Boer War medal

[jww268]

Hello,

Like many others I'm trying to trace the war records of my relatives.

I have one medal which has the following info:

6393
Pvt J Webb
East Lancashire Regiment
Transvaal Orange Free State Cape Colony

++

I also have a Pension document with the following info:

No. of Certificate 187

W. Webb
of the Rifle Brigade
(personal description of W Webb)
that he was admitted to Pension on 27.02.02
Signed L. R. Jackman
Station winchester
Date 8.4.1919

++

I also have a marriage certificate for this person dated 1917 in Belfast which says Profession: Private Northumberland Fuseliers. Residence Victoria Barracks, Belfast.

These were brothers. Who were born in London and lived there.

I have a couple of questions:

1. On the J Webb, does the 6393 refer to his regiment number or his personal army number?
2. Is this enough information, if I go to Kew, to find both of their war records?
3. I guess from the info of W Webb that he was pensioned out of the Boer War? and re-enlisted. But what would he have been doing in Belfast?

Sorry for rambling ...

Thanks in advance for any info.

JJ

[Terry Reeves]

JJ

The number is his regimental (or service) number, although commonly referred to as an army number. Each battalion in a regiment had its own numbers starting from number 1 onwards. That means there could be two men with the same number as the East Lancs had two regular battalions. If Pte Webb had finished all of his service by 1913, his documents should be in W0 97 which is arranged in alphabetical order. If he had service in WW1, then you will need to look in WO 363 and perhaps W0 364, if they have survived.

You should also have enough information to find Pte W Webb, assuming his record has survived. It looks as though he may have been serving with 3rd (Home Service) Garrison Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers, which was formed in about March 1916 at Sunderland, and was serving in Ireland 1917-1918, including Belfast.

Terry Reeves

[Geoffers]

Like many others I'm trying to trace the war records of my relatives.
1. On the J Webb, does the 6393 refer to his regiment number or his personal army number?
2. Is this enough information, if I go to Kew, to find both of their war records?
3. I guess from the info of W Webb that he was pensioned out of the Boer War? and re-enlisted. But what would he have been doing in Belfast?

1) I believe this would be his regimental number
2) You have plenty here to go to Kew and look up his army record. There are threads on this forum about the types of documents you can access - TNA has online guides as well, such as:
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=14
3) I would guess he was in Belfast because of the political unrest.

Geoffers

[jww268]

Thanks both of your for your input and information. This is the first time I've been trying to research military records so it's a great help.

Now i know I have enough, I'll be off to Kew next week.

Cheers
jj

[jww268]

Hello,

An update ...

I went to Kew today and sadly didn't find any records to do with either of these people (my grandfather and his brother). Looked at WO97, nothing. Looked in WO363, but ran out of time so didn't check 364, will do that next time.

Perhaps neither record survived, which is a shame.

However, one of the helpers there said the W Webb documents I have look 'odd', as if he was pensioned out in 1902 and perhaps re-enlisted and turned up in Belfast in 1917.

Thanks for your help, the info helped finding my way around the indexes etc. (what a maze!)

Cheers
JJ