Good day to you, i am at the start of what i believe may be a long journey into trying to find out information about my paternal Grandfather who served in WW2. My understanding is that he served in the RAOC, in North Africa and then back in England in Nottinghamshire - worksop / clumber park ?. I have him being called up in May 1940, and being discharged from the Army in December 1945, with the Rank of P/S/CDR which searches on line point to him being a Conductor ? I also have reference to H.Q.9 B.A.D MEF ? Which i take to mean Base Ammunition Depot, and Middle East Force ? but is it H.Q.9 , or 9 B.A.D ? I also have a 7 digit number which i believe was his service number but am not 100% sure - 7630308 There was another number listed in notes left to me which is 30783 ? Any guidance on a way forward would be much appreciated - even if just to confirm that P/S/CDR does mean Conductor ? And that the 7 digit number is likely to be his service number ? Is the best place to start the gov.uk site, i do have a copy of his death certificate, or are there better starting points ? Any help would be much appreciated.
It does look like 7630308 is his service number as that was allocated to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, service records are really the only place to start otherwise it is all guesswork unless you have other concrete information. Get a copy of military service records
Welcome aboard. Others may come along and help. Always apply for his Service Record, even if the turnaround is reported as a year plus now. See: Get a copy of military service records Upload the records here once you've obtained them and then the forum can get to work on them. Please do not pay for any site on the internet who promise you his service records they will not have them, and you would have wasted your money. An example of what you get, this is an Army record, RN are different: Pte S Attley 14685855 4th Wilts Service Records | WW2Talk More help is on: Service Records Adding what you have already found can help, saves others from duplication. A Date of Birth and a Service Number help, though the experts here can surmount that gap. I have noted the 'Other Ranks' rarely feature in Google searches unless they have been awarded gallantry medals or written their memoirs. Searching Google will sometimes bring you back here. The site’s search engine is rather simple; two examples 53rd will bring back all mentions of 53rd; an Army unit can have after 53rd an additional official name, in one case 53rd (Bolton). You must be agile and keep going. War diaries can contain almost anything. At the very least, they give the daily movements and most important actions of every unit. They may also contain information on casualties, message logs, rolls of officers (but not O.R.'s), maps, orders, and much else. They are available at the PRO to everyone. Drew5233 and some others are willing to scan them for the benefit of those who cannot get to the National Archives at Kew. It depends of course how much you want to know, just one battle or campaign for an example. Please come back and tell us what you found. Scanning threads it is clear some discover the site years after your posts and add their information or request help. Good luck.
I would take: P/S/CDR to mean Paid Sub Conductor (ie: he was paid and held the rank of a Sub Conductor but this was not his substantive rank). and HQ 9 BAD to mean HQ of 9 Base Ordnance Depot. If you go to Discovery on the National Archives website and type '9 Base Ordnance Depot' into the search you will find several War Diaries for 9 BAD. Tim
Many thanks for your replies, most interesting and much appreciated. From a Date of Birth perspective he falsified his DOB for the Army to make him seem younger , which always made he and his brother laugh when they were older as to which one was actually the eldest. His army recorded DOB was 02.11.1915 Again, many thanks for your reply and helpful information - his name was Samuel Charles Bellamy, I remember snippets of stories but so wish i'd noted it down at the time, i know he met my Grandmother during the war whilst she was in the WVS and he was based somewhere near worksop at what he described as one of the biggest secret ammo dumps. But whether he finished the war there i don't know. Stories about undertaking guard duty in the Middle East and German pows, and playing for the Army against the Air Force in the desert. He had turned pro as a footballer just prior to the war. I feel really bad for not taking the time to learn their story, he and his brothers who were all in the army. So anything i can find out now i can ensure i can pass on to my sons. Thanks again.
