mbenne
master brummie
I wonder if someone could throw some light on my GFs half brother Norman William Gerald Smith. I recently learned that there may be some record of him in WW1 collections. Unfortunately trying to find someone with this surname could be tricky!
I have no information on his rank or regiment, only that he was in the army. Nor do I know if he enlisted or was conscripted. Of his two half brothers one joined the RFA in 1915 and the other was called up in 1917 and joined the Worcestershire Regiment. I wondered whether the regiment he joined would be dictated by where he lived at the time? He was a clerk for all of his working life and I was told that when he was in the army he and his fiancé communicated in shorthand. Maybe he was in the Army Service Core?
I know that he was reported as 'missing in action'. My GGM found this hard to accept and had a premonition he was still alive. At some point he was found in a (German ?)field hospital and was barely recognisable, having been fed on a diet of pea water and black bread. He had been wounded in the hip by a dum dum bullet. The wound never healed and he was frequently bed ridden when the wound erupted.
I have birth, death and burial certs for him but have so far been unable to find his military records. He was born in Birmingham 1894, appears on the 1911 census, Occupation Clerk and is living with his mother and step father (William Jarman)at Boulton Road Handsworth. I have seen his name appear in various searches as Norman William, Norman William Gerald. He married in 1922,died of TB in 1932 and is buried in Handsworth cemetery.
Just finding his regiment and service number would be a great help and will be the final piece in the family jigsaw, having recently located his wife in an asylum and his children in an orphanage!
I have no information on his rank or regiment, only that he was in the army. Nor do I know if he enlisted or was conscripted. Of his two half brothers one joined the RFA in 1915 and the other was called up in 1917 and joined the Worcestershire Regiment. I wondered whether the regiment he joined would be dictated by where he lived at the time? He was a clerk for all of his working life and I was told that when he was in the army he and his fiancé communicated in shorthand. Maybe he was in the Army Service Core?
I know that he was reported as 'missing in action'. My GGM found this hard to accept and had a premonition he was still alive. At some point he was found in a (German ?)field hospital and was barely recognisable, having been fed on a diet of pea water and black bread. He had been wounded in the hip by a dum dum bullet. The wound never healed and he was frequently bed ridden when the wound erupted.
I have birth, death and burial certs for him but have so far been unable to find his military records. He was born in Birmingham 1894, appears on the 1911 census, Occupation Clerk and is living with his mother and step father (William Jarman)at Boulton Road Handsworth. I have seen his name appear in various searches as Norman William, Norman William Gerald. He married in 1922,died of TB in 1932 and is buried in Handsworth cemetery.
Just finding his regiment and service number would be a great help and will be the final piece in the family jigsaw, having recently located his wife in an asylum and his children in an orphanage!
