Hi all, I'm researching some family history for a friend. I have a subscription on Ancestry, but can't find the records I'm looking for. He survived the war and I don't believe he was taken prisoner. 7349026 ERIC J PRANCE, Sgt RAMC MEDICAL BRANCH HQ FOURTEENTH ARMY SOUTH EAST ASIA COMMAND Nov 1944 If anyone can help point me in the right direction or add any info, I'd be very grateful. Thanks!
Hi, Welcome to the forum. You will be very lucky to find any information about a British WW2 era soldier on the internet. Unlike WW1 era service records that are available on various paid for internet sites all post 1920 service records are still held by U.K. MOD. Here is a link to the MOD site and the application forms - Get a copy of military service records If you look on the service record sub forum you will see examples of the material you may receive from MOD. Good Luck Steve
He applied, personally, to join the Burma Star Association on 24 Apr 1975, he quoted his decorations as: Territorial decoration 39-45 Star Burma Star Dunkirk Medal Victory Medal Assume your friend is a relative of his therefore get them to apply for service records as per Steve's advice. Will need a death certificate and you can get the necessary details from your Ancestry subscription.
Hello and welcome. We need to find an RAMC unit that served both in the BEF at Dunkirk and also then was (or he was) transferred to serve in Burma, to qualify for both the Dunkirk and Burma medals. He was also a Territorial to earn the TD. As always, it's recommended that you apply to the MoD for his Service Records, which for £30 can be good value in clarifying what and where he was. In the meantime..... Do you have access to any other information, medals, letters, photographs etc that might provide additional clues? He seems to have married a Miss Edna Darley in 2nd Qtr 1942 in Croydon. It might be that his birth was mistranscribed as Eric John PrInce, 2nd Qtr 1906 in Reading. There's a William J Prance born 4th Qtr 1910 in Bideford. Croydon and Bideford seem hotspots for that surname!
Thank you all for your advice. Sadly my friend is far too tight to pay £30 for anything - he'd rather get the facts wrong, which is why I'm checking them! But the link Steve gives will be useful for me to get my father's RAF records. Eric is related to the Croydon lot, Kent is likely but not Bideford AFAIK. And he did marry Edna Darley, another hard-to-trace person. I will check out the Reading birth, but it sounds possible to me. Thanks again.
Territorial Decorations are issued to officers only ? Perhaps a later commission or an error? Oh dear that will kill off any interest in this one .. Kyle
Forces War Records state him as being awarded the Territorial Efficiency Medal in February 1947. However, I thought this medal was replaced by the Efficiency Medal in the 1930s?