Inexplicable two wound stripes

[RichardsProductions99]

Greetings all!

 

If anyone hasn't yet read my previous posts regarding my Great Grandfather Lewis, I shall attach them here. They feature a photograph from it appears 1918 (taken before November of that year) 

 

 

Now the question I have, and that is bugging me no end, regards the wound stripes featured on his uniform in that late war image.

We know for a fact that in May of 1915, he was wounded at Ypres with the 3/RF. This is quite widely mentioned. Not only in an MH106 folio: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16891276

But also in his local paper, a couple of months later: July 3rd 1915.

 

The article gets the date of his wounding wrong or so it seems. But could this be a seperate wound??

The article also mentions the fact he was shot in the face, a fact that isn't featured in the MH106 folio weirdly.

 

So, the arm wound, explains one wound stripe, and also the gap in his service record between 28th May 1915, and 4th May 1916.

 

The questions arise, when by 1918 and now with the 2/RF, he suddenly has a second wound stripe attached to his tunic. 

For this I can find literally nothing. I have searched casualty records for later in the war, thegenealogist and its earlier casualty records (pre 1917), the MH106 files again, and also, the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate, and Cheriton Herald, which reported on that wounding mentioned previously.

 

There is nothing. His name doesn't appear, and I have tried L H Blackman, Blackman, L Blackman, Blackman L, all sorts of variations. Nothing. 

 

Surely this is utterly inconceivable that a man should receive a wound stripe, but no record anywhere of why/when?

 

The only thing I can find is a gap between his time with 32/RF which stops at the 15th September 1916, and his joining of the 2/RF in March 1917. But I can find no evidence to concretely suggest this was a period of convalesence.

 

Could someone, anyone, please help try to explain the impossible? I am at my wits end, and with pre-production on a documentary beginning, I need to know the truth.

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Chris

[TEW]

There are gaps in the Casualty Lists coverage.

 

I use Thegenealogist as my main source so have little experience of using FMP's or NLS versions.

 

I'm fairly sure there is no coverage from any source for circa April-July 1917 so any wound stripes earned then falls into a non recorded void. Local papers extracted lists from The Times who ceased publishing.

 

Thegenealogist later cut off date is around May 1918 to Armistice.

 

I've tried comparing coverage and the search function of the three online sources and it became rather complex regarding the software that reads the image and the quality of the original print. TheGeni state that their transcriptions are human checked and overall it seems very good.

 

I have a 1919 photo of a man with wound stripe, his name is printed on the reverse, his service record survives and concurs with unit and hospital and gives date of the injury.

 

I have manually trawled TheGeni for months after the incident and never found his entry in casualty lists.

TEW

 

 

[RichardsProductions99]

I'd have thought, even if there were gaps in casualty list coverage, the comprehensive coverage of local casualties from Hythe in the paper might have mentioned him. That particularly makes little sense.

[ss002d6252]

1 hour ago, RichardsProductions99 said:

I'd have thought, even if there were gaps in casualty list coverage, the comprehensive coverage of local casualties from Hythe in the paper might have mentioned him. That particularly makes little sense.

In many cases the local papers took their information from the published casualty lists.

 

Craig

[RichardsProductions99]

2 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

In many cases the local papers took their information from the published casualty lists.

So is it safe to say if he was wounded late 1916/early 1917 he wouldn’t have been on a list?

strangely there are still a lot of casualty reports in the paper for 1917, in spite of the lack of lists.

 

sadly Lewis’ service record, and his full medical record no longer exist it appears, which puts things on twice the back footing! 

[TEW]

Up to about April 1917 he should be on lists/reports. However, there are inconsistencies, some men get left off lists and are reported months later or possibly never.

 

The original army order of July 1916 was clarified by an ACI in August that says the criteria for a wound stripe was that a man's name had to have appeared in the official casualty lists.

 

The issuing was backdated to August 1914 so I'd guess they had a massive wave of applications in July 16 and given the numbers involved  issued wound stripes when they should not have done.

 

Failing that the options are;

 

He is listed but an original typo has messed up the entry.

 

He is listed but the original image has not scanned and/or converted to text correctly.

 

He is listed on a post April 1917 list that no longer exists.

TEW