Machine gun corp

[Matt 71]

My wife’s grandfather served in the Machine gun corp, his name was PTE Fred Bancroft 126047, has anybody got any history of his service please? I have his medal and I’ve found out he was entitled to a wounded stripe, but I have no other service records or information about where he or his regiment served. Thanks Matt

[jonbem]

Hi

as you may know, many service records were lost in the Blitz in WWII, so to help if you could give date of birth and location, and any other family details it may help to tie down. There are several F Bancrofts, and he would probably been initially attested to a different regiment (possibly with a different number too) rather than straight into the MGC, although with no mention on the MIC was probably transferred to MGC before going abroad.

 

regards

Jon

[brianmorris547]

Matt

War Office Casualty List 5569 dated 18/05/1918 has quite long lists of MGC killed, Died of Wounds, Wounded and Missing. They are available on FMP or National Library of Scotland. I can confirm that 126047 F Bancroft is named on one of the two lists of MGC wounded. It shows his next of kin town as Nelson, which I presume is Nelson, Lancs. Given that it took four to six weeks from the wound to the OCL he was probably wounded in the German attacks on or after 21/03/1918.

Brian

[mancpal]

Hello Matt,

have you searched Ancestry to see if his service record survived, I suspect you have as the information you show above is more than a novice would uncover quickly. I only have a small amount of experience with an MGC man and understand they are one of the more difficult units to trace. The chap I tried to find out more of started out as Mcr Regt, qualified as a Lewis gunner and at some point transferred to the MGC after which we could find little more I'm afraid. 

Another source of information may be newspapers local to him though the reports of capture, injury or ultimately death seem to be the core .

The Medal Roll Index Card indicates that he only served in a theatre of war with the MGC though he could have trained in the UK with an entirely different Regiment. The card also shows he didn't serve overseas before 1/1/16. Notice posts crossed with Jon!

 

Simon

[Matt 71]

Thanks for all your replies, I will try and get more details of Fred, date of birth etc and come back to you if you don’t mind? 
Ive researched a couple more relatives in the past and realise that they often got signed up into a local regiment then transferred before going over seas. One relative signed up in the East lancs and ended up serving in the Essex reg, so I will see if I can find another number for him. I will also try Ancestry and Fullwood barracks and see what comes up.
 

thanks to you all Matt

[mancpal]

Please do post any further information you may find, generally the more you can uncover the more other members can help in confirming or ruling out potential leads. Even the most trivial snippet/family tale can sometimes fill in the missing part of the jigsaw.

On the subject of recruitment, one of my grandads stated in his attestation papers that he had no previous military experience when he joined the Mcrs in Jan 1915, thanks to another member on here it transpires he had joined the KRRC in Sept 1914 and was back at his old job a month later having been deemed to be "unlikely to become an efficient soldier". In modern times his deception would have been uncovered in seconds courtesy of the internet, and in the current era where it seems former soldiers can be put on trial I wonder what his punishment would have been for lying to the crown?  It really is amazing what pops up.

 

Simon

Edited 8 April , 2021 by mancpal
Punctuation error, must try harder

[jonbem]

There is a tree on Ancestry with a Fred Bancroft from Nelson, could it be him?

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/jonathan-bancroft-24-4yxttk

[jonbem]

perhaps you might also try

https://www.machine-gun-corps-database.co.uk/intro_page.html

 

[Matt 71]

JonBem

Thats him Fred, his Dad was Johnathon, I’ve spoken to a relative and he has more documentation about him so I will follow that up and also your link to the MGC, I had already been sent a message about this. Thanks for your help .

 

matt

8 hours ago, mancpal said:

Please do post any further information you may find, generally the more you can uncover the more other members can help in confirming or ruling out potential leads. Even the most trivial snippet/family tale can sometimes fill in the missing part of the jigsaw.

On the subject of recruitment, one of my grandads stated in his attestation papers that he had no previous military experience when he joined the Mcrs in Jan 1915, thanks to another member on here it transpires he had joined the KRRC in Sept 1914 and was back at his old job a month later having been deemed to be "unlikely to become an efficient soldier". In modern times his deception would have been uncovered in seconds courtesy of the internet, and in the current era where it seems former soldiers can be put on trial I wonder what his punishment would have been for lying to the crown?  It really is amazing what pops up.

 

Simon

Simon I have a few more leads to follow up and post when I know more. Thanks