Hi Guys
First up I would like to thank David Biggins for the incredible site and his perseverance solving some login issues probably of my own making. As a newbe I’m not sure if I should post the following details here or in the Genealogy and family research but if this isn’t the right box happy to move it –bear with me please
In researching our family history we have come up with a bit of a brick wall regarding my maternal grandfather James William Stratton (DOB 9/2/1883) and I’m hoping one or more of the sites members will be able to nudge me in the right direction to further the cause.
I have taken the service details of my Grandfather directly from those engraved in the two Boer War Medals left to me by my grandmother – The King and Queens South Africa Medals. The Kings Medal has the South Africa 1901 and 1902 Clasps and the Queens Medal the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal and Laing’s Nek Clasps.
I have tried a number of searches of the site with mixed results:
A search of Imperial Units/Royal Field Artillery/63rd Battery using Stratton in the surname search resulted in no records found. Using just the regimental number also returned no result. I then tried the same searches under the general Royal Field Artillery Page with nil results.
The name search on the home page however turned up two J Strattons and 6 W Strattons none of whom are listed as serving with the RFA. However when I searched within the Number search for service no 33992 it returned one record for Tpr Bertie Haydon 86th Company 22 Btn. IY NOT James Stratton of the same number.
The medals I have appear to be originals as I note the Queens South Africa Medal has the ghosted dates 1899 -1900 just discernable but it’s different from the Kings South Africa Medal with Britannia’s wreath pointing to the R instead of F in Africa ?
Is it possible for troops in different Regiments to have identical service numbers during the same period and theatre??? Any suggestions as to how to follow up his service record would be very much appreciated as we have found it very difficult to do so from here in Australia.
Any help/comments would be most appreciated.
Cheers Pete Best
