Devonshire Reg officer from clacton on sea

[garfyboy]

Hi all

 

i have just purchased this lovely photo of a 2nd lieutenant in the Devonshire regiment with the photographers name to the front - frank finch, clacton on sea, so on the off chance, does anybody recognise or know how we can find out who this chap is? There can’t be many officer from the devons who live in clacton can there? Or were any Devonshire battalions camped in the area?

 

thanks in advance

andy

[Acknown]

No mention of Clapton in the Devonshire Regiment history (Aggett) that I have, but (a long shot) from LLT:
2/7th (Cyclist) Battalion
Formed at Totnes in October 1914. Remained in UK throughout the war, moving to Sevenoaks in 1916, Margate in 1917 and Southminster in 1918. By November 1918 was at Maldon.
Still looking.

Acknown

[Coldstreamer]

or he was on leave at the time ?

[Acknown]

2 hours ago, Coldstreamer said:

or he was on leave at the time ?

Strong chance, and also maybe his hometown as it's quite possible he was commissioned into a regiment that had an urgent need. Did infantry subalterns normally wear spurs in WW1 and did they normally carry what appears to be a large staff or cane? I think not, and if so, there's a clue. 

I've meandered through the portraits of Devon officers on the IWM website, but no likely matches.

Acknown

Also no medals or stripes. Newly commissioned?

Edited 2 January , 2020 by Acknown

[PRC]

Coming at it from the other way - would the absent voters lists be away to identify potential officers from the Clacton area - assuming he survived.

Of course you can't guarantee he was still still with the Devons by the end of the war but at least you could work backwards from a list of possibles.

Can't see a list of names online for those remembered on the Clacton on Sea War Memorial, (about 214).

CWGC search function is severely crippled at the moment - I tried a search of First World War & Regiment = Devonshire & Additional information includes *Clacton" and it told me to try again later

 

The 1901 Census shows Clacton addresses to be in the North Eastern or Harwich parliamentary constituency. Checking through the Long Long Trail list of AVL's currently available

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/how-to-research-a-soldier/finding-soldiers-through-the-1918-absent-voters-lists/

and following through to those available on FMP shows that at least the Harwich one for 1920-21 is available there. Of course the parliamentary constituency may have changed as well so you may well want to file this approach under project for a long winter evening!

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Coldstreamer]

the cane was probably passed to the next man for his photo and is just a prop

Edited 2 January , 2020 by Coldstreamer

[stephen p nunn]

Agree that 2/7 Devons were in Maldon in November 1918.

Regards.

S.

[garfyboy]

Many thanks for you’re input folks, I would think he was a clacton man but it’s certainly a tough job trying to trace him, I have tried ancestry with keywords etc but nothing comes up, well spotted with the Spurs, I somehow missed them, if only every photo / postcard had the soldiers details on, can you imagine the research opportunities we would all have

 

andy

[Coldstreamer]

I personally think that he likely hood is that he ISNT a Clacton man - Mr Finch would have take loads of photographs and being  a seaside town would have had lots of people going there not just locals

Mr Finch was still a photographer in 1939

[Acknown]

A few more ideas (but no answers) and one reiteration:

• Would he go on leave with his uniform?
• He looks quite newly commissioned (no medals/2Lt).
• Why the spurs? How about the spur/boot combination? Not normal for an infantry 2Lt?
• Unless that nose is original, he looks to me like a boxer or rugby player.

Acknown