May I ask a big favour from anyone with a FMP subscription that has access to newspaper records? This week, while visiting my mom, who has advanced dementia, she suddenly announced out of nowhere that her brother Tom had served in Iceland in the war. I knew that 3 of her brothers were in the war, and have photos of Tom and Vincent in uniform but this is the first time she's ever said anything about where they had served. I admit I know very little about British army history, but I rather doubted the validity of her statement as I had believed that Iceland was a neutral country in the war. But I brought it up with dad the next day. He also has dementia, but he corroborated her statement and just changed it slightly to say that it was Vincent who served in Iceland and Tom served in Ceylon (another revelation) and that it was a real treat when Tom sent packets of tea to his mom from Ceylon. So of course, I had to Google this new information, and I believe I have found that there is a photo of the men of the Yorkshire regiment serving in Iceland, in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer on page 6 Sept. 2, 1940. If someone could email me a copy of this photo, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
Helen C.
Thank you so much Ted. This is greatly appreciated. The photo is rather grainy, but I'll see if I can sharpen it up and possibly recognise one of my uncles in it. It's rather ironic, that I have been researching the family history for almost 5 decades and no one has ever mentioned that Uncle Tom served in Ceylon and Uncle Vin served in Iceland. It had to wait until mom developed dementia, for that memory to jog loose. Now I just have to see if I can prove it. Thank you once again.
Helen C.
Thank you, Dave. I'll keep that under consideration. Who does one contact to purchase the records? I live in Canada, so it would have to be something I could do by mail or email. Do they release records to someone who is not a direct relative? I think Tom had a son and Vincent had 3 children, but I have no contact with any of them.
Helen C.
Helen, see www.gov.uk site and find the get army service records there. It tells you everything.
You can only do it by snail mail and they will issue some more limited info to someone who is not next of kin. You will need their birth dates
Dave
Helen, my experience of this is getting the records through a next of kin, so I am guessing at what they will give (correction sell) to you. I assume they will supply movements around the world but will withhold personal info like family connections. But you have those anyway.
Dave
Edit, Helen, you could put the applications in the name of your mother as their next of kin