Granddad’s records arrived today.

[Tony Lund]

I have just received my Grandfather’s service records and I am very lucky to have them. It is clear that they have been burnt at the corners, somebody put out that fire just in time. I haven’t had a chance to go through every sheet properly yet but already I have a interesting incident in what appears to be a court martial for smoking on a petrol boat, not a good idea even today. I am curious about the punishments, it looks like it was reduced to 3 months Number 1. He was an experienced man with teams of horses and was promoted the following year. The incident on the records took place in Egypt.

Tony.

I will have to do this in two bits.

[Tony Lund]

Second bit.

Tony.

[SPotter]

Tony,

The original sentence passed down appears to have been 6 months Imprisonment with Hard Labour, though this does seem excessively harsh. Then again the consequences of his action could have been disastrous!! This sentence was revoked and replaced by 3 months of Field Punishment No.1. See the mother site, "The Long, Long Trail" for details of what this would entail.

Regards

Steve

[Patrick H]

Interesting that he put in a plea of not guilty, although I believe if a man did not have representation that was an automatic plea put in by the Court. Whilst the sentence was harsh I wouldn't like to have been the guy standing next to him when he lit up on a petrol lighter !! And I'm a smoker !!

Patrick

[NIGEL]

Can i ask---how did you get hold of his papers???---can anybody do this and how much does it cost???????

thanks

Nigel

[Guest sunny6128]

so good

[Tony Lund]

I rooted through the National Archives website and found a reference number for service records in the name required and then I emailed the National Archives. They told me to email another department which I did, and they asked for £10 which I sent them. After a couple of weeks the postman brought me a large A3 size envelope containing 18 sheets, 15 had some information on them, most showed signs of being burnt around the edges. Some parts are damaged and unreadable but I have now acquired an amazing amount of information, even the names of the ships which took him to France, Salonica, Egypt and home.

I think it is very much a case of pure luck how much survived. I imagine the box next to his would have been destroyed.

Just pure luck so it is worth a try.

Tony.

[Tony Lund]

I received this from the NA, it has the website and email address. Although it talks of an estimate, so far I have only been charged the £10 I was first asked for. Unless there is a bill in the post, but that seems unlikely. They do seem to charge up front for everything else. However, here is what they sent me:

Thank you for contacting The National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA).

If you wish to buy a copy online, please note that we make an initial charge for the work of providing an estimate, which is absorbed into the cost of the copy if you then choose to take up the estimate.

To order an estimate, go to http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/recordcopying/. Please read the instructions, and then fill in the Estimate Order Form.

The Records Copying Department aims to complete your estimate within ten working days of receipt of payment, although they cannot guarantee that documents will be immediately available for estimating purposes.

If you have any enquiries about your order, please email the Record Copying Department at recordcopyingenquiries@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

[Tony Lund]

It seems he was in Egypt in the first place because of an illness in Salonica. It seems he was sent to Egypt by hospital ship (Valdivia?) and after he recovered he was sent to the base there while waiting to return to his unit in Salonica. Obviously he will have been put to work there. This explains what a horse-wagon driver was doing on a petrol lighter. He was returned to duty after 3 months Number 1 Field Punishment minus 16 days remitted, and then the fun began. He left Alexandria on the Cestreain? on the 20-5-17 and arrived back in Salonica on the 30-5-17. He then sailed from Salonica on the Menominee on 31-5-17 and arrived back where he started from on 4-6-17, coincidentally, this was the ship that had first taken him from Marseilles to Salonica. I can only assume that orders transferring him arrived in Salonica while he was away in Egypt and never managed to catch up with him. Also if you look at the dates and notice the time actually at sea you will see that it took 10 days to get there and only 4 days to get back. I am guessing that the journey to Salonica involved a few stops at various other bases, on the Greek Islands maybe, wherever he was he managed a 14 day Mediterranean cruise, not too bad really.

Tony.