Does anyone have information where local Forest lads went to join up in WW1 ?

My father was, I think was an apprentice, with a Mr. Tuck a butcher in Chepstow when he enlisted for WW1 and under age, but I cannot find any records, which I understand were probably lost in the Blitz, but I might be able to find out through a Regiment, if there was one which was predominate in this area.

His name was Granville Harry Biddle (aka Pete), b, 1898 and I know his brothers Clement, Robert, Frederick, Thomas and John all joined up at intervals and all returned, only one of them with any major injury. I cannot trace any records for them apart from the obvious Census, b,m and deaths.

Can anyone offer any advice ?

Hi Hilary,
in my limited experience searching for those who thankfully survived the horror of WW1 is actually harder than searching the fallen !. If you search "WW1" etc in the forum's search engine you'll find several threads on this subject, there are a perhaps surprising hign number of possible regiments that drew from the Forest. In fact it was only thro luck & persistence I eventually discovered the history of a Longhope ancestor of mine who was known to have died in the British Army in WW1 but no-one knew any more details at all, even the commemorative plaque they received from the War Office didnt say !. I trawled thro the records of War Graves sites (CWGC) assuming he was in the likes of the Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Glosters, Regiments etc to no avail. Eventually found the National Archives website which I think is best for you to try, apparently and to our great surprise our ancestor had actually joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve which is essentially sailors converted to front line soldiers, not ships companies. I still dont know how or why this happened, but I do know quite a few Foresters joined them presumably after a particular recruiting drive ?.
I've seen photos of general recruiting rallies at various town centres around the area including my home town Cinderford, larger towns such as Chepstow & Monmouth would most definitely have them. Hence sadly theres a lot of possible Regiments for you to consider such as the Monmouthshires or even the Welsh Guards etc. Re Granville's trade, perhaps a shame he wasnt a collier, as he might well have joined one of the Tunnelling Batallions, search the forum for my posts on these. Possibly being a butcher might have dictated his eventual posting?

Anyhow best startpoint is the National Archives site, this caried records for WW1 particularly, there are almost 400 Biddles listed. Unfortunately they sometimes only give initials of first names but still very much worth a look. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/search-results.asp?CatID=10&sear...

Everyone who fought received Campaign Medals so search these first, although as you say not all the records survived the bombing of London in WW2.

From this link I recommend you use the Advanced Search engine.

Like many search engines I recommend you dont try to be too specific with your search info. My ancestor is listed under Langhope instead of Longhope for example !.

Re the oddities of this search engine, just been using the "advanced search" engine looking thro the WW1 Campaign Medals section, tried searching for "Biddle, T" and it gives a different set of results for "Biddle, Thomas" for example !!.
So be carefull, methodical and patient !!
There are a few "Thomas W Biddle"s listed, wasnt a Gunner by any chance ?.

I discovered this site via my local library's free (but SLOW!) Ancestry pc, which may be a quicker method if you prefer.

Hope this helps, I'll try and post more later.

ps presumably this is your Granville,

Record_ID: 68837
Entry_Number: 373
Year: 1898
Month: Oct
Day: 19
Parents_Surname: BIDDLE
Child_Forenames: Granville Harry
Fathers_Forenames: Harry
Mothers_Forenames: Minnie Mary
Mothers_Surname:
Residence: Alvington
Occupation: Farmer
Officiating_Minister: William Somerset Rector
Event: Baptism
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P376 IN 1/11
Page_Number: 47
Parish_Chapel: Woolaston
Soundex: B340

One of my ancestors actually got married during WW1, perhaps because of this his Marriage Record quoted his rank and regiment which was news to us. Perhaps this is so with one of your relatives ?.
This Longhope lad was actually in the Monmouthshire Infantry Regiment (so no logical family or geographical ties to Wales but still !??) which thankfully has a website listing many of the members, including him. Sadly no Biddles are listed.
http://www.1stbattmons.co.uk/10.html
There is also a good website for the Monmouthshire Engineers Militia, sadly again I cannot find Biddles listed there.
http://www.monmouthcastlemuseum-archives.org.uk/regsearch.php?func=listsurnames

The search continues.... but a look on Ancestry etc may well be quickest if you have access to it (I don't except via the Library, have you tried yours ?).

What a great reply and so fast!!

I have tried Ancestry and National Archives, but I will have to start by trying more advance searches. Unfortunately he was demobbed by the time he was married in 1923.

I am going to London shortly and thought I might make a trio to Kew and see if I can turn up something more there. Its strange that I have found nothing on any of the brothers, surely there should be records of medals presented to all serving soldiers at the end of the war.

Yes you have the right person........my father, I was an afterthought in the marriage after two sisters 16 and 19 years before, so he is the age my grandfather might be, and I did not ask enough questions when he was alive. Does anyone I wonder ?

I will keep you posted.

Thanks and regards Hilary

I have just downloaded three records from the National Archives. I do not know which one is my William Howard James as they have no address as to where the soldier was living when enlisted. Is there somewhere I can go for more information, and to find out where his medals may have gone or get replicas.

Thanks
Rita James
NZ

sorry Rita I have only just started my quest and cannot help you yet, but I will keep you in mind.

I spend 5 glorious weeks in NZ in March/April this year, driving from Russell and The Top to all points south of South Island ! Want to come back when the bank balance allows!!

Regards Hilary

I looked up military-genealogy.forcesreunited.org.uk.

I put in Gloucestershire Regiment and there is an entry there for G Biddle 1917. I could not view it without registering.

The Army was largely territorial then so first place to look is the county regiment.

Roger

Would love to come back to the Forest. When I win lotto.

Thanks for your reply.

1911 census

Signature: Minnie BIDDLE
St Arrans
Chepstow
Monmouthshire

Living in 8 rooms

Harry BIDDLE - 43 - married 22 years, six children born alive and none have died
Farmer, on the Farm, Employer, born Tidenham, Glos

Minnie BIDDLE - 36, Farmer's Dairy, born Tytherington Glos

Robert BIDDLE - son, 18 - Single, Farmer's Son, born Woolaston, Glos

Frederick BIDDLE - son - 16 - born Woolaston

Thomas BIDDLE - son - 14 - born Alvington

Harry BIDDLE - son - 12 - School, born Alvington

John BIDDLE - 6 - School, born Chaple Hill

Charlie BIDDLE - Nephew - 14 - Visitor, born Woolaston

Thomas EDWARDS, Servant, 55 - General Labourer, on the Farm, Worker, born Alvington

Hannah HEYDEN - Servant, 55, Domestic Servant - on the Farm, Worker, born Trellick

-----

Looking at Military Records on Ancestry

so far can see

Clement BIDDLE's records (19 images) - age 26 years and two months
Myrtle Cottage
Penprisk
Rencoed
Bridgend

dated 11 December 1915

Royal Field Artillery : Reg.No. 258508

Married to Gertrude Ellen Biddle - born in 1889

FreeBDM : Clement L.C. Biddle married Gertrude BROWN - Chepstow District 1913

--

1911 Census, Hanley, Tidenham, Chepstow

Mosa E JOYCE - 44 - Widow, Farmer, born Alveston, Gloucestrshire
Francis W JOYCE - son - single, born Tidenham, Glos
Alfred H JOYCE - son - 13 - born Tidenham Glos
Frederick L JOYCE - son - 9 - born Tidenham
Clement L C BIDDLE - Visitor, 21, Single, Farm bailiff - born Woolaston, Glos
Fanny TERRELL, Servant, 16 - single, Domestic Servant, born Alvington, Glos

Apologies this is not exactly on topic.

But my great great grandfather (George Thomas HYETT b. 1872 Churcham) joined up with his horse and (I believe) was one of the first to do so in the area. He lived in Over at the time and my grandfather has a picture of him going to war with his horse.

Also, the link below is my great grandfather's memories of world war 1 (George Randall HYETT b. 1897 Highnam). He also lived in Highnam/Over at the start of the war. Thought this might be of interest.

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/9603/8468

(It states he was part of the Royal Kent Artillery this was after he was invalided out of the 11th Battalion Gloucestershire regiment - it just proves that the 'local regiments' were not always local!).

Thanks Marilyn, looks like he was a Gunner after all.
As I said earlier its easy to assume the lads joined the "local" Regiments but it wasnt always the case. (Still can't understand how a Longhope Beard joined the Navy!).
Anyhow wrt the Biddles I wonder if my "guess" earlier is also true wrt his brother, namely,
"There are a few "Thomas W Biddle"s listed, wasnt a Gunner by any chance ?."

Re WW1 tonight's "Celebrity Antiques Hunt" on BBC2 with Phil Tufnel et al has just been showing some of the commemorative plaques etc as issued to families of fallen heros. Worth looking on the BBCiPlayer for. Also on "Yesterday" these last few days the repeats of "My Family At War" programmes from a few years back. All deeply moving, should be on the school mustview syllabus in my opinion.

From the National Archives there are a few "possibles" but this is the Gunner I mentioned above:
Note its quite common to see the same person getting new/different Army Numbers in thos days, due to transfer between posts etc.

Description Medal card of Biddle, Thomas W
Corps Regiment No Rank
Royal Field Artillery 25221 Gunner
Royal Field Artillery 25221 Bombardier

Description Medal card of Biddle, Thomas W
Corps Regiment No Rank
Royal Field Artillery 1954 Driver
Royal Field Artillery 1954 Driver
Royal Field Artillery 810175 Driver

Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/2
Dept Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies
Series War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War
Piece Barnes C E - Boundy C E

Seeing the post from kcasson above re enlisting with a horse, it reminds me that especially in the early days of WW1 horses were still extremely important (as they were to the much vaunted "mechanised" German Army in WW2 !!), and they would have been extensively used for pulling artillery guns and ammunition tenders etc.
The Biddles were farmers, presumably they were experienced with horses, which may have made them considered especially suitable for the artillery rather than infantry ?

Hilary, please can you clarify Granville's brothers full names for me, so I can best lookup the full names including middle ones ?. I ask as you said they were all brothers, are you sure, looking at the Baptism Records on this site gives father's names as Harry, John, Henry.
Thanks Jeff.

I have these Biddles in my Tree
Harry (Henry) Biddle of Tidenham Married Minnie Mary Cornock at Thornbury in 1888
There Children Were
Clement Levi Cornock 1889
Robert Benjamin 1892
Frederick Hugh 1894
Thomas William Wentworth 1897
Granville Harry 1898
John James 1904

Frederick Hugh joined Royal Field Artillery at Bridgend in 1914 - See Service Records Ancestry

They didn't always get recruited to local regiments, I have a relative brought up in Surrey who ended up as an officer in the Duke of Cornwall's who died in 1916 in Salonika, but there were others too in regiments which appear to have had little logical connection with the regiment they ended up joining.

Thanks Alison, sorry for being confused. I wonder why Henry becomes Harry ?. Oddly enough one of my Beard line who also fought in WW1 was a Henry who was known as Harry, so presumably not as odd as I first thought.

Anyhow another Gunner eh !

For any research into The Great War the Long Long Trail website is brilliant
http://www.1914-1918.net/whatartbrig.htm

This shows the Royal Field Artillery structures athough sadly no reference to the number of horses they had. However I know a Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery comprised 6 guns and 228 Horses to draw and serve them !. These were lighter more mobile guns than Field Guns which presumably needed even more horses per gun, and the big guns were THE main weapon of WW1 so many many thousands of horses hence skilled handlers were needed.
(Incidentally the lighter Royal Horse Artillery guns are still used for the Queen's Birthday Salute and in displays such as the Royal Tournament etc)

The Clement BIDDLES records on Ancestry seem to be the correct one, and Clement Levi Cornock BIDDLES names his mother as Minnie, and he was born in Alvington.

His marriage to Gertrude Ellen BROWN - 19 May 1913, Registry Office in Chepstow

He was in "C" Battery, 348th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, (Gunner) and looks like he enlisted in Preston.

From National Archives site there are a couple of John Biddles in Artillery units but their Middle name initials are wrong. However there is this record:

Description Medal card of Biddle, John James
Corps Regiment No Rank
Machine Gun Corps 31822 Private

Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/2

If you saw the recent repeat of "My Family At War" on Yesterday, BBC's Kirsty Wark's great uncle was in the Machine Gun Corps, it was considered a suicide unit, so welldone for John James for surviving the War !
By the way Hilary, Ancestry records sometimes include the original handwritten Enlistment documents for individual soldiers, so well worth a look.

Again from National Archives,

Description Medal card of Biddle, Frederick H
Corps Regiment No Rank
Royal Field Artillery 25215 Gunner
Royal Field Artillery 25215 Gunner

Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/2

Looking at the actual card on Ancestry -

John Tomes BIDDLE - 31822 - Machine Gun Corps

Only two Robert B Biddles on NA site,

Description Medal card of Biddle, Robert B
Corps Regiment No Rank
Army Service Corps T/390771 Private

Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/2

Again see http://www.1914-1918.net/asc.htm
Lots of scope for experienced Horse handlers here.

I just hope my assumption the Biddles were such people is true !!