corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 I've been a member of this forum for some time now, though I've put off creating a topic / requesting assistance as every time I think of doing so I am reminded in CAPITALS: BE SURE TO READ THIS Before you ask a question... So before I get to the point of posting, I head off to The Long, Long Trail which subsequently leads me nowhere. I am not fortunate enough to have subscriptions to a multitude of family research websites, nor do I have access to the national archive, as I am in Australia. I have very little information about my great grandfather, though here is what I have: Thomas Carter Born: 22 November 1890 Place: Devizes, Wiltshire, England Died: 27 June 1966 Place: Durban, Natal, South Africa I have searched this forum and the only reference I find to a "Thomas Carter" was in a post made by bernie on 28 November 2007 concerning 2 Panels in the Lynch Gate of St. James The Great, Cranham. He mentions Panel II upon which we find "And of our fifty who survived having served overseas in this war." Beneath this heading we find Thomas Carter. I am uncertain as to whether there is any correlation between this Thomas Carter and my great great grandfather. What is the significance of this memorial, and the mention of "of our fifty"? Does this signify a battalion, regiment or give any clue as to his identity? I might add that Thomas Carter lived and worked in India. He became a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on the 4th of June 1934. He served as Manager of the Government of India Press, New Delhi. I do not know how he came to be in India, though I believe the answer lies in his military records. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 DC The memorial at Cranham (is it the one near Upminster Essex ?), may show the list of those villagers who returned from the War. I have wishes that this was done in my village,I know that 100 went and 35 didn't come back,it would have been of value to know of the others in some way. Maybe the Cranham list has details of Battn.etc. But,before you put too much on this being your man,the name was very common. For instance,of the 30 % or so records that survived and now at Kew,there are 3 microfilm spools full of CARTER Thomas ! WO363/C616 and 617(part) have just the Thomas,and 617 (part) and 618 have Thomas with a second name. Are you sure that he didn't have a second name too ? You really have little to go on. Is it possible that you can do a 1901 census, and then a 1918 Absent Voters List check based on where he is shown to be in the 1901. Even this is long odds. I fear that you need to dig up more details before you can zero in on him. Good luck ! Best wishes Sotonmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Sotonmate, thanks for the prompt reply. The memorial is at St. James the Great Church, at Cranham, Gloucestershire. I haven't been there, only read of it in post here at the Great War Forum. I have his birth certificate, and there is no mention of a second name. Just Thomas Carter, son of Edward jacob Carter and Sarah Smith. I haven't got access to the 1901 census nor the Absent Voters List, though the 1891 census shows: 1891 census transcription details for: 36, Sheep Street, St Mary, Devizes National Archive Reference: RG number: RG12 Piece: 1600 Folio: 45 Page: 18 Reg. District: Devizes Sub District: Devizes Enum. District: 16 Ecclesiastical District: St Mary Parish: St Mary City/Municipal Borough: Devizes Address: 36, Sheep Street, St Mary, Devizes County: Wiltshire CARTER, Thomas Son M 0 (4M) Devizes Wiltshire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 BE SURE TO READ THIS Before you ask a question... So before I get to the point of posting, I head off to The Long, Long Trail which subsequently leads me nowhere. Ah. But have you headed off to read the recommended pages at the top of this page? If not, then you will soon find a very neat and concise guide about how to research a WW1 soldier. One of the difficulties you will immediately hit is that this is a common name. 660 men called Thomas, Tom or T Carter served abroad with the Army and have medal entitlement records listed on the National Archives website. There will be more who served with the navy or air services. He could be any of them. Without more information, you are looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack, although yuo would be able to whittle that list down by excluding men with a middle name and those listed by the War Graves Commission as having died. You're still going to have a long listand, as sotonmate points out only about 30% of service papers still survive so the odds of ever ID'ing him are not in yuor favour. However, best of luck with your quest. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Thanks ever so much for your prompt reply John, I did have a read through "Research a soldier" and as I have no regiment or number, no access to the absent voters list, my great grandfather didn't die in the war, and as I have no idea what unit he was in I have no way of knowing "what his unit was doing at the time". I have no photos of my great grandfather, nor do I own anything once belonging to my great grandfather. All I have are the details as above. I thank you for your response, and upon searching the National Archives, I found 262 results, all in the name of Thomas Carter - at £3.50 each, I can hardly afford purchasing and downloading each of those. Which is why I finally decided that I'd bite the proverbial bullet, and post upon your fine forum in the hope that I might find some information pertaining to my great grandfather Thomas Carter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 You state that his date of birth was November 1891 – should that read 1890? I ask because he is aged 4 months on the 1891 census which was taken on the night of 5th April 1891. The family have been mis-transcribed as “Cater” in the 1901 census. Living at 20, Maryport Street, Devizes, were Edward J Carter (47), his wife Sarah (47) and children Hy J Carter (23), Charles (22), Kate (19), William (15), Bertha (12), Tom (10), Jack (8), Florence (5) and Lily (2). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Tom Carter Relation to Head of Family Son Condition as to Marriage Sex M Age Last Birthday 10 Profession or Occupation Employment Status Where Born Devizes Wilts Language Infirmity Address 20 Maryport St Civil Parish Devizes St Mary The Virgin Rural District Town or Village or Hamlet Devizes Town Parliamentary Borough or Division Eastern Or Devizes Division Ecclesiastical Parish St John The Baptist With St Mary The Virgin Administrative County Wilts County Borough, Municipal Borough or Urban District Devizes Ward of Municipal Borough or Urban District South Ward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Don't be splashing out yer dollars to access the census - there's a huge number of Pals on the forum who have full access and are happy to do look ups for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 So besides the above, what additional information would assist in identifying Thomas Carter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 So besides the above, what additional information would assist in identifying Thomas Carter? Only as already covered, I'm afraid. All you have to go on is the hope that he was still living in Devizes at the time of the War and just afterwards. If so, he will be on the area's Absent Voters List. Assuming this still exists (probably at the County Records Office), then it will probably give his unit and service number. Alternatively, there will possibly be some mention of him in the local newspapers - perhaps enlisting, coming home on leave, being demobbed. Unfortunately, neither of these routes are easily available to you in Australia. It may be that you will have to employ some professional researcher in the UK. However, in the meantime, if you have Ancestry.com membership (or can borrow it from a friend), you could now search for his service papers (A - C has recently gone live). You would need to trawl through in the hope of finding sufficient papers still remaining that will identify next of kin. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Alright, so after speaking to my grandmother, here's what I have: 1st Battalion, Wilshire Regiment, Terratorial Armed Corps which later changed to the Tank Corps? Is she on the right track? /// Just had another family member confirm the "terratorial" portion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 DC Another little fact may have helped,but it might be distorted by Granny ! (No offence Granny !) I see from the Medal Index Cards in WO372/4 at the Archives Catalogue that there is a Thomas CARTER with the following data: 2287 Private Wiltshire Regiment 263679 Private Wiltshire Regiment 113146 Private Machine Gun Corps This is all on one card for one soldier. To me this means that he joined early on as 2287,and around 1917 his Bn soldiers were re-numbered. He then left and joined the MGC. The tank suggestion from Granny could have meant that he was a machine gunner in a tank or in a mechanised MG unit. The MIC is downloadable for 3.50. You will get the 3 others with the ref to the name Thomas,1 is also Wilts only,1 more is MGC and 1 is Berkshire. They will send all four for 3.50 Hope this gives a breakthrough of sorts ! Best wishes Sotonmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 The MIC is downloadable for 3.50. You will get the 3 others with the ref to the name Thomas,1 is also Wilts only,1 more is MGC and 1 is Berkshire. They will send all four for 3.50 Hope this gives a breakthrough of sorts ! Best wishes Sotonmate Thanks again Sotonmate. I have downloaded WO/372/4. I am reading "Interpreting Medal Index Cards" as we speak. Would it be considered copyright infringement if I were to upload the PDF I have downloaded? If so, I'll try and transcribe the information on the Medal Index Card. I can't thank you all enough for the assistance you've provided thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 DC Do you mean post the MIC here ? Members do it all the time. Put it up ! Sotonmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 DC Do you mean post the MIC here ? Members do it all the time. Put it up ! Sotonmate Max. single upload size: 100K. My MIC is 172KB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 2287 Private Wiltshire Regiment 263679 Private Wiltshire Regiment We may be getting somewhere - but there's something odd with the numbering. According to the mother site, the Wiltshire's only had one Territorial battalion - the 4th. But the TF numbering page only goes up as far as 225000 for it. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procat Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Max. single upload size: 100K. My MIC is 172KB. Hi, if you go here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx you can download the tool 'Image resizer'. Once you have saved an image to your computer right clicking on it will give you an option to 'Resize Pictures' with a number of size options. Works a treat. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Hi, if you go here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx you can download the tool 'Image resizer'. Once you have saved an image to your computer right clicking on it will give you an option to 'Resize Pictures' with a number of size options. Works a treat. Doug I have the file in PDF format. As an image it's well over 500KB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procat Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Do you also have a photography editing program of some sort? If so, copy the pdf to clipboard, use the editing program to save it as a jpeg. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 27 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 27 December , 2007 Do you also have a photography editing program of some sort? If so, copy the pdf to clipboard, use the editing program to save it as a jpeg. Doug Tried that, that's how I ended up with the 500KB file. Any smaller and the details on the MIC become illegible.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procat Posted 27 December , 2007 Share Posted 27 December , 2007 OK, If you have it as a jpeg, download the image resizing tool and resize the jpeg image. I just used it on a 1.8meg photo which it reduced to 80kb and kept the details intact. And that was resizing it to the largest size. Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrie_d Posted 28 December , 2007 Author Share Posted 28 December , 2007 Thomas Carter MIC I do believe Sotonmate has positively identified my great grandfather. I searched the British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 on Ancestry.com using Regiment Number: 113146 resulting in: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Not only does the Service Record mention his father Edward J Carter, living at 44 Sheep Street, Devizes, it also mentions his time spent in India. Thanks once more Sotonmate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 28 December , 2007 Share Posted 28 December , 2007 "Odd" service number is explained - it's actually 203679. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HERITAGE PLUS Posted 28 December , 2007 Share Posted 28 December , 2007 DC I was brought up in Devizes - my maternal grand-parents lived at 37 Sheep Street until 1960 when most of the street including their house was subject to compulsory purchase by the Borough Council and demolished to make way for blocks of flats. Maryport Street meets Sheep Street at a road junction. I have a copy of a map of the town of 1899 happy to send you a scan. Also my mother will have photos of the street as it was. I can arrange to scan them next time I see her (she lives some distance away from me). PM me your e-address if you are interested. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 28 December , 2007 Share Posted 28 December , 2007 DC Great ! So pleased that you have uncovered a bit more. Well done Granny too ! Best wishes Sotonmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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