Linking Ww1 Soldiers With Other Records

[KevinB]

My great grandfather Edwin Bamford was born in Sheffield on 9th July 1886 and resident at 40 Victoria Street, Dinnington, nr Sheffield in 1911 (1911 census). He would have been 29 in 1914 when ww1 started and therefore eligible to fight?

He never spoke about the war and there are no living relatives to ask but it seems likely he took part in it.

I have found an entry in the medal cards for an Edwin Bamford, a gunner in the Royal Field Artillary. He has the pip, squeak, and Wifred medals, the Star medal being awarded in 1915. He landed in France on 25th July 1915.

I have tried Ancestry.com without success. Other than a trip to the NA, where else might I look to see if the two Edwin Bamfords are one and the same man?

[KevinB]

One other piece of information I have is that the 1911 census records his job as a" coal miner hewer". Were miners exempt from fighting?

[saw119]

Can you post an image of the medal card please? If not what are his service numbers?

[KevinB]

From my iPad I can't find a way to add things but his regimental No . was 72264. I can switch the pc on to post the medal card if the number is insufficient.

[Stuart0742]

There are Pension Records for Edwin Bamford 72264 on Ancestry (States Dinnington as address)

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=britisharmy&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=Edwin&gsln=Bamford&cpxt=1&uidh=1wl&cp=11&pcat=39&fh=0&h=37120&recoff=&ml_rpos=1

[KevinB]

Thank you very much for posting the link which I failed to find.

Without doubt this is our man! There are several pieces of corroborative information.

1) His wife is named as Mary. He did indeed marry a Mary Burton.

2) Two children, Edwin Leslie and Arthur are named. These were the names of his two children.

3) His signature on one of the entries matches one that I have.

GOAL!!!

Now all I have to do is make sense of all the information on the link. It does seem he was injured in action and may have been pensioned off.

I would also like to find out where in France he fought.

Thanks very much for the information!

[KevinB]

Another point I can't understand is why a coal face worker was fighting in the war at all. I have read that miners were not allowed to fight as much coal was needed for the war effort.

[KevinB]

Here is the war medal record card that I found for Edwin Bamford. The theatre of war section records 41 France or UI France, I cannot decide which. If it's 41 would this be the Department number for where in France he fought?

[Stuart0742]

This is actually (1) the code for France

[saw119]

If you've got his pension papers then it should be a piece of cake finding out all the information you require. First start with which which RFA Brigade he belonged to and work from there.

As far as I am aware there was no specific reserved occupation list for WWI so anyone who wanted to sign up, certainly at the beginning of the war, was taken no matter what their job. Sometimes men were siphoned off depending on what job they did pre war. For example I have researched a man who worked in the pits who was a pony driver. He went to France as a Driver in the RFA. That means he was responsible for the gun carriages getting where they needed to be by riding a horse. So his pre war experience led him to his war work.