Granville Joseph Pompeus

[mbriscoe]

This caught my eye whilst looking for something in the newspaper archive.

Not on the CWGC site as far as I can see (unless different spelling) but cannot be many WWI casualties from Ceylon.  I sent an EMail to the Friends of Sri Lanka, to make sure they were aware.

 

 

Quote

 

Hendon & Finchley Times - Friday 13 May 1921

DEATH AT GOLDERS GREEN.
WOUNDED CINGALESE SOLDIER.
 The estate office of Mr. Ernest of Golders Green has been deprived of the services of young and promising member of the staff the death at 16, Portsdown avenue. on Saturday, of Granville Joseph Pompeus. He passed away, after a week’s illness, from bronchitis and influenza, at the age of 25.
The deceased, whose home it as Ambanpitya, Kegalle, Ceylon, had been at Golders Green about two years, being engaged by clerk in Mr. Owers’s office under the Government training scheme. He left Ceylon for the purpose of serving in His Majesty’s Forces, and went overseas in 1915. Being gassed and suffering from wounds, he received his discharge, but with real British pluck took the earliest opportunity of re-joining the R.A.F. Unfortunate in being involved a crash, was for the second time deemed unfit for further service, but upon recovering from his injuries he enlisted once more, again being seriously wounded.
He had shown great aptitude for the work in the estate office, and had proved very popular with his colleagues. In Golders Green, too, had in a short time, made a number friends, and had joined the Golders Green Club.
The Rev. Father O’Gorman, D.D.. rector of St. Edward’s Catholic Church, Golders Green, will officiate at the funeral, which takes place to day (Friday) at Kensal Green,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BarbaraG]

A family tree on Ancestry has his photograph (wearing his SWB on his lapel ?)

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/153220244/person/362212288147/facts

His Attestation Papers can be found on Ancestry

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/558283:1114

Also Medal Roll and details for SWB.

Details from TNA which may be accessible on Find my Past

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8216672

Edited 17 February by BarbaraG

[mbriscoe]

Thanks, I thought it probably be known abut sometimes stories get overlooked.

 

 

[PaulC78]

Two periods of service with the Army:

Pte 4971 1st London Regiment, 24/09/1915 to 27/12/1916, discharged due to sickness.

Pte G/96198 5th Middlesex Regiment, 01/08/1917 to 04/01/1919, discharged due to sickness.

The service record linked above states that he died from influenza on 07/05/1921, though I don't see any detail about the cause of either discharge.

He was also a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, TNA have an additional file which has not been digitised:

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1173551

[Matlock1418]

19 hours ago, PaulC78 said:

Pte 4971 1st London Regiment, 24/09/1915 to 27/12/1916, discharged due to sickness.

Pte G/96198 5th Middlesex Regiment, 01/08/1917 to 04/01/1919, discharged due to sickness.

The service record linked above states that he died from influenza on 07/05/1921, though I don't see any detail about the cause of either discharge.

He was also a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, TNA have an additional file which has not been digitised:

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1173551

His only pension record at WFA/Fold3 - an unspecified disability claim pension index card - is as a ranker [Rather looks like he had the additional number of 90045]

Image thanks to WFA/Fold3

A short pension award of 27/6 pw from 5.1.19 to 5.8.19 was the 100% disability rate for a pension Class V serviceman/Pte or Air Mechanic under the 1918 Royal Warrant]

M

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

A curious sequence of events.
His records have an entry to hospital for TB Lung in February 1916, less than a month after landing in France, which isn't mentioned in his pension record.
So discharged as unfit, but then fit enough to join RAF, but later discharged as unfit due the accident? Or transferred back to the army?

22 hours ago, PaulC78 said:

TNA have an additional file which has not been digitised:

Yes it has, but only consists of half a dozen entries between 1/8/1917 - 23/10/1917, when it looks as though he was sent back to what looks like "7th (R) Bn., London Regt.)"

(Image courtesy National Archives.)

He wasn't in service at the time of his death was he?

In which case trying to link the cause of his death (influenza & bronchitis) to the cause of any of his discharges, preferably the last one will be difficult, as that cause as far as I can see is undocumented.
 

Edited 18 February by Dai Bach y Sowldiwr

[PaulC78]

47 minutes ago, Dai Bach y Sowldiwr said:

Yes it has...

That's a separate file. TNA have three records:

AIR 76/407/79 which you posted above, also on Ancestry (mistranscribed as Pompens) and FMP.

AIR 79/817/90045 which is on FMP: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBM%2FAIR79%2F319646

WO 339/119730 which like all officer records has not been digitised.

3 hours ago, Matlock1418 said:

[Rather looks like he had the additional number of 90045]

That was his RFC number according to the above record on FMP.

[sanctuarywood]

Thank you for sharing. He doesn't appear on any war memorials in Sri Lanka, including the Ceylonese war memorial at Borella Cemetery, but he makes an appearance on the (incomplete) nominal roll prepared by the Times of Ceylon.