Captain A F Ray

[Guest Howard Ray]

Has anyone come across a Captain A.F.Ray in their research? All I know is that he left the Army in April 1919, aged 27, as a Captain, had at some time served in the Kings African Rifles and according to his obituary written in 1951 held the MM.

To complicate matters he seems to have used differing Christian names at various times in his life. He was born Augustus Frank, was known in the family as Gus and at various times seems to have been known as Frank and Jack.

He was in Basingstoke (North Hampshire) in 1910 and arrived in Jersey in 1922 where he stayed with his wife, Catherine Alyce, for the rest of his life.

Any leads gratefully received.

Howard Ray

[John_Hartley]

Howard

You should be able to fimnd some reference to him on the London Gazette website. There should be at least a couple. One will be the listing for his MM (before he became an officer). Other should be when he was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to Lieutenant and then again when promoted to Captain.

You may well have to play with the search facility but start by entering the name as A. F. Ray (don't forget the spaces and periods). It won't give you much info, buit it's a start.

John

[rflory]

I can not find an 'A Ray', 'A F Ray', or an 'F Ray' in a 1915, 1916, 1917 or 1918 Army List. Regards. Dick Flory

[Guest Howard Ray]

John

Thank you so very much for making me aware of the London Gazette site. I have spent the last three evenings trawling through the possible options and reviewing the "hits", which is why I didn't respond immediately.

I am quite excited about the possibility that G.F.Ray (232270), who I have found tonight, might be my man (assuming that he used Gus rather than Augustus (who can blame him) as his first name. From the little I know about my great uncle the references to this guy having been awarded the MM as an NCO in the edition of 21/8/1917 and eventually becoming an acting captain makes sense as does the fact that he was with the London Regiment.

I am sorry to impose on your time and generosity but can you possibly suggest anything I can now do to find out more about this particular individual? Are there any London Regiment records I can tap? Does the PRO hold anything which would help?

Howard Ray

[John_Hartley]

Howard

If you click the link to The Long Long Trail (top left of this page) and look up "researching grandad", you'll get some very good info about what might be possible. Certainly PRO will hold a medal index card (you might have to do a trawl to find the right chap, but at least he is not a Smith). PRO on-line catalogue (PROCAT) should also identify if there's a file on him (as an officer). Full of really intersting info (I had a few to look at the other week) - won't give you full details of his service, but well worth a look. There are, presumably, also War Diaries for his Battalion of the KAR, which may well mention him by name (officers get mentioned, other ranks rarely). If you can find his file, it's likely to contain info - such as addresses or next-of-kin which might enable you to corroborate his identity from family info.

Good hunting

John