On the search: Military records

Following my recent research for my great grandfather, William, the next stage was to find his military records.

You may remember if you have been following the story, that so far, I found William in the 1921 census on service with the Army in Farnborough.

Address snippet army barracks 1921 census

Knowing that William was in the Army, in Farnborough in 1921 and that he was in Lancashire in 1922 where he married Nellie, my great grandmother – the search for his military records seemed the logical way to find out why he was in Lancashire. However, finding his military record was not easy due to his common surname, Lawrence, but at last I did find his record.

This image below shows that William was due for transfer from the Royal Welch Fusiliers in August 1922, but as his record shows, the transfer was cancelled.

Helpfully, the page has been marked as Page 45 – which led me to find William’s service record details:

William transferred to the regular army (not Royal Welsh/Welch Fusiliers) and eventually rejoined the East Lancashire corps.

23 August 1922 Shrewsbury	Re-enlisted into regular Army Dis[charged] Para 144 TAR
08 May 1925 Shrewsbury	Dis[charged] Para 363 (XVIA) RR

XVIA (or xvia) is the code meaning that he was surplus to military requirements having suffered impairment since entry into the service. William was discharged in 1925. ¹

Also in the records, the name of William’s father is noted as a Thomas Paddock – which is strange as I do not have this person in my records. Who was Thomas Paddock? William’s father was called Oswell Lawrence as noted on William’s marriage certificate. Another query and puzzle to solve.

Taking stock of what I now know, William’s movement from Farnborough to Lancashire now makes more sense. He transferred and met Nellie and they were married in 1922. Just exactly how they met would still be a mystery, but at least the reason behind the move to Lancashire has been answered.

My next task is to investigate the India story – just to recap, my grandfather always insisted that his mother Nellie, travelled to India to see William whilst he was serving in the Army. Given that in 1925 William was discharged due to ‘impairment’ as noted above in the transfer records, it must have been before this date. So, we have a potential window between 1922 and 1925 where this could have happened.

My search continues!

Blogs