Help to find this man with two names

[AudreyF]

I am hopeless at searching TNA for military records so hope someone can help me.

I want to find out if my grandfather served in WWI. He was born Ernest Charles Hawkins on 2nd April 1875 and worked in the catering trade as a waiter, butler etc. pre-war and post-war. He was baptised Charles Ernest Hawkins and tracking him through census until 1914 he 'switches' his first and middle name at random so I have no real idea whether to search for him as Ernest or Charles and would have to rely on the date of birth and next of kin as, probably, his mother - Julia Hawkins.

[Pam Downes]

As far as I know the 'basic' stuff held at TNA is also available either on Findmypast and/or Ancestry, so just search those sites, using each name in turn.

You do need to be aware that almost 70% of WWl service records were destroyed by fire and bombing in WW2.

From what I can see, he's unlikely to be either the Charles Edward Hawkins #07712 of the RFA because he was a saddler and his home address was a farm in Kent.
Also unlikely to be the Charles Ernest #271201 who gave an address in Norwich.
Both of these were in the Pension records on Ancestry.

Pam

[AudreyF]

Thank you. I did look on Ancestry but assumed (wrongly) that more/better was available at TNA. I also didn't realise that quite such a high percentage of records have been lost. I've searched for a couple of other ancestors and I must have been lucky to get something.

I suppose it is also very possible that Charles/Ernest did not serve at all. He would have been 39 when war was declared ……….