Hi, I am looking to find Albert Ernest Penn, born 16 Sep 1916, died 22 Jun 1997. Here is what I have found to date,,, The 1939 Register records him at 22 Park Road, Walthamstow with an occupation of sheet metal worker. A newspaper article dated the 7th of August 1942 refers to him as Private Albert E. Penn who was called up at the outbreak of the war and sent to Scotland. At the time he was living with his wife Rose and two children in Boswell Road, Thornton Heath. Some time in the summer of 1941 his wife moved the family to Ecclesbourne Road, Thornton Heath, this was Alberts residential address until about 1963 so I would expect it would also be his discharge address. There are records for an Albert Ernest Penn with a Service No 962494 but this is not the one I am looking for> This guy is recorded as a Japanese POW captured on the 15 Feb 1942 at the fall of Singapore. The Albert I am looking for was in the UK in July 1942. I know it is not much to go on but I would appreciate any clues. Thank you, Leaus
Hi, Welcome to the forum. The definitive way forward is to apply to UK MOD for his service records. You will need to provide proof of death. If MOD have already sent them to UK National Archives they will signpost you there. You don’t need a service number as they will search on full name and DOB. It isn’t a speedy process. It can take up to a year to get a copy service record but it is the basic foundation on which to base further research. Get a copy of military records of service As you've likely already discovered there is very little information/documentation available in the public domain for free about individual soldiers. The limited available information is most often hidden behind a paywall on Ancestry or findmypast etc. WW2 campaign medal application forms were released to Ancestry/Forces War Records late last year. Forum member JohnG505 has had some success when men made applications (many didn’t) so he may be lucky with your subject. However the number of online records were recently reduced by 1/3 to about 800k due to privacy issues. Good Luck Steve
Exact match on a site I only visit: From: Albert Ernest Penn (1916-) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree shown as Albert E. Penn and cited Ancestry as source. There are no threads here with his name, in full or partial first name. Caveat for what follows: There is no guarantee he did not change units, either in the regiment or elsewhere. Wiki has a slim history: From: Middlesex Regiment - Wikipedia There very threads here for the 2/7th id'd using: "27th Middlesex Regiment" site:ww2talk.com and a few more with: "2/7th Middlesex" site:ww2talk.com Many more id'd with an online search: "2/7 Middlesex" site:ww2talk.com . At a glance a good number refer to service in Italy. Without "X" a search found many more, so might be worth a look. A search with: "2/7 Middlesex" + "war diary" site:ww2talk.com found a number to have a look at.
Many thanks to everyone who responded - it is very much appreciated. Apropos of nothing, I can relate to the privacy issues mentioned above and think a lot of it borders on the nonsensical. Two examples, I have rceived WW2 service records of my father and his brother. In both cases there were what I consider to be rediculous redactions, the first was their religion but the most rediculous was the redaction of the names of the commanding officers of the ships that my uncle served aboard,
