WW1 Sherwood Rangers or Sherwood Foresters

[RichardRJA]

Hello.

I am trying to track down my Great Grandfathers war records but the information we have is limited and I understand his regiment (or what we think was his regiment) has potential for miss recording. Great Grandfather did not talk about his experiences apart from he was in from 1915 to 1918 and was stationed at some point near Arras. His name was Wilfred Cooke, he lived in Swinton Yorkshire, We think he was in the Sherwood Ranger or possibly the Sherwood Foresters. As far as I can tell the Rangers were stationed in Italy, Egypt and Palestine, which was never mentioned by the family. I have been through the records listed on here and can find no trace of him. Any help would be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Richard

[Peter Goodey]

The National Archives is the home of the most important surviving WW1 documents. Many have been put on line by them and other private companies.

Therefore it's wise to start with the National Archive's official advice

Wilfred Cooke is definitely his full name? I searched the medal index cards for you but nothing was returned for turned up for Wilfred Cooke with regiment Sherwood*.

By the way, which Swinton do you mean?

[Lesley Robertson]

Ancestry shows 21 men called Wilfred Cooke with medal cards. As Peter says, none are shown associated with Sherwood, or by the Sherwood Forresters (SF) more formal name - the Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment (forresters) or Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (rangers).
There IS an entry for Wilfred Cook (without the "e") for the Sherwood Forresters - this is all the same man:
6641 SF
203063 SF
50211 Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
He had the Victory & British medals - the lack of the Star suggests that he didn't join up until 1916.
There's no extra info, to confirm that he's yours, but I can't find him in the CWGC (so he survived) and his service records are among the 60% that didn't survive WW2.
I also can't find en entry in the 1911 census for Wilfred Cook(e) in Swinton, Yorkshire (there's actually 2), so he must have moved there between the census and joining up.
More info is really needed - do you have access to his medals? Checking around the rims would give you his service number. Do you know the names of his parents, how old he was, anything to make him stand out from the crowd?

[RichardRJA]

Hi and thank you all very much for your help. We have 2 medals in the family with the following numbers 1/0539 PTE W COOKE and 07053 PTE W COOKE. It's all very sketchy as he moved around in the area, but we, think, we know he had no middle names and it was spelt Cooke with the E, or at least that's how grandma spelt her maiden name. My father also now thinks that Great Grandad lived in Wombwell in Yorkshire at the time he signed up.

[simmo1]

Hi

What else do the medals say around the rim? They should have a regiment, which would narrow things down a lot!
Also if they are the British War and Victory medals, they should have the same service number on each, can you confirm the number please? Can you post photos of the rims?

regards

Robert

[pippycat]

Think this maybe Wilfred and his family:

1911 Yorks Census: PN27611 SN104
7 John Street, Wombwell

John Henry Cooke 1874 Normanton. coal miner
wife: Elizabeth Ann 1874 Swinton
son: John Henry 1895 Swinton. pit boy
son: WILFRED 1897 Swinton. pit boy
dau: Alice Minnie 1899 Swinton
dau: Maude 1902 Wombwell
son: Irvine 1910 Wombwell
niece: Agnes Chesters 1892 Swinton



1901 Yorks census: 440 f183 p25
Cooke family living at 8 Fitzwilliam Street, Wath

Rebecca

[RichardRJA]

Thank you all for your help. On closure inspection of the medals the numbers are the same 170539 Pte W Cooke M G C. Are we right to assume M G C stands for Machine Gun Corps. Does this help to narrow it down? Rebecca, thank you for finding the census records, its definatey Great Grandad.

[Peter Goodey]

Does this help to narrow it down?

Certainly does. He's top of the list of Medal Roll Index Cards now. I'm surprised you haven't been eagerly searching yourself.

[simmo1]

Hi

His medal card says he only got the pair of medals, so he entered a theatre of war after 1915.
I don't know if the actual meal roll the card refers to will tell you more information, but they are not online, yet!
I cant see a service or pension record, but Ancestry's indexing is hopeless, you will have to trawl through each one.

regards

Robert