Frank Jabez Meades, 7KRRC, KIA 4/7/15.

[FROGSMILE]

3 hours ago, Teresa Eade said:

Good afternoon,

Would anyone be able to confirm that this is Frank Jabez Meades in his uniform, it would be great to get confirmation, thank you, Teresa

If that is definitely from among your family photos, Teresa, then ostensibly there’s a high probability it is him, as the outline shape of his cap badge, plus his black buttons would be correct for a KRRC soldier.  If you’re not sure that it’s a family photo, then you need to keep in mind what Mark has said about the several other regiments whose insignia looks very similar from a distance.

Edited 14 December , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[MBrockway]

3 hours ago, corisande said:

Many thanks Corisande 

[sadbrewer]

8 hours ago, corisande said:

Many thanks corisande!!

[Teresa Eade]

Thanks all for the information 

[Teresa Eade]

I was just wondering, and hoping, that there would have been photos taken of the regiment perhaps before they were shipped out, or was that not the case

[Regan Meades]

Hi Teresa! Thank you for this thread. Frank is my Great Great Grandad and I too have heard of the Enemy Sniper story. Funnily enough Frank was admitted to military hospital in Aldershot, which happens to be where I first got posted when I joined the British Army. Some new and very detailed information about Frank within this thread so interesting find out more about him. 

[MBrockway]

The trench map and 14th Div daily report I posted in Jan 2023 higher up had stopped displaying correctly.

I've now corrected this and you should be able to see both again.

Cheers,

Mark

[Matlock1418]

On 21/01/2023 at 15:47, Teresa Eade said:

I’m hoping to find out some more information about my great grandfather Frank Jabez Meades who was killed on 4th July 1915. He was part of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps 7th Battallion.

Teresa, I note it has been a few weeks since you last visited, but only a few weeks, so hope you you will be returning to GWF

3 hours ago, Regan Meades said:

Hi Teresa! Thank you for this thread. Frank is my Great Great Grandad

Regan, Welcome to GWF.

For you both: As was mentioned earlier in the thread there are pension records for his dependants

Image thanks to the Western Front Association / Fold3

Of course, there was a sad aftermath - his widow made an initial claim for a war pension for herself and for a pension allowance(s) for her three children under the prevailing Royal Warrant [which in this case would initially have been the 1915 RW] - Article 11 [widow] and Article 12 [child(ren)]. .  There are Pension Index Cards at the Western Front Association/Fold3 [unfortunately a rather less commonly visited source of info] - this is probably the most informative

Much is probably self-explanatory but a few interpretations for you and to help avoid potential mis-interpretations:

This pension index card was in the soldier’s name and there is another briefer card in the widow’s name so they could be cross-referenced/accessed.  These came from/lead to a ledger page(s) via the claim case references and then to an awards file. Unfortunately, the initial ledger appears lost [probably destroyed] and the awards file probably deliberately destroyed once its use was passed [as was the common case]

Form 104-88 received  = Death notification of a married man sent from the man’s Record Office to the War Office.

Date of notification of death: It is rather unclear as to whom this notification was being made but one might think it is likely to his widow

Form 104-76 received = Declaration made by the Widow of a Soldier in support of claim to pension for herself and children

Date of birth: 21.112.90 = his widow’s - required because her pension could be age-related/supplemented if she was >35 [which she obviously was not]. Such an age banding of pension is believed to address the less likely possibility of re-marriage with increasing age.

The standard pension initially paid to his widow was 20/6 per week from 17.1.16 [there usually was an approx. six-month gap between death and paying of a pension [to allow six months for any presumption of death and for calculation] - in the meantime standard Separation Allowances continued to be paid – so, unlike what many observers think when they first see such a card, there was not a complete absence of monies in the intervening period]. 

1915 RW 10/- pw for a widow <35y plus increments of 5/0 [60d], 3/6 [42d], 2/- [24d] pw respectively for the children = 20/6 pw. 

The child(ren)'s allowance(s) were paid to their mother, typically until they reached 16 when such payments ceased [occasionally up to 21 if they were in some form of further vocational training or sometimes if they had impairment/disability] - then the child(ren) would certainly be expected to go out to work to earn their keep. Or paid until the earlier death of a child. Hence their recorded dates.

She may also perhaps have got a £3 Grant - though usual to see on such a grant on a card we cannot see a grant here, perhaps she did not claim/receive it ?? = a grant to cover urgent expenses arising from her husband's death - often for mourning dress [though worn less at that time of the war], sometimes for moving home [typically downsizing as she would no longer be expected to keep a home in the same level of comfort as her husband might have expected had he returned!] - commonly used for local newspaper death notice inserts [these quite often had a photo = so a good place to search, e.g at British Newspaper Archive or through Find my Past]

Image from 'War Pensions & Allowances' by Hogge & Garside, p.266 - thanks to Internet Archive, www.archive.org

Noted for Novel i.e. special treatment/calculation required.

S.A. means Separation Allowance - A portion of a soldier's pay which was matched by the government and sent to his dependants to make sure they were not left destitute while he was on active service.  SA were often slightly more generous than pensions and children’s allowances because a wife had to maintain a home in the same level of comfort as before ready for her husband’s return whilst a widow did not have such a need and costs – after all, apparently, she could then cut back and down-size her home!  Typically, the No. for whom SA is paid on the card reflected the number of children – as we can see here

50F = Form 50F used to cease the Separation Allowance and start the pension.

I think the WDG669 was possibly a certificate identity number to allow for the collection of the pension and allowances from a Post Office - but I am rather more cautious about that.

The printer's marks at the bottom show the printing dates [3/15] and large numbers [batch of 20,000] of these index cards sadly required to be used to help manually administer pensions using ledgers and files [by a small army of pension clerks, most of them female - No computers in those days!].

There a few other pensions admin annotations but probably not now of much significance really.

I hope of interest/value to you both

• Images of many other PIC and PL available by subscription at the Western Front Association https://www.westernfrontassociation.com [highly recommended since for relatively low cost membership the WFA site offers good insight into pensions and pension records and it offers so much more as well - I think it is good value!] and/or by subscription to Fold3.

His widow would later typically get the balance of her late husband’s pay/’Effects’ and a War Gratuity [based on the length of his War Service] – possibly through a soldier’s Will or as NoK - But surely those, like her relatively small pension wouldn’t have really made up for the loss of a husband and father – See the Army’s Register of Soldiers’ Effects [RoSE = A financial ledger - From the National Army Museum now typically available via Ancestry]. You may be able to access this or another member might perhaps supply for discussion [I can't access]

M

 

Edited 23 April by Matlock1418

[Teresa Eade]

That is very interesting information thank you for posting that.

It must have been very hard coping with three very young children and with Ellen Louisa at a very young age too, also she didn’t marry again either, very sad for them all