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Help identifying this chap.

On closer look, I'm going back to the Northumberland Fusiliers. The flame pattern is much more spread out than on the Welsh Fusiliers ( just wanted to make you think there was a bit of Welsh in you!).
 
On closer look, I'm going back to the Northumberland Fusiliers. The flame pattern is much more spread out than on the Welsh Fusiliers ( just wanted to make you think there was a bit of Welsh in you!).

You sir are a turn coat, where is the courage in your convictions. And you are a WALT!
 
On closer look, I'm going back to the Northumberland Fusiliers. The flame pattern is much more spread out than on the Welsh Fusiliers ( just wanted to make you think there was a bit of Welsh in you!).

I've got to admit that after comparing enough pictures of fusilier cap badges to last me a lifetime, I'm veering towards the Northumberlands myself.

Edited to add:-
And I've never had any Welsh in me, ever. Not even when very drunk!
 
Got to admit the closest one to it is the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (first image). The grenade flame on the Royal Fusiliers (2nd image), another possibility, is completely different, and the Royal Scots Fusiliers cap badge was only worn on a Glengarry.

PS: Just because their is no family connection with the County, doesn't mean he couldn't have served with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. If he was conscripted he would have had very little choice !

Yeah, I realise now. I'm going to do a bit more digging around on Ancestry but I've got to accept the fact that he could just be somebody's boyfriend or a friend of the family who went round for tea one day and had his picture taken.

I hope I can find out who he is though and find out what happened to him too.
 
My Grandfather was born and bred in Newcastle and served in the Dorsets. He had never been out of Northumberland!

As for the cap badge, I thought Inniskillians at first, then maybe Royal Welch Fusiliers, but would agree, RNF seems to be the closest.
 
My Grandfather was born and bred in Newcastle and served in the Dorsets. He had never been out of Northumberland!

As for the cap badge, I thought Inniskillians at first, then maybe Royal Welch Fusiliers, but would agree, RNF seems to be the closest.

You have covered all the options, I do agree its either RNF or RWF, its certainly not Queens Own!
 
Ok all, thanks for your help. I think I've found him.

A quick search on ancestry revealed a Frank M**n, formerly of the 86th T R Battalion which was, up until the end of 1916 (if my researching skills have been up to much) the 31st (Reserve) Bn, the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Frank was KIA in 21st October 1917 serving with the King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry). He was my G Grandpa's brother and if my reckoning is right, he was 18/19 years old.

I've had a lot of help on here trying to research soldiers in WWI (hat tip to FourZeroCharlie especially) and kicking myself that I hadn't done it sooner - but if I'm being honest, a lot of what's turned up has been hard to accept.
 
Blokey is indeed Northumberland Fusiliers (they didn't become the RNF until after the Great War). Half my family served in regiments far afield from where they came from - mostly Scottish ones, despite us being Anglo-Irish.
 
Blokey is indeed Northumberland Fusiliers (they didn't become the RNF until after the Great War). Half my family served in regiments far afield from where they came from - mostly Scottish ones, despite us being Anglo-Irish.

Up until a week ago, I hadn't done much delving into the ins and outs of enlistment into the army during WWI. The only WWI soldier up until then that I'd ever really known about was from Leicester and joined the Leicesters twice. Because of this and because of general ignorance, I didn't think it likely that the man in the photo could be a Northumberland. My next job will be to find out where the King's Own YLI were in Oct '17 when he was killed.

I might then break open a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label, adulterate it with coke and have a drink to his memory.

It's what he would have wanted.
 
My grandfather was in the Leicesters (his other brothers Black Watch and Gordons) despite the family being from nowhere near Leicester. Gassed at Ypres he convalesced and was transferred into the ASC before finally being stuck back into the the infantry - this time the Manchesters.

My father had thought he was in the Leinsters (which would've made more sense) and it wasn't until I'd confirmed otherwise (via the Public Records Office) that he found out he'd been wrong all those years.

There were two blokes with the same name with virtually identical service in the Manchesters and ASC. One was initially in the Leinsters and the other the Leicesters. It boiled down to one foreneame initial which nailed it. One was my grandfather and the other wasn't.

The KOYLI had nearly thirty battalions during the Great War, so you're going to have to try and find out which one he was in to determine where he served. The regiment were in Egypt at some point.
 
My grandfather was in the Leicesters (his other brothers Black Watch and Gordons) despite the family being from nowhere near Leicester. Gassed at Ypres he convalesced and was transferred into the ASC before finally being stuck back into the the infantry - this time the Manchesters.

My father had thought he was in the Leinsters (which would've made more sense) and it wasn't until I'd confirmed otherwise (via the Public Records Office) that he found out he'd been wrong all those years.

There were two blokes with the same name with virtually identical service in the Manchesters and ASC. One was initially in the Leinsters and the other the Leicesters. It boiled down to one foreneame initial which nailed it. One was my grandfather and the other wasn't.

The KOYLI had nearly thirty battalions during the Great War, so you're going to have to try and find out which one he was in to determine where he served. The regiment were in Egypt at some point.

Well your determination to keep digging certainly paid off. My GGrandpa's surviving records are all post his re-enlistment in 1916 but to be honest apart from the Galloping Sgt Major's medical records (another more distant relative) it's his earlier stuff that I want to get to the bottom of. Like your grandad he was gassed but unlike your grandad, he fought at Loos.

Uncle Frank was with 1/5 Bn and is listed on the Tyne Cot memorial apparently. But with all the confusing absorption and re-organising of battalions that seemed to be going on at the time, I'm struggling to work out where he was when he died. :frustrated:
 
Thanks guys.

A Northumberland connection seems unlikely given that the families concerned lived in Leicester and London at the time of the war and also having gone back into my family history for generations I've not found any previous connection with that county at all.

I've done a CWGC search for both surnames and the only regiments that have popped up have been Scottish (no connection with this part of the family) or the Hampshire Regiment.

By mid 1916, with conscription operating, plus the butcher's bill on the Somme, place of birth was often irrelevant to where you were posted: in times of dire need, they would simply post men where they were needed, regardless of their capbadge on attestation.

I've just finished nailing down the WW1 biogs of 96 blokes from Buckingham. 80 were infantry, but less than half were badged to the local regiment, most of those being volunteers who joined 1st or 2nd-line Territorial units early in the war. Take away the Aussie and Canuck expats, and there is little or no geographic logic to where the remainder were posted: Beds, Devons, DLI, Dorsets, Gloucesters, Middx, Northants, R Irish Rifles, West Yorks is but a random selection.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I'd bet that many blokes left England after 'Basic', did in-theatre training at Base Depot (e.g. The Bullring at Etaples) and then were re-badged just before they were sent to fill gaps in Bns chewed up in the line, regardless of the regt's regional affiliation, or the individual's regional origins.
 
Yeah, I realise now. I'm going to do a bit more digging around on Ancestry but I've got to accept the fact that he could just be somebody's boyfriend or a friend of the family who went round for tea one day and had his picture taken.

I hope I can find out who he is though and find out what happened to him too.

My county libraries only have access to Ancestry.co.uk.
Over the border in Oxon, they have FindMyPast as well.

FMP beats Ancestry hands-*******-down, simply beacuse the accuracy of their OCR is miles better.

As a f'rinstance, in Ancestry, the original "Stratford Rd" is consistently rendered as "StratfoRoad Road".
Surnames are bedevilled with similar glaring errors, compounded by the fact that Ancestry applies US spellings to UK English words.

I accomplished as much (if not more) exploiting a 2 week free home subscription to FMP, as I had in 2 yrs of frustrated searching of Ancestry.

Sadly, FMP doesn't give you access to WW1 service records (but it is chuffing good for service records prior to that - on FMP I unearthed a shedload about my Gt Grandad's life - from teenage jailbird to 20(+)yr regular, 1901 Garrison duties as Sgt, busted, discharged, and re-upped in 1914 and off to India - none of which, try as I might, can be found on Ancestry.co.uk)


P.S. That is definitely an RNF badge. Tried their museum? If nowt else, I'm sure they'd appreciate a soft copy of the image . . . . and who knows, it might just earn you a clue. Any writing/stamp on the back of the picture to suggest when/where/by whom it was tooken?
 
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