a spy

[Eve123456789]

I have always been told that my grandfather was a spy. I can't find any military records for him. Who should I ask please?

[Neil Wilson]

He is not forced to have been in the armed forces.
Did he go overseas?
Was he employed as a civil servant?
Check at the local records office for any registers, rolls etc for the period he was alive.
They should identify where he was living and maybe occupation

[christanel]

Welcome to the British-Genealogy forums
Are you referring to WW11 when you say you can't find any military records for your grandfather? If so you won't find them online because the MoD hold records from 1920 on. You can apply for them without knowing a service number but you will need a copy of his death certicate and know his birth date. The problem you have is that you don't know if he actually served and the MoD charges 30 pounds to search and if they find nothing you won't get a refund.
Then if he was a spy would he even have a normal military record.
This is the Natinal Archives research guide on espionage
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...ive#step-three
Sorry I can't reduce it on this tablet.
Christina

[Lesley Robertson]

A lot would depend on what sort of spy he was - military, industrial, civilian? Someone who went into the field, or someone who monitored radio signals in an office in the UK?

I suspect that the identities of many wartime spies were only known to a few (especially those in the field), and they were either recorded under other occupations, or not at all.

You might make faster progress if you put the spy story to one side as "to be confirmed" and find out as much as possible about him using normal sources. Then you can can check what you find for evidence that might confirm it. Assuming that this is WW2, as Chris said, the obvious first thing to do is get a copy of his service record.

[Eve123456789]

Sorry I should have said this relates to The Great War. Henry was born in 1873. Ive just looked and read that the upper age for conscription was 40 and he would have been 42....so maybe it is all nonsense!

Thank you

[peter nicholl]

Welcome, but Henry who?

[Lesley Robertson]

Peter is right, it’s much easier to help if you know who you are looking for. Name, age, number, regiment, any odd bit of info that will make him stand out from the crowd.

He might have been too old for conscription, but that would not have prevented him from volunteering, especially if he shaved a few years off his age... many people did. Others served in the UK if they were considered too old or infirm enough for the Front.

As I said before, I think things may be easier if you search out everything you can about him, and then examine the story you have built.

[Eve123456789]

Hi - sorry have misunderstood - are you offering help to research?

[Neil Wilson]

We are trying to help you, to point you in the right direction
His details might help us with this.

[Eve123456789]

Thank you!
This is what I think I know.... His parents were Thomas Jackson Halsall & Kathleen Emilie Postlewaithe and he had 2 sisters


Harry William Halsall - AKA the author Henry de Halsalle
B 1872/4 Preston Lancs.
M Phyllis Morton 1916 Hammersmith London.
D 1945 Middlesex