Royal Field Artillary

[Sharonp]

Hello,

How do I find anymore info on my Graet uncle who serve with the RFA in the ww1.

His name was William A Oxford, L/33943 which i got from the medal roll, but now i would like to get some more in dept info but i do not no where to start.

Any help would be really welcome.

Thank you Sharon.

[rflory]

Sharon: About the only thing I can tell you is that the L" in his regimental number indicates that he enlisted in one of the "Locally Raised" New Army brigade, Royal Field Artillery. These brigades ranged from 150 Brigade, RFA to 190 Brigade, RFA. Regards. Dick Flory

[Chris_Baker]

Sharon

Have you tried to find his service record at the National Archives?

[Sharonp]

rflory

Thanks,

That is very helpful, your are very kind.

Sharon

[Sharonp]

Sharon

Have you tried to find his service record at the National Archives?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Sharonp]

Dear Chris,

Not as yet I did not think they have the records from ww1.

Thanks for your help.

Sharon.

[Chris_Baker]

Sharon: the National Archives hold all the surviving service records of soldiers of the British Army of WW1.

Quoting myself from The Long, Long Trail website,

"By 1940 the regimental files had been brought together into one vast archive. Unfortunately that archive was destroyed by a fire resulting from Luftwaffe bombing. Those files that were not burned were mostly smoke or water damaged. For many years they were not accessible to the public. However, a project to microfilm the surviving records is now completed and all such records are available for you to see at the National Archives. They are called the Burnt Series papers, and are held in the WO363 classification. Microfilming and the damage has meant that in many cases the papers are not too legible. Some files contain only fragments of papers.

Luckily, two sets of files had been extracted from the main archive, for pensions and other purposes. They have survived as the Unburnt Series WO364, with an additional sample in the Ministry of Pensions file PIN26. They relate to men who had been discharged to pension (but it does not follow that if Grandad got a pension he is in here), and therefore do not in theory contain any files relating to soldiers who died. Generally the legibility of these papers is better than the Burnt ones.

The papers are not on-line. You have to search through the films at the National Archives".

I would say this is a 100% must for you.

[Sharonp]

Hi Chris,

Once again thank you, sorry but ive just remembered you did the research for me on my Grandfather Walter Mcgee Oxford, RE. you are a star and the reaserch you did was absolutly amazing. I used the War diary write up you did when i went to Ypres recently and it came in very handy.

Thanks again

Sharon.

[Aaron Nelson]

Hi Sharon,

I have just recently completed researching the service record of my Great Grandfather who served in the RFA.

The first peice of info you really need is what RFA Brigade he was attached to. then you can trace that units service with the divisions they supported during the war. You could also order the war diary of that Brigade. I was lucky, we had a copy of Great Grandads paybook which had his Brigade listed as 330. I then traced the service of that unit and ordered the diary.

This is how I did it and I managed to put together a pretty detailed day by day account of what Great grandpop got up to.

Hope thats helpful.

regards Aaron.