Researching my great granddad - Frederick Wil

[wingers]

Hi all
I am trying to find out as much as I can about my great grandad Frederick William Smith, who fought in WW1 and was a POW

I know about two battalions he was in, but not when:-

Regiment Name: Northamptonshire Regiment
Service Number: 32355
Rank: Private

**
Regiment Name: The Royal Welsh (Welch) Fusiliers - 9th Batallion
Service Number: 56346
Rank: Private

I also know he was a POW in Munster II

Other details about him:-
Date Of Birth:** *14/02/1888
Date Of Death:** *18/10/1926 (Age 38)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

[Megan Roberts]

Do you know where he was born, or where he died?

I think that I may have found his Army record on Ancestry if his wife was Maud Susannah Chaney. If you don't have a subscription to Ancestry your local library should have. A couple of highlights from that record:

Transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers 24 5 1917
Captured at Beaumety 23 3 1918
Arrived at Hull 30 11 1918

However, there is a lot more in the record.

[wingers]

Do you know where he was born, or where he died?

Hi Megan, he was born and died I believe in Norwich, Norfolk - or at least definitely in Norfolk

[Megan Roberts]

I think that it is the right record then because when he enlisted he was living in 61 West End St, Norwich

[wingers]

Yes that was definitely his wife's name

Thank you very useful

Unfortunately don't have a subscription for Ancestry so will have to try library sometime, but thanks for the little bits of information you found - very handy

[Megan Roberts]

Frederick William Smith was the son of Arthur Henry Smith a shoe laster/foreman bootmaker from Wymondham, Norfolk born about 1863, and Susannah Golden who married in Norwich in 1883. Susannah was born about 1862 in Norwich. He was one of 12 children, but by the time of the 1911 census five of those had died. In 1911 Frederick was a “clicker”, which I believe was a trade in the boot industry.

Frederick and Maude S Chaney married in Norwich in 1911 in the April quarter Vol 4B Page 351.

Maude was the daughter of George, a carter born in 1856 in Tivetshall and his wife Susannah Cottrell who married in 1875 in Norwich. Susannah was born in 1858 and Maude was born in 1888. In 1898 George married Ellen Buxton in Norwich. She was born in 1859 in Great Wichingham, and they went on to have two children, neither of whom survived.

I haven’t been able to track down a death record for Susannah. I can find George and Susannah with their children George and Maud in 1891 census together Susannah’s sister, Sarah Cottrell, and I can find George, Ellen and Maud all living together in the 1911 census, but I can’t find any of them in the 1901 census. Maybe someone else will spot them for us.

[wingers]

Thank you so much for that Megan - very kind of you

Lots of information I didn't know anything about

Just need to try and piece together the war time a bit and will be perfect

[wimsey]

if you didn't know already, the repatriation at Hull was on the ship 'SS Archangel'

https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/Fil...s/2921450/3/2/

insert numbers PA 22251 or R 53123, to take you to the relevant pages [you have to scroll down to find the PA one]

[wingers]

Thanks Wimsey

That is very interesting - I can see info for PA and R numbers but the page seems to suggest should be a value I can enter for P as well but can't see one - or does that appear on all records and not mean anything?

[wimsey]

Thanks Wimsey

That is very interesting - I can see info for PA and R numbers but the page seems to suggest should be a value I can enter for P as well but can't see one - or does that appear on all records and not mean anything?

The guide to the index cards doesn't tell me what a P value would signify. Clearly the PA number refers to the camp and the R number to the repatriation details. A man in my family tree has three different PA numbers but no R or P. I've just read that the "Rap." in the top left hand corner means repatriated. Were you able to look at those two other pages ? the PA page seems to mention a leg injury. No doubt the service record on Ancestry will provide all the details.