Private C Howard

[MemyselfandI]

9530 PTE. C. HOWARD  LINCS. R.

also

27882 Machine Gun Corps

CHARLES HOWARD b. Stamford, Lincolnshire

A Labourer

Enlisting April 1913

Transferring to Machine Gun Corps in 1916

[Michelle Young]

Welcome to the forum. Are you after specific information?

Michelle 

[MemyselfandI]

Michelle, sorry, this was my first post and I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. 

My hope is to find any info I can on the above, as I live in his birth town, and I've seen one of his medals for sale it'd be nice if possible to track his family and return the medal. 

Possibly wishful thinking. 

[sotonmate]

MMI

 

I  make it to be 9530  of 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regt, then 27882 MGC. This according to the Medal Roll information, which also shows that he first landed in a war zone on 12  May 1915. 1 Leics were a part of 17 Inf Bde on his landing and later in 1915 to 71 Inf Bde,both of 6 Division. Then later again another move !The Roll also gives his discharge date as 3 Mar 1919.

It may be more difficult to establish where he served with the MGC. It might be that he moved within his Brigade to it's MG Company, and,as he served the war out with the MGC he might have gone into an MG Battalion in 1918 when the Companies were consolidated, OR, he might just have gone off to Grantham for MG training a been posted wherever !

The MGCorps Rolls don't show a unit, but often show that from which the soldier arrived.

[Mark1959]

There are 2 Medal cards. One say Leics. one Lincs. One roll says Lincs. Another Leics. Which regiment is correct?

He made a claim for a pension which was rejected. Malaria attributable to war service and “acute mania n.a”. The NA I think is not attributable.

The Pension card gives address as Sneaths Row or Road, Holbeach, Lincs. year of birth 1891.

edit - appears in a list of wounded on a list published by War Office 4/7/15. This shows 1st Battalion Lincs. 

Edited 26 November , 2019 by Mark1959

[sadbrewer]

He was wounded on 4th July 1915 with 1st battalion Lincs.

[Mark1959]

FMP has an admission book for 28th General Hospital, Salonika for the period 21-26 Aug 1916. In that period 27882 C Howard MGC was admitted with Malaria. Looks to me as if he was put on HS Gurkha on 29/8/16. 65 Brigade had been crossed out and replaced with 66. So a quick check on LLT shows 66 Infantry Brigade's MGC unit was 66 MG Company. The 66 MGC was formed at Grantham (as many were), embarked Devonport on 5/7/16 and joined 22nd Division there on 14/7/16. This seems a likely path for CH to have followed. Age of the man is given as 25. 

Do not take the FMP transcript as accurate - it says he is RFC and has other errors when compared with the image at

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=S2%2FGBM%2FMH106%2FMH106-1318%2F0004&parentid=GBM%2FMH106%2FP2%2F952556

The MGC was not formed until late 1915. 

Looking at potential individuals there is a candidate that looks promising but impossible to prove without a military record linking the two. This chap found is the illegitimate son of a Fanny/Francis Howard aged 5 months in the 1891 census. They are inmates in the Holbeach Union Workhouse.

There is a rudimentary family tree on ancestry that implies he was farmed out presumably to work to various people until old enough to support himself. There is no supporting documentation but someone has clearly seen some. The tree suggests the father of Charles and an older brother is a man named Isaac Wright. This chap appears to die in the late 1940s. 

But supposition. 

Edited 27 November , 2019 by Mark1959

[MemyselfandI]

Wow thanks everyone for your efforts.

Fascinating story