Finding out about my father's war service

I once looked into this on a website which held military records. For years afterwards they posted updates but I'm sorry, I've forgotten the name of the site. I don't think it was the one mentioned above.

My father was in the Navy and spent most of his time time in East Africa and Ceylon. He told stories occasionally, but I got the impression that most of the time was spent just sitting around waiting.

Marg75

If you think war is wicked and shameful, would you have sat back and let our country be overrun and occupied by Hitler? Those wonderful men and women fought for our freedom!

Those who are the aggressors are the ones who are wicked and shameful.

Those defending our liberty, fighting for peace, should be remembered and honoured.

Many fail to distinguish between those who attack and those who defend.

Totally agree Marg75. War is a dreadful business, but particularly WW2, unfortunately needs must. Towards the end of her life my mother suddenly, after years of reticence which had slightly bewildered me, opened up just a bit about my fathers death. All her life she had recurrent nightmares of him screaming while trying to get out of that burning Lancaster which was hurtling towards the ground! She cried, I cried, and we left it at that, and had a glass of wine!!. It was, however, eye opening, and certainly made it clear to me why, over the years he had been virtually wiped out of our lives. She just couldn't go there.

What a brave man. Some many brave men and women who must be honoured.

Thank you Marg75. They must indeed.

Lahlah65

Moonwatcher1904

My dad never spoke about any military service he did but I found out a lot when I did my family tree. He was born in September 1899 and tried to join the Royal Scots Fusiliers in June 1915 so that would've made him 15 at the time. The war record I have states that he said he was 19. but he was discharged when they found out his real age. He never met his father as he died in 1902, when he was only 20, in the 2nd Boer War and was buried in South Africa.

We realised just yesterday that DD’s grandfather is shown as being 19 years and 2 days on his enlistment papers from 1915. He was actually only 16years 2 months old.

LahLah65 it makes you wonder how many youngsters have tried to enlist when under age.

I found some good information on my DGF in WW1 on the Ancestry site when it was free for Armistice day one year . I only needed his name (which was Jones so a difficult one!) , birth year and address at signing up , And regiment . Found some excellent documents like from when he was given confinment for being late back after leave probably to visit my DGrandma . He got the military cross and fought all the battle of the Somme . He also never spoke of it . And we also never had anything Japanese in the house because of my DM s friends experience s in WW2 .

Iahlah65. Obtaining your father's Service Record would be a good start. You can find out on line how to do that. You will then know where he served, his rank and service number. Once you have the bare outline, there are military sites where you can research and hopefully come up with satisfactory answers. Was he a POW? If so, they can be a bit elusive to research and require quite a bit of patience!