TOPIC:

I am trying to obtain my grandfather medal but he signed up with a false name (which we know ) i gave a photo of him with other soldiers could you identify the regiment ?

Hi, if you provide what information you do have (names, dates, injuries etc), I'm sure someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

We know he enlisted age 16 under the name of William Kennedy ( actual name William Hatton) and went on to fight in the 1st world war and possibly Ireland under his correct name we have medals with pte 8255 and discharge papers

Without having access to the image you mentioned in your first post, with William being from Bolton my first hypothesis is that he enlisted with the Lancashire Fusiliers, in which there were three W Kennedys at the time of the Boer War. Private 5779 W Kennedy was born in 1872, which unless you wish to correct me, seems too old for this William. Lance Corporal 3105 W Kennedy died at sea in 1901, ruling him out. That leaves Private 5877 W Kennedy. He received the Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony and Orange Free State, and the King's South Africa Medal with both date clasps.

I hasten to add that at this stage my words should be taken as nothing more than conjecture!

Is this any better

Hello Hatty,

There are something like 40 pages of military paperwork relating to your grandfather’s military service to be found on Find My Past. The problem is that every page has suffered damage from the WW2 fire that destroyed 60% of the WW1 military records and making full sense of them is problematic.

This is what I have been able to deduce:

He originally enlisted in the name of William Kenny (confirm Kenny rather than Kennedy) in the 5th (Militia) Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers and was assigned the regimental number 1356. He set sail for South Africa on 13 January 1902 – it would have taken about 3 weeks to get to SA and thus his participation in the war, which ended on 31 May 1902, would have been limited. By the time they drew their roll up for the Queen’s South Africa Medal (QSAM) in 1903 the subterfuge regarding his name had been unearthed and below you can see he was awarded, in the name of W Hatton, the QSAM with Cape Colony and South Africa clasps attached.



He arrived back home in July 1902 and, as you can see above, he then on 24 October 1902, joined the Liverpool Regiment. I suspect he did this on the usual short service basis of 7 years active service followed by 5 years in reserve and his regimental number of 8255 refers to his time with the Liverpool Regiment. Thus, when WW1 started he would have been recalled and he saw active service in France before the end of 1914 earning the 1914 British Star. At some stage he was wounded, which possibly affected his ability as a fighting soldier as at some stage he was transferred to the Labour Corps with a new regimental number of 403428. He was finally discharged in 1919 and subsequently awarded his 1914 British Star, the British War Medal & the Allied Victory Medal.

Regards, David.