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Looking for Reginald A Glindon Dental Surgeon in RAMC TF

Austin OConnor

By Austin OConnor
in Medical Services (Home and Abroad)

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Austin OConnor Lance-Corporal

Austin OConnor

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My grandfather Reginald Algernon Glindon was a dental surgeon who I believe served in the RAMC Territorial Force. I have no further details but would like to find a record of his unit and service during WW1.

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PRC Lieut-General

PRC

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2 hours ago, Austin OConnor said:

My grandfather Reginald Algernon Glindon was a dental surgeon who I believe served in the RAMC Territorial Force. I have no further details but would like to find a record of his unit and service during WW1.

Hi Austin and welcome to the forum.

As a qualified dental surgeon he would have been commissioned, but unfortunately I'm not seeing any Great War era officer papers for him. Plenty of reasons that might be the case - given the volume of records for all soldiers they were weeded on a regular basis, and sometimes for officers with no claim to a pension, clean service record, etc, they could be weeded into oblivion. Or it could be that his records have been mis-catalogued by the National Archive. Or he could have stayed in post 1920 and his records were retained by the Ministry of Defence. However a few years back the MoD did a press release shows names, date of birth and service records for the individual born before 1901 whose records they still held. This covered officers as well as enlisted men. Unfortunately Reginald is not listed there.

Probably a good point to mention I'm assuming he is the Reginald Algernon Glindon whose birth was registered with the civil authorities in the Wandsworth District in the October to December quarter, (Q4), of 1883. Most likely the 17 year old Reginald Glindon, born Battersea, who turns up on the 1901 Census living in the household of parents Richard, (43, Dental Surgeon) and Rebecca, (44) at 473 Battersea Park Road, Battersea. Family were at the same address on the 1891 Census of England & Wales - checked a couple of sources and the 8 year old son is transcribed as "Reynold" which is understandable given the census takers handwriting.

Looks like he married an Olive Daisy Boyes in 1909 and the marriage looks like it may have produced 4 children, two born during the period of the Great War.

Getting back to his possible career, his initial commissioning should have appeared in the London Gazette, along with any subsequent promotions, gallantry and foreign awards and the like. But again I'm drawing a blank. And again there are potential reasons for that - the software used to transcribe images into text on the Gazette website is not the greatest.

If he served overseas, either in a Theatre of War or just as part of a Garrison in the likes of India, he would have qualified for at least one service medal. As an officer he had to apply for his medals- other ranks who'd been discharged just had them sent to the last known home address. To keep track of the documentation and the related correspondence, the clerks at the relevant records office raised an index card, known as the Medal Index Card, (or more appropriately the Medal Rolls Index Card). Although they are purely admin cards, they can sometime be a small goldmine of information. Unfortunately in Reginalds' case there appears to be no MiC. There are explanations for that - he may only have served in the UK, he may have decided not to apply for any medal entitlement, could be mis-filed, or he could be among the small number lost to poor storage.

However when you take into account no obvious officer file, no mention in the London Gazette and no MiC, it starts to raise the possibility that he did not serve.

So can you share with us what evidence you have that he did, as that is probably a better place to start from.

Cheers,

Peter

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Austin OConnor Lance-Corporal

Austin OConnor

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Many thanks, Peter, for taking the trouble to explain at length why I might not find him. (All the details you cited about him are correct). I am pretty certain he did serve. His wife, my grandmother, carved several shields in oak, one of which shows the insignia of the RAMC Territorial Force. 
kind regards AO’C

3D815953-EB07-4BA1-A321-A294838A8645.jpeg

D0101263-0704-45C8-9FDF-50315F1DD866.jpeg

50BC5D8C-102E-4CB0-A859-D6CBFCD38682.jpeg

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Dave66 Lieutenant-Colonel

Dave66

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Hello Austin, and welcome.

Trawled through the gazette using Glindon as the search, I did find him once (link below), in 1933, when his dental practice partnership was dissolved, but nothing military as far as I can see.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33983/page/6384

best of luck with your search,

Dave.

 

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PRC Lieut-General

PRC

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Hi @Austin OConnor

It's a bit of a long shot but looks like if I have the right family details then there was Diana Mary Glindon whose birth was registered in the Kingston Civil Registration District of Surrey in the July to September quarter, (Q3), of 1915, and a Pauline Enid Glindon whose birth was registered in the Westhampnett District of Sussex in the July to September quarter, (Q3), of 1917. In both cases the mothers' maiden name was Boyes.

Do you have the birth certificate for either - fathers' occupation should show rank and corps \ regiment if he was serving.

Cheers,
Peter

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MaureenE Major-General

MaureenE

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Posted (edited)

The following online account is perhaps not directly relevant,  but it does seem to indicate that there were  limited numbers of dentists in the British Army, in fact none in the early days.

General Haig's Dental Surgeon from Paris : Sir Auguste Charles Valadier, a Pioneer in Maxillo-Facial Surgery: A Historical Update by William P Cruse 7 April 1986 US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA. Archive.org, Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Collection. Valadier became an officer, with temporary and honorary rank, in the RAMC.

 

Edit: Also look at the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Doctor https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Doctor for possible sources such as 

Edited by MaureenE
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Austin OConnor Lance-Corporal

Austin OConnor

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17 hours ago, Dave66 said:

Hello Austin, and welcome.

Trawled through the gazette using Glindon as the search, I did find him once (link below), in 1933, when his dental practice partnership was dissolved, but nothing military as far as I can see.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33983/page/6384

best of luck with your search,

Dave.

 

Hello Dave

Many thanks for this link. I had heard that my grandfather had had a dispute someone in his profession and maybe this had something to do with it !

BW AO’C

17 hours ago, Dave66 said:

Hello Austin, and welcome.

Trawled through the gazette using Glindon as the search, I did find him once (link below), in 1933, when his dental practice partnership was dissolved, but nothing military as far as I can see.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33983/page/6384

best of luck with your search,

Dave.

 

f

Many thanks for this link. I had heard that my grandfather had had a dispute someone in his profession and maybe this had something to do with it !

BW AO’C

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Austin OConnor Lance-Corporal

Austin OConnor

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14 hours ago, MaureenE said:

The following online account is perhaps not directly relevant,  but it does seem to indicate that there were  limited numbers of dentists in the British Army, in fact none in the early days.

General Haig's Dental Surgeon from Paris : Sir Auguste Charles Valadier, a Pioneer in Maxillo-Facial Surgery: A Historical Update by William P Cruse 7 April 1986 US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA. Archive.org, Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Collection. Valadier became an officer, with temporary and honorary rank, in the RAMC.

 

Edit: Also look at the FIBIS Fibiwiki page Doctor https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Doctor for possible sources such as 

Many thanks. A most interesting article on the Franco-American surgeon. I will also take my time running through the indices for which a I am also very grateful. 

BW

AO’C

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MaureenE Major-General

MaureenE

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Two online articles give some general background

"The first dentists sent to the Western Front during the First World War" by F S S Gray. British Dental Journal volume 222, pages 893–897 (2017)

https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2017.503

 

"An Outline of Dentistry in the British Army, 1626-1938 (Section of the History of Medicine)" by S. H. Woods . Proc R Soc Med. 1938 Dec; 32(2): 99–112.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997333/?page=1

 

Maureen

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charlie962 General

charlie962

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You might find more background in this thread of last year which also provides links to older threads and other articles. We haven't yet established if he had any overseas activity.

"Dental surgeons serving in the U.K. - Medical Services (Home and Abroad) - The Great War (1914-1918) Forum"

charlie

 

 

Edited by charlie962
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