Military Chat

Wesley was my grandfather and was killed in WW1 in Ypres in 1918. Although in Lincolnshire Regiment, he was born in Eastringtron, E Yorkshire. Is there anyone out there who has him in their tree? Please contact.

Patricia,

If you use the Search tab top right,from the drop down menu,and click Search all members Trees,,,,,enter his details in the box and if any show in the list as a match,you can contact the person shown on the right by clicking on their name.
you will know if they reply to you by direct message by seeing a purple envelope alongside messages along the top of your screen,,,,,,also you will be notified by Genes to your own personal email.

Hello Patricia, as you've posted this on the Military Chat board is there any area of his service that you're looking for help with?

Is this him?:-

First name(s) WESLEY
Last name PARKER
Death year 1918
Service number 51365
Rank Sergeant
Regiment or unit Lincolnshire Regiment
Record source GRO War Death Army Other Ranks (1914 to 1921)
Volume I.46
Page 383
Record set British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Deaths & burials
Collections from Great Britain

It's strange that I can't find him on the Commonwealth War Graves Site.

Kath. x

This is from Soldier's Effects and is really who gets the compensation. It states the money to be paid to the widow Amelia and children - children unnamed.

Wesley Parker
Gender: Male

Death Date: 14 Mar 1918
Death Place: France
Rank: Sergeant

Regiment: Lincolnshire Regiment
Regimental Number: 51365

Edit :- There are several trees on Ancestry with him on.

Gosh! What a lot of replies for the first time I've ever posted on board like this.
Kay???? - I have not tried that for a long time, so must again.
MarieCeleste - No, it was just a general query, nothing in particular.
KathleenBell - Yes, that is him and he is on the CWG website, buried at Google Crater.
Patin Cyprus - I haven't heard of Soldiers Effects, but that is my grandmother who received the money. He died in Belgium, though, or is my geography rubbish. Can't help with any of your research, I'm afraid.
I've set up a Facebook page/group for Descendants of Wesley Parker .............. with photos and other items. Take a look.

Thank you all for your replies and help
Pat

Hooge Crater cemetery. Why is it that computers think they know better than you do?
Pat

The soldiers effects info is from the regimemt's own base and they say your grandfather was killed in action in France. They may have it wrong as they had to write up so many for the regiments the area/group bases looked after. Your grandfather was death number 682830 on this register. Each group of regiments had a clerical base with the name of the dead and their N of K. Thought provoking isn't it with so many deaths in each group.

Your grandmother got a total of £24 6 shilling and 2 pence for her husband's death. £12 6/2d may have been his pay owed as it was on death. £12 was a second payment after the end of the war.

I am not doing any research relating to this just giving you information I have found for you from the effects site and a check on family trees on Ancestry as you were asking for other people who were related to your grandfather.

Hope that clarifies everything.

Thank you for that information. I must have a look through the Lincolnshire's regiment.
Pat

There are 4 hits on Ancestry Military records for Wesley Parker 51365:
UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919

There is a line on his medal card that says when he first entered a theatre of war - France in this case.
(Ypres is in Belgium, but the allies held no Belgian port, so one had to land in France.)


CWGC hit:
PARKER, W
Rank:Serjeant
Service No:51363
Date of Death:14/03/1918
Regiment/Service:Lincolnshire Regiment 8th Bn.
Grave Reference: XIV. J. 10.
Cemetery:HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY
attached docs say:
Exhumed from BASS WOOD CEMETERY Sheet 20.d.20.25
Next page gives ref as J.20.d.20.25

The Sheet is actually 28. The letter identifies a 6 x 6 block of 1000yd x 1000yd numbered squares.
Each of these sqs is divided into quadrants labelled:
a b
c d
Within the quadrant, starting from the SW corner, we count in blocks of 50 yds, easting first, then northing to give J.20.d.2.2
50 yd blocks isn't really precise enough, so we use 5 x 5 yd blocks and give the ref as J.20.d.20.25.

http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70113/-/collection
shows where Bass Wood is - the cemetery Wesley was initially buried in was in Bass Wood.
Hooge Crater isn't marked on the map - it might not be on this map - my guess is it's at J.13.a.0.0, i.e., right on the edge of the map at the boundary between the a & c quadrants of I.13.
But if it's 50 or 100 yds to W (i.e., in I.18) then it would be in the NW part of Sheet 28. The village of Hooge is abt 400yds off the W edge of the map (also in I.18.c).
Hooge village is on route N8, which cuts thru Bass Wood - it's in J.20.b - the NW quadrant, and runs NW abt 6km (=6.6 square sides) to Ypres/Ieper (it wasn't called route N8 in 1918).


8th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Lincoln in September 1914 as part of K3 and came under command of 63rd Brigade in 21st Division.
10 September 1915 : landed at Boulogne.
8 July 1916: transferred with Brigade to 37th Division.
http://www.1914-1918.net/lincolns.htm

http://www.1914-1918.net/21div.htm
http://www.1914-1918.net/37div.htm

Lacking a sevice record for Wesley, one doesn't know precisely when he arrived in France (unless his medal card says)
Ancestry has a great many units' war diaries online. These say, day by day what the 8th battalion of the Lincolnshires was doing, day be day.
The unit's whole war's worth can vary quite a bit in size.
Ancestry had a freebie on Aug Bank Holiday, and I downloaded my ma-i-l's uncle's unit (5th DLI) and it came to over 230 images/ages.
I reckon my grandad's unit had 400 images, but I only managed to download 80 of those in the time I had.
I was downloading abt 90 images per hr (65MB per hr) - Something to base plans on.
Ancestry might have a freebie around Armistice Day, or you could check your local library if you don't have a sub - many library's do have a special library sub.
Locally, my library does, as do 3 of my 4 neighbouring municipalities.

Even if you don't get the whole war's worth, I would get March 1918.

I posted some suggestions on another thread "Ancestry in libraries"
http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1354471

Hi mgnv

Many thanks for your so comprehensive reply to my query. You must have spent some time in finding out all that information. I had not realised about the exhumation and so found that of particular interest.
Thanks again
Pat

If you look him up at the CWGC site (note they get his # wrong) - there are associated documents - one of these details the exhumation. Also the hit has the name of the cemetery as a link - clicking on it gives info abt that cemetery - how to get there, some cemetery pics, and a broad outline of the sort of servicemen buried there.