William Redmond

[NatBeth22]

Hi,

My partner has been trying to locate military records for his grandfather for years. He was a volunteer from Ireland, Galway, and was an engineer, moving between units, which means there isnt a conscription record. He was a Royal Engineer, and referred to himself as SAPPER Redmond, and had travelled to France, Italy and Africa. Weve gone as far as to pay to request this from the National War Records held in Glasgow, and never received anything back. This means a huge amount to him, and would love to be able to get even a hint of a clue to try and track this down. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Pam Downes]

Hello NatBeth22,

Welcome to British-Genealogy.

The first thing to ask is - when did you send the request to Glasgow. (I'm assuming by 'the National War Records in Glasgow' you mean the Army section of the MoD.)
If the request was sent since about November 2019 then you will not have heard back. There was already a backlog before Covid caused the office to close, and I don't know what working conditions are currently in place in Scotland - which operates under different rules to England.

There are plans to transfer some of the service records to The National Archives in Kew, but no further details have been released so we don't know what the criteria is. e.g. people born before a certain date, anyone whose service ended before a certain year. etc. Transferring the records to Kew will obviously take some time, and it might be a case (certainly initially) of out of the frying pan into the fire, with you either needing to go to Kew in person or else needing to hire a researcher to access the records for you. It could be that a company such as Findmypast will obtain a licence to digitise the records, but that is something that will not happen for several years.

For the moment all I can say is 'patience'.

This is the link to everything you need to know about applying for records, as well as links to the forms and other documents/information you need to send.
https://www.british-genealogy.com/fo...-WW2-amp-after

Pam

[NatBeth22]

Thanks you so much that’s certainly helpful to know.

We have records of birth and death can you recommend anywhere that has digital records with a search function against these?

[Pam Downes]

Thanks you so much that’s certainly helpful to know.

We have records of birth and death can you recommend anywhere that has digital records with a search function against these?

It might be because it's past my bedtime, but I'm not sure what you're asking here. Do you mean obtaining copies of birth and death certificates, or just asking about the information the certificates have on them, etc.

Pam

[Jomot1]

You haven't given us much to go on - an indication of when he was born might be helpful.

In the meantime, have you tried here: https://census.militaryarchives.ie/

[helachau]

Assuming 2nd world war?

There's a William Joseph Redmond, born Galway, 17 Aug 1919, father William, address Henry Street, mother Mary (formerly Andrews).
The image can be viewed free at Irish genealogy)

More detail would help.