HELP WANTED PLEASE

[Astoness]

i know we have some pretty good experts on the war on the forum so could anyone help to work out what all this means on my uncles card..looking at other bits of info i have i think he was in the medical reserves but i dont understand what all the numbers etc mean on this card other info i have tells me he served in persia and iraq and that he joined up for 6 years in 1938 but actually came out after 7 years...thanks for any help

lyn

 

[Tinpot]

i know we have some pretty good experts on the war on the forum so could anyone help to work out what all this means on my uncles card..looking at other bits of info i have i think he was in the medical reserves but i dont understand what all the numbers etc mean on this card other info i have tells me he served in persia and iraq and that he joined up for 6 years in 1938 but actually came out after 7 years...thanks for any help

lyn

View attachment 177015

I think it is a Pension Record. It details each deployment date and with which company he was attached possibly? These military records are really difficult so I hope someone with more expertise can help you out.

 

[pjmburns]

Lyn there is an example of a tracer card lìke this with some explanation here

Deciphering the WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards - Ancestry UK Blog

To mark the update to the WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards collection, we asked Simon Pearce, military specialist at Ancestry ProGenealogists to offer his advice on how to decode the records and why they are such an important resource for family history research. About the Royal Artillery...

blogs.ancestry.co.uk

 

[Penns]

I think RHU is Reinforcement Holding Unit. They were formed after 1944 so that coincides with date next to RHU

WW2 Abbreviations and Acronyms | Researching the Lives and Records of WW2 Soldiers

https://www.researchingww2.co.uk/ww2-abbreviations-acronyms/

Reinforcement Holding Unit | Researching the Lives and Records of WW2 Soldiers

https://www.researchingww2.co.uk/reinforcement-holding-unit/

 

[Astoness]

thanks all....i shall have a better look at the links provided but it all looks very confusing to me forgot to say that i do have uncle berts record book etc as he kept it and it was kept by family when he died in the 70s

lyn

 

[ChrisM]

Lyn, that link provided by Janice looks very useful and virtually confirms that this was called a "Tracer Card" and supplemented a man's personal Record. The link tells us about Royal Artillery records: the example there looks so similar to yours and even mentions "Bty" (="Battery") here and there that you feel that Bert did have a R.A. connection of some sort. (Although this type of card might of course have been in more general use throughout the Army - perhaps someone could tell us). It's deciphering the often abbreviated unit names which is critical, it seems to me, and establishing what those units were up to at any particular time.

It looks sensible not to get bogged down in some of the other strange numbers and references. All the ones like xxx/44 clearly mean that this entry is no. xxx on some 1944 registry list and doesn't appear to have much relevance to the individual's personal history.

Keep us posted!

Chris

 

[Astoness]

hi chris many thanks...uncle bert has been a mystery to me for some time now...i cant find a birth for him...i cant find anyone near close to the name of his dad he has put on his marriage cert march 1950...i just cant find him anywhere before the 1950 e rolls when in was in birmingham..his medical card says albert e howard dob 31st july 1912..army record shows him as albert edward howard dob 31st july 1911 (so a years difference) his death cert say albert edwin howard dob 31st july 1912..marriage cert says albert edwin howard and gives his fathers name as arthur william howard occupation engineers fitter..

i knew uncle bert up until his death in 1970 and he definately had an accent which could have been from the norfolk/norfolk area...note he joined up in norwich...family story has it that he used to be a bare knuckle fighter going around the circuses and that he also had another family somewhere...

i am now thinking that maybe he was taken in by someone at a young age and took on the name of howard..

i can post the other bits of service records but im not sure it would help me find him before 1950...as said if of interest i can post the other info i have...he and aunt joan never had children so there is no one left to ask now

lyn

 

[pjmburns]

That card is on Ancestry listed as an Artillery tracer card.
The first date seems to be on the right in 1942 and ends with his transfer to the Reserve in 1946.
Pity the entries don't seem to be written in a nice neat order.
Will look more later.

 

[Astoness]

here are 3 more pages from his record book..note there is no mother or fathers name as next of kin but at the bottom of the page other relations it just says mrs ellis and to the left of that it looks like it says aunt..

another page gives his training and the dates..not sure if its just me but it looks like some info underneath has been erased..?

other page tells us what he did

just one more thing on his death cert where it asks where born it is blank and no matter how hard i try i just cant find anything for him prior to 1950