Mystery of a name found in my Late Mother's .

[Sheenarj]

Not real sure where this should go. When my Mum died I found info in her address book. re: Service of various family members one stands out. "Sgm Nicholson .S Serial # 14220848 # 9 Wireless section. Type P No 2. C/o Main H.Q Section Land forces South East Asia Command Ceylon". That is exactly as she wrote. I do have some Nicholson one married My Grans Sister -Nellie Dwyer. he was Charles Edward Nicholson 1887-1957. Both lived and died in Bury Lancs.
Charles as far as I know had 1 Brother, Walter, have found not other siblings or and S. Nicholson. Obviously this S. was known to my Mother's Mother Mary Dwyer but I have not found who this could be for past 20 years. I keep looking hoping something pops but zero. I have no idea what service he was in or which conflict would be in Asia -Ceylon, I think maybe W.W.2 but not sure. Maybe someone out there could point me into the the direction.
Would really appreciate any fresh eyes out there. Thank you.

[loobylou]

Not real sure where this should go. When my Mum died I found info in her address book. re: Service of various family members one stands out. "Sgm Nicholson .S Serial # 14220848 # 9 Wireless section. Type P No 2. C/o Main H.Q Section Land forces South East Asia Command Ceylon". That is exactly as she wrote. I do have some Nicholson one married My Grans Sister -Nellie Dwyer. he was Charles Edward Nicholson 1887-1957. Both lived and died in Bury Lancs.
Charles as far as I know had 1 Brother, Walter, have found not other siblings or and S. Nicholson. Obviously this S. was known to my Mother's Mother Mary Dwyer but I have not found who this could be for past 20 years. I keep looking hoping something pops but zero. I have no idea what service he was in or which conflict would be in Asia -Ceylon, I think maybe W.W.2 but not sure. Maybe someone out there could point me into the the direction.
Would really appreciate any fresh eyes out there. Thank you.

If you put all that is in quotation marks into Google there's quite a bit of info. No mention of Nicholson though unfortunately.

[Sheenarj]

Thank you for that info,never thought of that :-) But at least I now have a time period.Now if I could find this fellow then that would be the cream on the cake.

[arthurk]

Others know far more about military matters than I do, but I wonder if the "S" abbreviations might be something other than forename initials - eg could Sgm be Sergeant Major? If so, this chap's name could be anything. The long number looks like a service number.

Since Charles was born in 1887, he'd be rather old for service in WW2, so could this be a son of his - your gran's nephew, and your mother's first cousin? I've only found one son to his marriage to Nellie - Walter, born in Dec qtr 1908 (from GRO index, also in 1911 census). I think he's more likely to have served in WW2.

That's probably all I can offer on this one. Others may be able to decipher what the rest means, though if you end up looking for an individual's service records, those for WW2 are still held by the Ministry of Defence, and not available online.

[Lesley Robertson]

There is another forum specifically for WW2 where someone has posted a list of number allocations for the British army in WW2 HERE. If it is correct, 8-digit army numbers beginning 142 should belong to the General Service Corps. However, as the author points out at the start of his post, the numbers were assigned when the soldier joined up, and not changed if they transferred to another regiment or corps. Another post on the same thread says that such numbers were only in use before 1950, after which they were all changed to 8-digit numbers starting with numbers beginning with 22 and only signifying when they enlisted...

Not much, but at least it gives a limit on when that number was in use.
I haven't read the whole thread, just skipped to the lists of numbers.

Using their search engine also took me to several threads on the wireless sections - apparently small groups that followed artillery or armoured units as needed.

[Lesley Robertson]

I forgot to say that I agree with Arthur that the Sgm may be Sgt Major.

If this was WW1, I would be checking the 1911 census to see whether your parents had Nicholsons as neighbours. I don't know whether that is possible with the 1939 Register. I started doing this because my Grandmother's papers included a photo of a young man in army uniform. Try as I might, I could not link him to the family until I was just being nosy and looking to see who lived in the same street as my folk in the 1911, and there he was, a couple of doors down. No relation, just a neighbour.

[barbara lee]

Could Sgm be Signallman? Goes with "Wireless section"

[fullscott]

I agree - I read it as: 'Signalman Nicholson, S'
So we are probably looking for a man with the initial 'S' (although in '40s handwriting that could be a 'T' or a 'J'), in the 1940's (Ceylon was an important theatre in WW2).

[arthurk]

Could Sgm be Signallman? Goes with "Wireless section"

Obvious when you think about it - told you others knew more about military stuff than I do. Royal Corps of Signals?

[Lesley Robertson]

According to the threads on that forum I referred to (#5), the wireless sections were small groups that could be combined as needed and were attached to anyone who needed them. Examples they gave included groups as small as 3 or 4 as well as much bigger groups. They presumably all came under the umbrella of the RCS, though.