Plastic Horses

[twiggy]

Hi my name is Roger

I have just joined and hope I am using the correct proceedure to ask a question

I would like to find out what regiment my Grandfather served in in south Africa all I know of his service is he was in Kimberly ( or at least around Kimberly ) and the only image I remember of him was one of him sitting on a horse in full uniform but the horse was a dummy and the picture was a posed one possibly a studio and I wondered if this was from some training camp

He was later in life a senior projectile examiner at the Woolwich Arsenal, and I believe he was reserved occupation here in WW!
He was Alfred Charles Lingwood born East Stonehouse Devon in 1879 adn died 1948 I have had little luck finding anything of him prior to 1908 when he married in Stepney East London

Anyone any advice on a way forward?
Many Thanks Roger

E.A.O.E.

[Peter Goodey]

If he was discharged between 1900 and 1913, it should be relatively easy to make a start.

Soldiers' discharge papers are in series WO 97 at the National Archives. They are not indexed by name in the catalogue for this period but you will be able track down the relevant piece number from the catalogue. Read all about it here -
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=14

Luckily they are filed by name in that period so you should be able to find the piece easily.

With luck you should be able to get some useful information from those documents.

[MarkJ]

1881 census shows him aged 2 in Stonehouse.

The 1881 census is available free of charge at
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

On the left of the page you will see the word Census, click that. Enter Alfred Lingwood int othe search boxes and he appears. If you click his name, you can get further details - including, by clicking the link "household" on the right of the information about him, the other residents of the same address at the time.

It would seem his father was in the Royal Marines - which fits in with the Stonehouse address . Perhaps the RM may be a link - he could well have followed his father into the Marines.