How do I find this soldier

[Swally]

Guys,

I have an uncle John Smith Allan from Aberdeen and I can find no trace of him after the 1901 Census. He was born in 1891 and as I know that 2 of his brothers served during the Great War I wonder if he did too. I can find no record of him in the CWWG site (thus he must have survived) and no record of his death in Scotland upto 1954 (meaning he either relocated in England or elsewhere).

I have managed to find a MI card and there is only one John Smith Allan in the whole lot, his regiment number is 15227 when he was a private, it looks as though he was promoted to Second Lieutenant.

My query is how do I find out if this is my man?

Best Regards,

Swally

[Coldstreamer]

Hello

you could see if the officers papers are available at the National Archives (NA). If they are , it should answer your questions.

If you can provide the file reference number for the NA then perhaps some one here will look for you - it would only take 5 minutes of their time as if you have the file number then you only get that officers papers - if only you could do that for the other ranks

The CWGC site isnt 100% perfect - it does have ommissions and spelling mistakes but was done all by hand and they did have a HUGE project

Ian

[nilis11]

Hi Swally,

Soldiers died have no record of a John Smith Allan, not as a private or as an officer so it seems he might have survived. However, there is a 2/lt (TP) John Steele Allan listed as KIA on 12/10/1916 whilst serving with the Royal Scots Fusiliers. related?

Good hunting

Niels

[jhill]

I notice there was a John Smith Allan with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Unfortunately, his Attestation Paper is one of the few which is not yet available on-line, so we cannot easily find his place of birth. From his regimental number (177560), we can deduce that he probably enlisted with the 87th Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards) in Montreal in the first part of November, 1915. The 87th served with the 4th Canadian Division overseas. Their War Diaries are on-line, but, of course, will probably not refer to individuals by name. If you want to take a flyer I suppose you could spend a few bucks getting his service file from Ottawa. It might not be the right fellow, though!

Just thinking out loud.