Our First Month
May 11, 2007
The new website for the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum has now been operating for a month and the comments we have been receiving are extremely encouraging. To date we have had over 7,000 site visits, including visitors from The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We have also received numerous archive enquiries from those searching for details of their relatives who served in The Gloucestershire Regiment or the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. We are indeed fortunate in having a database of First World War soldiers, supported by the Museum’s own extensive archive, which has proved essential in providing answers to the questions you have been posing.
Here is the feedback from some of our successful searches:
Thank you very much for the information about my husband’s grandfather . . . . He found it very moving as he never knew him. His mother said he disappeared after his wife’s death in 1952. She said that they tried to find him but he was never heard of again so she never spoke of him. Most of my husband’s family are from Bristol but l could not find *******, the only one l could find was from West Hartlepool and now l have had it confirmed. The only information l had to go on was Horfield Barracks which l found on his marriage certificate. I will try to look for any information in the Echo to see if l could find anything else, perhaps a photo! Once again thank you for all your help.
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Thank you very much for your informative and prompt reply.
I have sent the information on to my Father who was most interested.
Thank you again.
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Thank you so much for trying to help me. I have to confess, the dates I got for Sergeant **********s enlistment and discharge from the Regiment (1908 and 1919 respectively) actually came from the Statement of Service on your own website! In terms of the Battalion, I had always heard from relatives that he served in the 14th, and he was indeed short in height, but my father seems to think there was also some connection with the 2nd. I have attached two photographs which might provide further clues, and which were labelled 14th Gloucestershire and Plumstead Heath respectively in our family album. I would be interested to hear what, if anything, you can make of them.
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Thank you for the information you supplied about Private ********. Your report about the circumstances of his death in France during World War 1 was excellent.
When my mother died a few years ago a scroll was found amongst her effects, this was what prompted me to find out more about him. I have sent a copy of it with this email.
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That is great – I was looking at the website and wondered whether you have any photographs of the regiment he was in – its probably going to be mostly the 13th as he was from Durham – or whether there are any documents relating to him at all?
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Just read your email and the information in there is brilliant. Thank you so much for your trouble. It is so nice to be able to read about…... Brings him to life somehow.
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Thank you very much for your prompt and very extensive response to my enquiry. I greatly appreciate the effort you have put in to this research and the results are indeed very interesting and helpful to me, Alfred John Taylor was my grandfather’s younger brother. We are proud to know about his service for King and country. Once again, many thanks for your report.
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Many thanks for the information. I am rapidly finding out that researching a relative from 90+ years ago is a challenging task, but I am enjoying trying to put the jigsaw together! My next steps will be the National Archives and then some Bristol newspapers as you have suggested. I will also try to visit your museum sometime this summer.
Thanks again for your very prompt response to my enquiry. .................