Hi
I wonder if any one can help me. I am desparately trying to find out where my Grandfather served during ww1. Before giving all the details, the reason why I have made a post here is because I have a postcard of (presumably) his platoon which takes the form of photograph of the platoon. On the reverse side there is typed the following in Russian " A post card. Write only on this side". I have very few details about my Grandfather and we have not had any luck with his service records or the "burnt documents" . It would be amazing if he served in Russia. Here are some basics:
No 321806, Pnr: Albert Cyril Welham, discharged from SSTC Royal Engineers on 2.10.19 as a consequence of being no longer fit for war service (amputation of right thigh).
Mobilised on 2.6.17. I believe he served in 25th division, 74 (76?)th brigade as he had written this in the front of a book he owned about ww1.
I know he was still in England at the end of November 1917 as we have a post card he sent to his parents. After this time we know nothing.
I never knew him. He died in his 50's and never talked about his experiences to my father (his son), even though he suffered so much from shell shock during the Blitz that the family had to move out of London.
Even if no one can help me- perhaps someone would know why there is a postcard of a platoon of Royal Engineer signallers with Russian writing on the back..
Thanks.

Hi Marcat, can't help you much, but if you look here and scroll down, it looks like elements of 25th Div, who served in North Russia 1919-ish. Re numbered 236th Bgde.

Cheers

SSTC would be Signal Service Training Centre.

His number seems to date to around summer 1917 (probably August). Most of the men called up around this time and allotted similar numbers were trained telegraphists and served with a variety of Signal Units.


Steve.

A number of British army units were in various parts of Russia (and other parts of the Russian empire) in 1918 and 1919 mainly supporting the anti Bolshevik forces. Can you scan and post some details of the photo?

Hi
Thanks very much for this. It seems to be a different brigade than the one he appears to have been in, which makes me slightly cautious. On the other hand maybe he served in both, paricularly since he was mobilised in June 1917?

Hi.Thanks for this. Yes he enlisted at East Ham on 3.3.17 and was mobilised on 2.6.17. (we have the discharge paper). We know that he was in the signals and on his War Badge it says late of "Bedford Signal Depot RE", so this would make sense with your point about being a telegraphist. Would you know of any way of finding out where the Bedford Signals served?
Thanks again.

Hi

I am having problems trying to upload the photo, I am being told "You are not permitted to upload this type of file". I will keep trying later..

Forum only accepts JPEG format files.

You may have to wait till you have posted 10 times

Hi
I have (at last!) managed to attach the photo. My Grandfather is on the back row, last on the right, very tall with a cigarette in his right hand. The more I look at the photo, the more I think that it was not taken when he first saw active service. They are all in different states of dress, some with great coats done up, others open, others without a coat, several smoking. So it could be possible that my Grandfather had already seen active service with the 25th division in France and this was taken before being deployed to Russia. It seems to me that he was discharged very late 2.10.19 but maybe he had spent a long time in hospital and was discharged once he left hospital. We know he was an outpatient at Roehampton where he went to have his artifical leg sorted out in later life but we don't know whether this was where he was sent when originally wounded.
Thanks.