to be an entry for a Thomas Galloway who died in 1920.

 

I'm not saying this applies to your man, but I have had a few individuals who I have researched over the years who have died in bathing accidents, boat loss, etc, and the body was not recovered. On a couple the Soldiers Effects entry showed them as presumed drowned and this was the first inkling I had of their cause of death. This has proved very helpful as without a body there may be no local inquest so no local newspaper report at the place of death which then can leave you hunting around for potentially a non-existant newspaper report in the area they came from.

 

Hope that helps,

Peter

[BillyH]

For what it's worth Soldiers Effects gives the two numbers quoted in post #1,  plus date of death as 15.6.20 "on or about. Turkey"

 

BillyH.

[Stephen Nulty]

Thanks all. I’ll take a closer look at replies and suggestions in the morning 

Edited 16 October , 2019 by Stephen Nulty

[travers61]

The Gordons were involved with fighting the Turkish Nationalists, so missing could also be "missing in action", possibly kidnapped by them, taken prisoner, had to be left behind in Nationalist territory wounded & never seen again etc.

[Stephen Nulty]

Thanks for that - it's broadly what I am assuming given the lack of anything more concrete

[BarbaraG]

Thomas Galloway is recorded 'In From the Cold Project' Accepted 07.03.2010 Volunteer was Steve Mattock.

 

He is also mentioned on a thread 31 March 2016 - Gordon Highlander, died 1920 and on Helles Memorial.

 

Wonder what Steve's Research revealed.

 

 

Edited 24 March , 2020 by BarbaraG

[Keith_history_buff]

Interesting to see that he has one of the seven digit service numbers issued from August 1920 - I wonder when they gave up on the possibility of him reappearing.