Cheshire Regiment, Macclesfield

[Guest Margareti]

My Uncle Thomas Evans of Macclesfield lost an eye in WW1. He always told me that he lost it on barbed wire! But would never say anything more. I think he was in the Cheshire's as my father, his younger brother, joined them later in 1919/20. How can I find out about Uncle Tom?

[John_Hartley]

Welcome to the Forum.

The "Medal index cards" on-line at the National Archives records 28 men called Thomas Evans who served with the Cheshires. There may be more who are listed as Tom or, simply, T. So, without some more information, you might be looking for a needle in a smallish haystack. There is, of course, no guarantee that he did serve with the Chehsires although many men from Macclesfield will have done, at least in the arly part of the war.

One route for finding out about Tom would be to visit the National Archives to see if his service papers still survive. (about 30 - 40% do).

The other route would be to trawl the local Macclesfield newspapers. There may well have been mention of him being wounded. There are at least a couple of Forum members who live in Macc and may well have additional thoughts. It might be worth you amending the thread title to include the town name to draw their attention to it.

For a more general read, click onthe Long Long Trail link (top of the page) and read the research section.

John