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SDGW Look up


Denise Ford

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I am struggling to find James Woodall. Born c1885 (can't find his birth certificate!), died sometime in the Great War. I have found on the GRO registers a number of possibles, all of whom were in nothern county regiments... which I would doubt would be mine. The medal rolls have 3 possiblities - none of whom appear to be those on the GRO death records. So, a bit of a quandry... can anyone help?

James (Jim) Woodall - born c 1885 (was aged 16 in 1901 census), died probably after 1915 (we have a photo of him in uniform circa 1915). He went to war saying just one sentence to his mum: "goodbye - I won't be back". He died "going over the top" but it is not known which regiment nor where he died. I can find no records of him on CWGC or Roll of Honour either. I know his body was never repatriated so assume he was missing in action - but know that he never returned.

Sorry it's all such a mismatch of information and a lot of maybes but if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

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SDGW shows 4 James Woodalls

1st Batt. Cheshire Reg, Died 23/10/19

11th. Batt Lans Fusiliers, Died 20/7/18

2nd batt. Royal Munster Fusiliers.Died 21/10/1915

15th Notts and Derbys (Sherwood Foresters) , Died 1/10/18

Do any of these ring a bell??

Roop

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There are four James Woodall listed in SDGW

The only one without the northern connection:

L/Sgt. James Palmerer Woodall

2nd Bn. Royal Munster Fusiliers

DoW

21/10/15

Born: Walworth

Enlisted: Stratford, Essex

Res: Borough, Surrey

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No, not at all!! They differ from the ones that were on the GRO records... and again are completely out of the recruitment area I had expected him to be in..

However, this is my first look up at any WWI records, and whilst James was born and lived in South London (Surrey) all his life, is there a possibility that he joined or was asked to join a regiment not linked to his place of signing up for service? His immediate family were also South London (Surrey) born and bred, so I would not expect him to have a "loyalty" to any particular county and therefore request to join a regiment from that county.

Thank you for looking up the records for me!

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Oh! Myrtle! You may have struck gold there - he was from Southwark... which is a stone's throw from Walworth...and cross the road and you end up in Borough...

thank you thank you!!

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There are four James Woodall listed in SDGW

The only one without the northern connection:

L/Sgt. James Palmerer Woodall

2nd Bn. Royal Munster Fusiliers

DoW

21/10/15

Born: Walworth

Enlisted: Stratford, Essex

Res: Borough, Surrey

Denise

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Denise

We appear to have been posting at the same time. :)

Rest of his details on SDGW:

Reg no: 8550

DoW in F&F

By the way , did James work at Billinsgate ?

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Myrtle you obviously type quicker than me!! :lol:

Co-incidentally someone else on another forum just found the same James Woodall listed on CWGC as James Woodhall - only on that his mother is listed as living in West Croydon... and James mother Harriet lived in Southwark all her life... even dying there... she went no-where near West Croydon, neither did any of the family. So again... i think I've gone back to square one!!

Denise

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Yes, the SDGW does contain quite a few mistakes, this time possibly the spelling. The soldier Woodhall was too young to be your man.

Just in case you missed my question. Did James work at Billinsgate ?

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sorry Myrtle, I did miss your question.

Possibly is the answer... James was a Fish Curer by trade... but the family had fish curing ovens at home - doesn't mean to say he wasn't apprenticed at Billingsgate though? I would strongly suspect the fish was bought there...

Edited to say: How on earth did you know that?!

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