Case Study Four
For the last of my case studies I will be looking at the journey I had to undertake to discover the details behind my great-grandfather, Albert William Smith, service in the army during the early 20th century. Unfortunately, this was not as simple as looking up his army service records as up to 60% of service records relating to the First World War were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940 with Albert’s records being one of the sets destroyed.
Albert William Smith
Albert William Smith was born on the 13th October 1880 in Small Heath, Birmingham. From information gleamed from his daughters I knew that Albert had served both in the Second-Anglo Boar War and during the First World War and had risen to the rank of Lance Corporal.
I have also inherited a picture of Albert in the army where further details could be inferred. The picture shows Albert standing in his military uniform alongside two other gentlemen, one of which has the Staffordshire Knott pinned to his uniform implying that he served in either the North Staffordshire or South Staffordshire Regiments. Albert also supports both the long service stripe and his lance corporal stripe on his uniform, the long service stripe was given to soldiers who had served at least 10 years.
Albert's Army Service
The first place I looked for information on Albert’s army service was within the Civil Registration Certificates for his immediate family. It was not uncommon for details relating to service within the armed forces to be listed on the marriage records or birth certificates for active servicemen. Albert married on the 3rd August 1914 and was listed as just a Brass Caster which would suggest that on the eve of the First World War he was not serving within the army (Britain declared war on the 4th August 1914, so Albert did literally marry on the eve of the war!).
I then turned to the birth certificates of his two eldest children who were both born during the First World War. His eldest son, Albert Henry, was born in 1915 and his father’s occupation is given as a Corporal in the 3rd Staffords. This provides proof of what his rank was and that he served in one of the Staffordshire Regiments. When his second son, Bertram George, was born in 1917 he is listed as just a Brass Caster which would suggest that he had left the services by late 1917.
Having discovered that Albert was a Corporal and was serving in one of the Staffordshire Regiments I then searched through the First World War Medal Cards for a likely match. The First World War Medal Card index is a fantastic resource which details the awards given to ever soldier during the conflict. After an extensive search I discovered that there was only one match, the medal card for Albert W Smith, an acting corporal who was serving in the South Staffordshire Regiment and had the service number 5730. The card revealed that he was awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British Medal. Also revealed was that Albert had entered service during 1915 during the Dardanelles Offensive (which is now better known as the Gallipoli Campaign).
While searching the Medal Cards I discovered an anomaly, there was also a card for a William Smith who served in the South Staffordshire Regiment with the service number 5730. It was impossible for a serviceman to have the same number as another man in his unit, so it looked likely that Albert had not one, but two medal cards. This second medal card was different to the first, instead of detailing the awards given to Albert it detailed that fact that his Silver Bar Badge had been lost. The Silver War Badge was given to all men who had been invalided out of the army in an effort to stop any violence happening to the serviceman once they returned to Britain, there were widespread reports of men being targeted for not serving in the army during this time. The card confirmed several new facts about Albert, firstly that the W in the original card stood for William. His enlistment date was given as 26th August 1899 (just in time for the Second Boer War) and he was discharged on the 8th October 1917 due to illness.
Having discovered his service number, it was now time to look at details regarding his enlistment. Some soldiers before signing up served time in the local Militia so I turned my attention to these records. I managed to find Albert’s militia records through the website findmypast.co.uk. These records showed that Albert signed up for the militia on the 15th July 1899 and was living at 43 Millward Street, Small Heath – the address his family was living at in both 1891 and 1901. The militia records were also stamped with the details SSR 26-8-99, this meant that Albert left the militia on the 26th August 1899 to join the South Staffordshire Regiment. This date matches the date given on the Medal Cards for the Albert William Smith with the service number 5730. There was now no doubt that I had discovered the correct Albert in the Medal Card Index.
Findmypast.co.uk also contains an index of records relating to the Second Anglo-Boer War. Within this index I was able to discover that Albert was wounded slightly on the 18th February 1901 at a place called Commando Nek. Through visiting the National Archives and going through the Medal Rolls for the Second Anglo-Boer War, I was also able to discover that Albert was awarded the Queens South African Medal and Kings South African Medal. Both medals came with clasps which detailed the service of the soldier during a conflict, with specific clasps being awarded for action seen in battle. Albert was not given any clasps for service in a specific battle but was awarded clasps for general service seen during the war.
Unfortunately, it has not proven possible to discover where Albert was during peace time, I am only left with stories which could be true or might be fabrications. But considering I started with next to nothing on Albert’s army service, I am quite happy with the details I have been able to discover.
Want to know more?
You can find a wonderful range of guides to researching your military ancestors via the National Archives website. There are two separate guides for tracking army ancestors, one for servicemen pre-1913 and one for post-1913.
Record Gallery
The below record gallery features images of the records outlined within this case study. Each image below can be clicked to view a much larger, more readable, image. Images marked with a hashtag (#) are sourhced from ancestry.co.uk and images marked with an asterisk (*) have been sourced from findmypast.co.uk.
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| Albert William Smith's marriage certificate |
Albert Henry Smith's birth certificate |
Bertram George Smith's birth certificate |
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| #Albert W Smith's medal card |
#William Smith's medal card |
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| *Albert William Smith's militia records page one |
*Albert William Smith's militia records page two |
*Albert William Smith's militia records page three |