JohnRP

[JohnRP]

The WW1 service of Cecil George Stainer posted to the 51st Graduated battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, No. 8/38028.

I would very grateful for any assistance in filling in the gaps of the war service record of this brave young man. I know he died aged 18 in 1918 in the isolation hospital at Norwich of meningitis.

[Pam Downes]

Hello JohnRP,

Welcome to British-Genealogy.

If you have come to us via Forces War Records, please read this.

Cecil's birth was registered sometime between 1 April and 30 June 1900 in Poole registration district. As you have six weeks in which to register a birth, this means he was born between 15 February (give a day or two) and 30 June 1900.

From what I can find, he wouldn't have been conscripted until he was 18, and as the CWGC gives his date of death as 27 July 1918 he would have been enlisted for just over five months at the most. He may have still been completing his training when he was taken ill.

His service record, like over another 60%, seems to have been destroyed either by fire in 1931 or bombing in WW2.

The National Archives may have a war diary detailing the movements of the battalion, but because of the short time in which Cceil will have been enlisted I, sadly, doubt if you will find anything of consequence.

Pam

[Peter Goodey]

this brave young man

This suggests you already know something about him. A gallantry medal perhaps? If so I'm puzzled by the lack of obvious data.

Have you found any reference to him anywhere in the usual sources? I can't spot him in the file of medal index cards which usually means he didn't qualify for any campaign medals (the medal index cards are the nearest thing we have to a nominal roll). This usually implies that he didn't serve overseas.

What I can find online about the 51st battalion rather backs that up. There are war diaries covering Mar-Oct 1919 which suggests that the battalion was shipped to the continent to form part of the army of occupation.

[Peter Goodey]

PS The register of soldiers' effects shows the war gratuity as "not admissable". I don't know what the significance of that is. Perhaps someone else can suggest what we can read into it.

[Pam Downes]

PS The register of soldiers' effects shows the war gratuity as "not admissable". I don't know what the significance of that is. Perhaps someone else can suggest what we can read into it.

I don't know what it means either, but it's obviously something to do with the 'War gratuity' stamp to the left of it.
All the other entries on the page have an amount written in red beside them; Cecil's is the only one with 'inadmissable'.

Inadmissable means 'not valid', so I wonder if in this case it means not payable, possibly due to Cecil having only enlisted such a relatively short time before his death?

Perhaps the answer is in part of the question asked in this link as it talks about the war gratuity and the allowance payable after six months service. And from my calculations I don't think Cecil would have served six months.
https://hansard.millbanksystems.com/w...ity#column_54w

Pam