Who Do You Think You Are Magazine Forum

[KeithLee]

Just a quick update.

Sadly, my mum passed away last week and I've been going through lots of very old documents and photographs, one of which is a picture, carefully folded in half, of 2 children with some writing on the back ....

RO1633569 Gnr L G Lee
Rate of pay per week 15/9 (scrubbed out and replaced with £1 1.7d)
Dated 6-12-42

So, even though we haven't got an exact match, one of the Army numbers looks the same - with possibly a typo or some scruffy handwriting being the difference.

If anyone has anything extra to add on this, I'd be eternally grateful

[KeithLee]

UPDATE - finally got the records back from my Grandad.

Quite informative stuff, but it's like opening Pandora's box - as what I now have is a bunch of dates and Regts to research!

Anyone happen to be researching 51 Batt 38 LAA, RA? (At least, I'm guessing that's what the 51/38 means?)

He was with the same unit from 6 Nov 41 till 11 Oct 44, when it seems he was transferred to 'XL (1) LAA' serving at 305 POW camp.

Any help appreciated (again)

[AdrianB38]

Well, LAA is Light Anti-Aircraft - though that might be obvious.

The compound number is trickier. All this is very much off the top of my head from memory but I've tried on a couple of occasions to disentangle unit identities like this and it's not easy. There are sites with Orders of Battle for the RA in WW2 but they don't seem comprehensive. A compound number like that might be a Regiment within the RA followed by the Battery number - the RA moved from Brigades to Regiments at some time in the interwar period.

On the other hand, another use of compound numbers was for AA batteries manned by both Regulars and Home Guard - one number was effectively that for the Regulars, the other for the Home Guard. Together they make up the designation of the whole battery. I don't think that's what this looks like but when abbreviations are used, anything can happen.

My first guess would be 51 Regiment with 38 Battery in it but that could be complete nonsense on my part. It's just an idea to explore in case no-one has a better one. Suggest that you try various combinations like that in Google.

Good luck. If anyone can put me out of my misery at guessing, I'd be grateful.

Sent from my MotoG3 using WDYTYA Forum mobile app

[KeithLee]

It's definitely Bty / Regt - that's how the RA are set up as far as I'm aware, although I'd be happy to stand corrected, hence why I wasn't 100% sure.....

Another abbreviation I've come across (dated 24 Jul 44) is 'Classified Cl IA (Pay)' (upper/lower case as written). Part 2 Orders for this is 56/44 (although I can find no reference to what this section refers to)

Now - a bit of Googling leads me to this being 'Casualty List' 'Immediate Action' - which does stack up with what my Dad has told me (ie my grandad being wounded/injured at some point), but I can't find any other evidence .....