The Way-mark site really is worth browsing, especially for anyone with Cinderford connections. Within the site's Living History section are a large number of colour photos taken in the 1970s, especially the "Goodly Heritage" section,
Start at http://way-mark.co.uk/foresthaven/livnhist/intro001.htm

Similarly the photos within the Living History section include several from Cinderford including most of the shops and shopkeepers, both 19th and 20th Century, plus early ones of the town's main buildings including some particularly rare ones of Double View School for example.
Start at http://way-mark.co.uk/foresthaven/livnhist/photo001.htm#

Cinderford is my home town so I'm clearly biased, but I've particularly enjoyed browsing thro' the "slides" section with dozens of colour shots taken in 1975, when I was just 13 and the town was thriving. Several show the rather random and charmingly old-fashioned origins of many of the town's buildings including your ancestor's fish shop.
http://way-mark.co.uk/foresthaven/livnhist/slide023.htm#

Re Frank Bowdler, I'm afraid I don't remember him, but I do recall his wife was Joyce Bowdler and in much later years there was a Jonathon Bowdler in charge of the town's fire station. I suspect he may be Frank's son, given this extract from Humphrey Phelps' highly-recommended book first published in 1982.

"Still in the High Street, Edwards and Sons, ironmongers. REAL ironmongers, hard to find these days. Mr Edwards is now the Officer in Charge of Cinderford Fire Station. It used to be Mr Bowdler, fishmonger and fryer. When he heard the fire alarm out he rushed, jumped in the butcher's van, back doors open, yards of sausages flying, and the butcher would leave his shop to attend to the fish frying - and so prevent another fire alarm."

I suspect the alarm was the same one still calling-out the Firemen in the 70s. It sounded just like a "Dad's Army" WW2 air-raid siren, and could be heard all across the town. I understand that sirens of this type were considered to be wise precautions for towns for Civil Defence purposes even after WW2. Since the late 1970s even Volunteer Brigades such as CInderford's had switched to using personal radio pagers, and thankfully the siren was never needed again since the end of the Cold War.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xk-IAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT142&lpg=PT142&dq=Bowd...

Re Edwards and Sons, the son Mr Arthur Edwards was legendary to us boys c1970. Always immaculate in smart brown overall, his shop was just along from our house and handy for window-shopping after getting off the school bus. He supplied our fishing tackle & licences, air gun pellets, Scout (and Girl Guide !) penknives, and such like. He was my dad's first source for all DIY hardware and even rarities from the back storeroom like the delicate mantle for our ancient oil lamp (the 1970s meant regular power cuts !). Yes, and fork handles too of course !. Arthur was a serious, firm but fair gent, deeply respected in the town, but always MR Edwards to me despite my being at school with his daughter, and living almost next-door. Sadly missed.

Thanks Janey for reminding me to revisit this excellent website, so many happy memories of those long summer holidays when the only worry for me was hay fever, it never rained in 70s summers !

My direct Bowdler line left the Forest in the 1920s, moving to Devon and then to Cornwall. No doubt there are some distant relatives still around!

It confirms he was a private in the Gloucestershire Regiment, although doesn't mention the 13th Battalion specifically. The address given is Severn Street, Newnham - which I have from other sources. What it does give me, which I'm sure will be the spur to further research, is his service number: 17909. I've looked at the Army Service Numbers website and - although the block of numbers 179xx is not specifically referenced it would appear highly likely that Oliver's number would have been issued in the first quarter of 1915. The pension record shows that he was discharged on 16 June 1916, stating that he suffered from tuberculosis.

Most of the rest of the card is a list of dates and initials, which I assume refer to medicals to assess his ongoing health. In November 1920 it states that his degree of disablement was 70%; he received a pension (not gratuity or weekly allowance); payment of the pension was conditional (not permanent or final) and he received 28/- per week and his wife 33/3. It notes that he had six children aged under 16 at the time. In December 1921 the disablement was assessed as 100% and payments increased to 40/- for Oliver and 47/6 for his wife. In November 1922 disablement was assessed 80% and payments reduced. Judging by the dates on the card he continued to receive medicals (and presumably payments) until 1931.

The card also includes addresses in Wales, where Oliver moved to around 1922, so these will also help piece together the family history more generally.

Lots more to do and look up now - and fortuitously I have a day off work! As I've previously posted on the Great War Forum about this I'll add an update there too.

I've just had an email from the Western Front Association attached to which are two pension record index cards (not the full pension records). Unsurprisingly the WFA is completely snowed under with requests, so on their latest visit to their store they only got as far as locating the index cards. All being well, this should lead to them finding the full records on their next visit. Of course there is no guarantee, but it is progress nonetheless. It's definitely the correct person, as it includes the address in Devon where Oliver lived latterly, and also includes the name of his widow (Beatrice - whom he married after having divorced my great grandmother).

Hopefully I'll have more comprehensive information to report in about a month's time.

Janey

My family tree software is groaning a bit at all the information I have about my Forest of Dean ancestors so I'm now in the process of writing it up into a proper narrative. As always, there are still big gaps and questions left unanswered, but I guess that's part of the fun. Once I get the pension records I'm not sure how much else I can do. I'm toying with the idea of a visit to Gloucester Archives to look at records for Westbury Workhouse. This might help me to piece together what happened to my great-grandmother: whether she stayed in the workhouse for long or was let out again. It could also show how long my grandfather (Oliver William's eldest son) and his siblings were in there for.

My Mum didn't know he had been in the workhouse at all so this piece of the jigsaw was quite a shock. She only knew that grandad had had a difficult childhood and had been looked after by "Aunt Mollie". Whether this was Oliver's own aunt (Mary Bowdler) or someone who worked at the workhouse is still a mystery. My Mum visited her in Cinderford as an elderly lady around 1950 and was bequeathed a set of silver hairbrushes when Aunt Mollie died. My grandad must have been fond of her as my Mum is named Molly!

By the way jefff, I read a comment of yours on another thread on here (I forget which) where you said you did have interests other than Bowdlers. I wondered if by that you meant that the Bowdlers were a particular interest of yours through family connections?

Wrt the War Diary being available to download from TNA, it's great that you included the specific WO (War Office) Reference. I say this as I've just received the monthly "WDYTYA" email newsletter, which proudly states "the third batch of WW1 diaries has gone online"
http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/weekly-round-new-batch-ww1-unit-diaries...

I clicked this link hoping it would give a list of what units were now online, but to my surprise there wasn't that I could find, disappointing. I then searched WO 95 for "Gloucestershire" to see which of the Regiment's Diaries were online, but despite other Battalion's being found, to my surprise I couldn't find the 13th ?!. This was despite searching in various ways as per my previous experience of the TNA search engine. However thanks to you, searching specifically for "WO 95/2577/1" took me straight to it, all very odd...
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/s/res?_q=WO%2095%2F2577%2F1

Please though don't forget that the 13th Battn Diary is already transcribed within this FoD site.
http://forest-of-dean.net/index.php/miscellaneous-documents

Wrt your comment abt the Western Front Organisation, thanks for reminding me that this is the only way to access these Pension Records, not the MoD anymore, and not from TNA or any online source. I also appreciated your helpfull post on the aforementioned "WDYTYA" site forum, clarifying the WFO only have access to the records just twice a month, hence the long leadtime.
http://westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-current-news/pension-records.html

Thanks again for your kindly help to us all.

First, I've applied to the Western Front Association for his pension records (for those who may not have followed my exploits, a newspaper article from 1922 relating to a court-case refers to him as a discharged soldier in receipt of a pension). Unfortunately the WFA is inundated with requests at the moment - unsurprisingly - and they predict that mine will not be looked at for another couple of months.

Second - and of more relevance to other readers here - the National Archives has now digitised the War Diary of the 13th Batt. Gloucestershire Regiment; this can be downloaded from their website for the princely sum of £3.30. (The full reference is WO 95/2577/1.) More diaries are coming online every day practically - when I looked at this one just a couple of weeks ago it said it was for reference at Kew only.

Janey

Yes I agree it's possible Oliver's story may have been embellished to include tunnelling, that does sounds more "daring-do" than digging trenches, altho both were essential of course. However please don't discount it completely; the Tunnelling Companies were a real and very important part of the trench War, and the British Army deliberately searched-out ex-miners within the Army to transfer into the new Tunnelling Companies wherever possible. Please do take a look at the prior thread I included above, you'll see that apart from mending brokenlinks to more related forum threads, I've also added the Youtube link to a very interesting BBC documentary on the subject, strongly recommended viewing. Here's the Tunnelling thread link
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=41028

Happy Hunting with your trawl thro' the Medal Cards, at least it's not an overly common surname, if you do find anything please tell us, thanks and good luck !

Rugby was great - son lost two teeth (wobbly ones that fell out, not knocked out - at aged six it's tag not contact rugby!)

Anyway, back to the family history. The issue of tunnelling under enemy lines I've always taken with a pinch of salt. It was only ever a vague story; I think the fact that the 13th Battalion was a pioneer battalion, drawn heavily from miners, and responsible for digging trenches, is enough of a connection. Anything more is probably embellishment down the years!

I'll keep doing various wildcard searches of different spellings of the name in the hope of finding a medal index card, but I accept that he may never have left England hence no medals. In the meantime I'll gamble £25 to see what the Western Front Association have in terms of pension records.

Jane

I looked at that record for William Bowdler in the Monmouthshire regiment the other day and wondered whether it might be relevant.

Having just received the birth certificate stating Oliver was in the 13th Bt. Glosters I think I'm going to pursue that avenue for the time being. While he may have changed regiment at some point, the details from the birth certificate are the only thing I have so far which pins him down into any particular regiment.

Source: British Regiments 1914-18 Brig. E.A. James, OBE,T.D.

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Janey - I hope the rugby went well today, just a little battered but not too beaten ?

Reading your "WDYTYA?" thread you say your family have suggested Oliver was involved in Tunnelling under the lines ?. Have you followed this up at all ?.
If he was doing this I THINK - not certain - that he wouldn't have still been in the 13th Glosters. Afraid I haven't read their War Diary yet, clearly THE best source for the 13th; however from what I've read elsewhere (eg the "Malvern" site link I posted here yesterday), tunnelling wasn't part of the 13th Pioneers' work. Not surprisingly there were specialist Tunnelling Companies raised near to the FoD in Monmouthshire, but Oliver could also have transferred to them while in France. Despite tunnelling/undermining being an ancient Sappers skill in Britain, it was the German Army who first started it in WW1, yet it was the British (& Empire Allies) who deliberately recruited ex-miners etc into their Tunnelling Companies. If Oliver did transfer to a Tunnelling Coy then it's another reason for ensuring you doublecheck as many possible Medal Cards as you can find in case he's not shown as a "Gloster".
This prior thread discusses the Tunnelling Companies in more depth;
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=41028

Finally, you mentioned your brief search of the British Newspaper Association BNA website. It may interest you to know that they've just made their site far more affordable, now offering monthly subscriptions at a very reasonable cost which will permit 200 downloads. Indeed one of the hits I've found today is a lengthy text-only article in the Gloucester Journal from 19th July 1919 which appears to detail the history of the 13th Glosters. I haven't downloaded it, yet, as I suspect it's one of the reference sources used by the "Malvern" site. I have today searched the BNA site for Oliver Bowdler (and spelling variations); as you know he gets a few mentions wrt his legal dealings !, both in Littledean and later in Devon. The only military mention I've found, while specifically searching the Glos papers 1910-1919, gave a possible relative in the same Blaize Bailey area ?. The search-engine hit shows

"Ruardean ... Bergt. Miles, Col.- Bergt.-Inst. W. Jones, Sergt. Bowers, Lance- Corpl. Webb. Corpl. Weaver, Sergt. Nelmes, Lance-Corpl. Bowdler, Pte. Weaving, Tyler."
Saturday 27 December 1913 , Gloucester Journal.

I'll download and post this in in full later.

Another suggestion from the Long, Long Trail website is to search for soldiers through the 1918 Absent Voters List. Details of how to search are on the Long, Long trail site.

Back to Oliver, I wonder if his special skills and age/experience meant he stayed in the UK but still "trench digging" etc ? There would have been plenty of opportunities for that work on the Home Front too, eg instructing new recruits at training camps, or helping build said camps etc where trenches would be needed for training and suchlike ?.
Then again, unfortunately there will always be cases of missing WW1 Records including the Medal Cards, I think they're considered to include about 90% of the total manpower, equating to abt 5 million men, very good coverage but still leaving maybe 50,000 unaccounted-for ?. By complete coincidence while just checking my numbers, my quick "google" with no mention of Oliver at all gave your thread on the WDYTYA website !
http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/forum/topic10188.html

Contrary to the forecast it's bright sunshine and quite warm here in W.London, not rugby weather, hope its a bit cooler for you today and you all enjoy the tournament.
atb Jeff

Paul - I do indeed have those two marriages already. The marriage to Beatrice Manley was my great-grandfather (his second marriage, but third relationship resulting in children). The marriage to June Jones was his son, also Oliver William.

I'm aware that the lack of MIC points to not having served overseas; he would have been aged 31 by the start of the war so perhaps a little older than average to be posted to the front-line. Anyhow I'll add details as I have them; thanks to all once again.

Jane

http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=11602
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43083

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Hi Janey, regarding more information abt the 13th Glosters, please don't forget you can search the whole forum going back several years, it's a wealth of good information.

The base of this recent post contains links to an excellent website which gives great detail about the 13th Battalion.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43593

also
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43062

Finally, sorry if I've missed something on the various threads abt Oliver, did you see this suggestion from Mike Pinchin re his WW1 Service ?
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43094

I realise this goes against your recent information ref the Marriage Recor, but it was perfectly possible for soldiers to transfer between Regiments, usually gaining a new Army Number as they did.

Regarding his apparent lack of a Medal Index Card, is it possible he never actually served overseas ?. If not then I don't think he'd be eligible for Medals, hence no Card.
Perhaps he stayed at a UK Depot, perhaps due to illness or some minor disability ? I know this differs from your family's story, but I guess no-one's family will want to publically admit their soldier stayed safe at home. Unlikely perhaps, but ???
http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/campaignmedals.html

Source: Findmypast

Jan-Mar 1946
Devon Central District
Vol-5b
Page-119
Line-59
Potential Spouse-Beatrice M Manley

and

Jul-Sep 1946
Taunton District
Vol-7c
Page-575
Line-41
Potential Spouse-June I Jones

There are a number of others, including the problems with his wife "wandering abroad" in Cinderford, debts, and dissolving his business partnership of Watkins & Bowdler at Central Garage Newnham. Later in life, when he moved to Devon, there are other articles - debt (again), the sad deaths of two children, and, in 1945, his divorce.