Great Uncle's war record

Hi, for some time I've been trying to find out some information on the war record of my grandmother's uncle. We have some of his medals and the below three photographs but other than that my grandmother never knew anything about his service except that he lost an eye. He never had any family as he was seriously changed by the war and became a bit of a recluse when he returned, only ever seeing my grandmother, his mother and brother and no other family until he died, but never spoke about the war. As I said apart from a few medals we don't have any paperwork, dogtags or serial numbers with which to track his service with so I was just wondering if anyone here could at least identify the regiment he was with based on these photos. In the one with the statue his is in the centre and in the group one he is the extreme left, second row from back staring at the camera with a mole on his cheek. His name was Alfred Martin, he was born in Southampton 08/12/1908 and died there 07/12/1973. The medals we have of his are also attached.

I appreciate any help and advice, thank you in advance.

Terry

 

Hi Terry

Firstly you would be better of joining the UK sister forum - link here - WW2Talk

You really need to obtain his service records from the MOD - its the only place they can be obtained from - the link for the forms is Request records of deceased service personnel - the only real document you need will be a copy of his death certificate. Thses records will explain/answer many of your questions and is really the only place to start this type of research

Re medals - looks as though he was in North Afrcia and Italy - Medals: campaigns, descriptions and eligibility

Hope to see you on the other forum site as well

TD

England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Name: Alfred William Martin
Death Age: 65
Birth Date: 8 Dec 1908
Registration Date: Dec 1973
Registration district: Southampton
Inferred County: Hampshire
Volume: 6b
Page: 1875

If you contact the Registrars office in Southampton, and give them the detaails above then they will (for a small fee) send you a copy of his death certificate, which as mentioned you will need, unless you already have one of course.

 

Please do update this thread when you find things of import though. Not only are a number of us regulars interested in this sort of thing it may help others looking for similar information. Good luck in your endeavors.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies and help, will get on this asap and will definitely update the thread if I find anything.

Much appreciated,

Terry

 

Medal Ribons are a mess.
Have a look here & match up correct medal with correct ribbon.
Medals: campaigns, descriptions and eligibility
You can find replacements medals & ribbons easily .

 

Yeah I've been looking into getting the correct ribbons. The medals have spent years in an old biscuit tin with all my other families medals as it turns out and I've been working through and linking each to each person and sorting out the ribbons. Looks like I'm missing an African star for Alfie too. I'm a bit of a novice at this so I don't suppose you know what the 1 on the bar means do you?

Thanks,

Terry

 

yes, It means he served in North Africa with First Army.
Those that were with the Eighth Army had an 8.
See clasps here > Africa Star - Wikipedia

 

Hey,
I've just recieved his war record through, took ages to come through. So he was a Pioneer stevedore in the royal engineers. His army number was 14,375,092 and His reg was 1306692. I will attach some photos of the documents recieved. One was his notification of impending release which had a really lovely testimonial to him from his captain.

 

Testimonial

 

Would anyone be able to help explain some of the shorthand attached please. Would be much appreciated.

 

Oh and he was in the 8th army in north africa not the first in the end so I'm not sure who's clasp that is and where his is.

 

Terry

Have you joined the sister site - WW2Talk - it covers British & Commonwealth rather than this site which is more USA biased.

You also need to upload copies of his whole service record the sections you have upload only show miminmal details

TD

 

Hi TD,

Yes I joined that group and was going to update the thread I started on there after I finished on this one but my phone just died haha. I will scan all the documents at work this week and upload them I was just really moved by the testimonial and thought I'd share it as you guys helped me find it.

Thanks,

Terry

 

I have to say that 99.9% of testomonilals were similar. It was all over and done with, people wanted to get back to their normal life so giving them a good referal would help them on their way to a job if they didnt already have one waiting for them. Remember he would have been writing hundreds of these per day, if I posted my fathers it would be in a similar vain, upstanding, loyal, good sort, hard working, diligent ................................

TD

 

Ah that makes sense. Still, I'm looking forward to working my way through the documents. Already learned plenty I didn't know.

Cheers

 

Hi,

Attached are scans of the documents I recieved regarding Alf. I appreciate all the help with finding this out. Its nice to finally know what he did.

 

Final scan