Advice for newbie - have read suggested articles

[Knotty]

Susie, did you look at post #22, his MIC gives evidence he won the Military Cross.

[Susie English]

I was told he either had the MC, VC or GC but they are so rare I need to verify it all.  I know he had some kind of cross.

 

[PRC]

2 hours ago, Susie English said:

It is in the Lancashire Fusiliers and number is:  4656.  The dates match but I don't know how to find the date of birth!

 

Sorry, I thought he'd already been ruled out as he'd served in the Boer War (1899-1902). Even if thats not the case, I strongly suspect he's not your man. The Medal Index Card for 4656 Edward Smith Lancashire Fusiliers shows that he qualified for the 1914/15 Star having first landed in a Theatre of War on the 25th September 1914. But that Theatre of War is shown on the card as 4a, which at that time was British East Africa, German East Africa, Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Uganda, although post the 1st January 1916 it was used for Egypt.

 

That adds a bit of complexity as I'm not aware of any Battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers going to East Africa, although the 1st Battalion did go to Gallipoli via Egypt in April 1915. So unless the clerk who wrote out the card, (circa 1919), was having an off day, then likely this Edward served with someone else first before moving to the Lancashire Fusiliers. Possibly the Service Medal Roll for his Victory Medal and British War Medal can help with the units served with - available on Ancestry

 

Of course he could have been invalided back to the UK, recovered and got out to France by 1915, but for him to have enlisted at the start of the war with no military experience, got out to Africa, etc - timeline seems very tight.

 

If the Edward Smith you are interested in was this Lancashire Fusilier and he served with a Regular Army Battalion, then according to the Army Service numbers site 4656 was issued sometime between 8th August 1893 (4510) and the 18th January 1894 (4718).

http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2009/07/lancashire-fusiliers-regular.html

 

I'm a bit confused. You say you have sight of the service papers of 4656 Edward Smith and although they won't give you a date of birth they should give you a date of enlistment and age at enlistment, (unless the relevant bits have been lost \ burnt or otherwise rendered unreadable).What do those papers say?

 

Cheers,

Peter

Edited 23 January , 2020 by PRC
Typo

[johnboy]

You say his medals were sold. How many were there?