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Remembered Today:

Can anyone read/interpret the handwritten note on this request for service information form?


GoldmanT

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The original is on the left, I've tried to tweak it to bring out the writing in the middle version, and I went over what I thought were the pencil markings on the right-hand version.

 

Soldier was in the RAMC and two of the Kent regiments, and served (I think) in France, Malta briefly and possibly somewhere else.

 

Any help appreciated, please ask any questions that you think may help you interpret it.

 

Here is a link to a higher resolution version of the image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/150cHDYJq7B5BraFO62M_rFJ2ftMgNhHZ/view?usp=sharing

 

 

1943769815_1921Franceservicedetailscomposite.jpg.50e1225919303b641a7bc37a201d7a45.jpg

Edited by GoldmanT
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Welcome to the forum and good luck.

 

Is it possible to know who this soldier is-name and number-so we can look at the original please?

 

George

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Sure, it's Patrick Moriarty/Morearty/Haley (variant spellings and an alias) and the numbers I have are 1143 (possibly 1148 in some transcriptions), 7892 and 3655, in the RAMC, RW Kent and KRRC. One service number was transcribed as ??353 but I'm not sure it appears anywhere else.

 

The image is how it appears in the publicly available scans, so without viewing the original paper version I'm not sure that there's a better quality version.

 

I found it at page 24455 in this Ancestry link, not sure where else it might be available: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1219/images/30836_147540-00098?pId=835662

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Thanks for that link.

A lot of 'stuff' to go through-I'll be back later hopefully!

 

George

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Great thank you - if you do look through sources could you post them up here so I can check I've already got them? The only things I have access to so far are through Ancestry so might not be complete. Thanks.

 

Edit - just the links to the sources, not the documents themselves. :)

Edited by GoldmanT
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If you have access to Find My Past there is a document there-but think it is the same one. I'll send link if you have access

 

George

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What an interesting man!

 

I need to check back but

1914  Aldershot

1915 Connaught Hospital

1916 Hospital Ship Glencoe(?)

(all on 'charge' sheets)

 

Any chance of birth certificates for children which may also help.

I need some fresh air now!

 

George

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10 minutes ago, George Rayner said:

 

What an interesting man!

 

I need to check back but

1914  Aldershot

1915 Connaught Hospital

1916 Hospital Ship Glencoe(?)

(all on 'charge' sheets)

 

Any chance of birth certificates for children which may also help.

I need some fresh air now!

 

George

 

Thanks for this - I didn't have the Fold3 document, but the service records look to be the same scans as on Ancestry, and the image quality is pretty much the same. And it's so much slower going from page to page on FMP, Ancestry is almost instant in comparison!

 

I'm assuming you've read a lot of these records, so what was it that made you think he was interesting, is it just the amount and variety of records? He's my wife's great grandfather and we've only just discovered he existed so trying to find what we can on him.

 

No birth certificates, but his daughter was born in 1916 when they lived at 54 Peabody Road Farnborough, and his son at the end of 1914 when they would have lived at an address in Woolwich.

 

I get 'France' and then 'P Prince' in the left hand column - I'm assuming that wouldn't be Port Au Prince in Haiti? And maybe a roman numeral regulation above the signature at the bottom, that's about it. Might just be lost to time - some documents are re-written over in ink before they're scanned, shame this wasn't one of them.

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I'll attach the scan from FMP as it does look slightly different, maybe it was pre-tweaked before it was displayed by FMP:

 

 

GBM_WO363-4_007385054_00102.jpg

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I see the form relates to a request of his services following his return of a 14 Star which he wanted altered. Looks like he was entitled as Haley 1143 but he wanted it changed (replaced) for Morearty 1143. Their records have the latter man arriving in theatre 1/7/16, this date is on the handwritten form.

 

Not convinced about Port au Prince, Haiti.

 

Complicated!

TEW

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1 minute ago, TEW said:

I see the form relates to a request of his services following his return of a 14 Star which he wanted altered. Looks like he was entitled as Haley 1143 but he wanted it changed (replaced) for Morearty 1143. Their records have the latter man arriving in theatre 1/7/16, this date is on the handwritten form.

 

Not convinced about Port au Prince, Haiti.

 

Complicated!

TEW

 

Yes the notes are probably handwritten by the soldier saying what he did in those years which is why it's frustrating I can't read them! The FMP image is actually better, I might mark that up and re-post, there could be common military terms/locations that I'm not recognising.

 

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There's another letter which is asking him for certain details. His reply I think is the handwritten form. They then repeat the letter explaining again the details they want. Clearly he didn't fill it out correctly.

TEW

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2 hours ago, GoldmanT said:

so what was it that made you think he was interesting

It is partially the amount of material but also his name change and him being a general labourer, sailmaker, labourer and metal moulder-as well as passing a cook's course [albeit with 63%] and yet being noted as not very intelligent and having no discernible skills! I did begin to think that the records were for different men at one stage and still have to check ages as one or two looked askew

 

George

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He first registered under his mother's maiden name, possibly because he had something to hide from the recruitment office, wouldn't put it past him to have a bit of a record in his younger days. Separately, there is a posed studio photo of him in Malta as a boxer, which confused us for a while until we read about the cookery course!

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AT least two of his brothers also served in WW1 if I am in the correct family in Plumstead?

 

George

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He has circa 1907 papers under Moriarty alias Haley but is Haley in 1914 until his declaration in March 1916. I don't know if his service was continuous from 1906-1918 with a few surname swaps along the way.

 

I think there are papers for another P Haley muddled in with his.

TEW

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I think he was discharged from the RAMC in or before 1910, and then possibly re-enlisted in 1914 (don't remember seeing any other records for 1911-1913) so that might explain part of it. Why he enlisted as Haley in 1914 I'm not sure then, the thing I thought he might be trying to hide was someone else and was back in 1901 so before he'd joined up the first time.

Edited by GoldmanT
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It all came out in the wash when he had to supply marriage and birth certificates for his children in March 1916. Doesn't seem to have caused that much trouble apart from lots of extra paperwork and the 1914 Star issue.

 

Quite odd really considering he had previous stints in service using both names, his alias being noted pre-war.

 

Not a good attempt at hiding so I wonder if the Not Particularly description for his intelligence might be accurate.

TEW

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