Pte 315675 W.W. Catlin Tank Corps looking for photographs

[10thlad]

Hello all, 

I was wondering whether there was a way to find a picture of my Great Great Great Uncle Walter. 
I have been looking for service records on The National Archives but to no avail, therefore I do not know his battalion. 
I have a picture of him in the 40s I would suppose and I thought I may be able to find his tank crew and a picture of him? 
If any of you could point in a direction of possible service records I would be most in debt to you.

Pte Catlin, Walter William 

Regimental Number-315675 

Corps/Regiment- Royal Tank Corps 

Battalion-Unknown 

He was born 14th July 1898 in Ilkeston Derbyshire and he died 26th March 1962 in Nottingham. 
His brother did infact serve and I think that there may be an image of the two surfacing around. 
His brother would have been Pte Catlin, Henry George 116623 Sherwood Foresters 6th Btn when he joined and was in the 10th Btn when he was killed. 
The photo shall follow, 

Thank you all, 

Happy new year

[johntaylor]

Hi 10thlad, I'm afraid this isn't going to be easy. The medal records sometimes indicate a tank battalion, but not in his case.  Other people know much more about numbering than I do, but he seems to be in a late sequence (or may possibly have been renumbered), which may suggest he joined one of the new battalions formed during the expansion of the Tank Corps towards the end of the war. However this is just supposition. I couldn't find any mention of him in the service records or medical records, and he's not in the post-war Royal Tank Corps enlistment records or the Tank Corps Book of Honour.

The wartime photo you have may throw up some clues, but beyond that it's down to luck - he may crop up in a list of names somewhere in a War Diary or other record, but there's no systematic way of checking these.

Sorry not be more help,

John

 

[10thlad]

Hi John 

Thanks for the pointers this card and the log book was really the only place I had found any information. 
I think most of his papers may have been kept in the family. I’ll have to ask his great grandson or someone like that. 
Cheers, 

10thLad

[johntaylor]

Hi, those are the medal records which I looked at, but unfortunately they don't tell us much.

There's a useful website which analyses army service numbers - this suggests numbers in this range were issued late in the war, often to men who were transferred in from a Training Reserve battalion: https://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-tank-corps-enlistments-1916-1919.html

315000 to 315999
315834 William Henry Barton, joined on 20/09/1918; formerly TR/5/131516 86 TR Bn
Howard Williamson notes men with numbers in this range are transfers-in from Training Reserve battalions.

If this is the case he may have joined too late to see active service with a tank battalion, but this is far from certain. The best thing to do is ask around the family for any documents, photos etc. and post them on here. If there are any clues at all, someone will know how to interpret them.

Good luck,

John