My grandfather has recently died leaving behind fascinating accounts of his time during ww2. I know he was in the Royal Signals (UK), and served in africa as a despatch rider before being posted to Burma with the Gurkhas to fight in the far east. He finshed the war at the rank of RSM, Royal Signals.
Unfortunately he left a lot of material momentos behind, none of which are very helpful; he left us his gun, motorcycle, a Kukri and an Iron Cross (I'm not sure I want to know how he got it...) along with several other bits and pieces, but no written records.
Is there any way I can trace his legacy and find out more about him as an individual? Although he was no more a hero than any of the other millions who fought in that conflict (on both sides), I think his a pretty interesting account of the war and I'd like to know more.
2006-06-12 06:04:06 · 5 answers · asked by DaveyMcB 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
Contact the Army Personnel Centre, Kentigern House, 65 Brown St, Glasgow G2 8EX 0141 224 2822
They hold military records for servicemen who left the service after 1921. It costs £25 for a servicemans file. Expensive really since records for those discharged before 1921 are free to look at at the National Archives in Kewm but still a fantastic thing to have and a great source of information. Having something like this really brings to life a persons career.
Depending on what they have in the file you can find out dates, places he was posted to, attestation papers, discharge papers etc etc
2006-06-12 08:46:25 · answer #1 · answered by Gemma C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They probably have some sort of veteran's organization over there in the UK that should be of help. You can also try contacting the VA (Veteran's Administration) and see what they say about getting information from there as well. Good luck and I hope they can be of help. Something else you may want to do with all of the information is to compile it all together and put it into some sort of an order and see about publishing it. I know there are lots of people that go for books like that and you could dedicate it to the memory of your grandfather
2006-06-12 13:11:49 · answer #2 · answered by Julie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the best bet is to get his exact unit/bregade/troop he served with find out his rank and find out what they were doing and when by looking through history records from libaries/historians/internet. You should better hurry up if you want to see if there are witness acounts of people knowing ur grandfather. research is required, it would probibly be the easiest if you found a world war 2 historian and showed them what you got.
2006-06-12 13:16:11 · answer #3 · answered by RangerDave 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Family is the best resource. Then there are family tree sights that might help. Also, consider if you know of any of his friends...both from the army and out of the army.
2006-06-12 13:09:26 · answer #4 · answered by jmmevolve 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Email me
2006-06-12 14:31:53 · answer #5 · answered by thecharleslloyd 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋