25 May 2023
I received a reply from the Green Howards Museum regarding my request for information about my great uncle, George Chambers
Thank you for your research request regarding George Chambers. I have managed to find an enlistment record for him, images of the entire book and a zoomed-in extract on his record are attached. This confirms that his service number was 4382732 and that he enlisted on 12th September 1921 at Newcastle when aged 18 years and 5 months. So, as you suspected, he did indeed enlist after the Census of 1921 was taken.
Dealing with queries relating to soldiers who served from the 1920s onwards is problematic because individual records are held and controlled by the Ministry of Defence under their Data Protection responsibilities and, whilst they are not available to third parties such as museums, they are available to next-of-kin. Next-of-kin can apply to:
Army Personnel Centre Disclosures 1
Mail point 520
Kentigern House
65 Brown Street
Glasgow
G2 8EXContact Telephone Number: 0345 600 9663 (The helpdesk is contactable by telephone between 1000hrs to 1200hrs and 1400hrs to 1600hrs Mon-Thu and 1000hrs to 1200hrs Fri).
I understand that, from 1 April 2023, no charge will be made for providing a service record, though there will be long waiting time so, the sooner you apply the better, see: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records
If you do manage to secure a copy of a service record and you have trouble interpreting its contents, do come back toy me, I would be happy to help decipher what it all means – the contemporary Army did like its acronyms and jargon.
George served with the 2nd Battalion in India. Without sight of his service record, I cannot say when he left the Battalion/Regiment. The 2nd Battalion went to Burma in September 1944, do you know if George went with them? If he did, I can copy you the Diary for the 2nd Battalion for that period.
I can confirm that the 2nd Battalion were based at Ferozepore (now Firozpur) in India between August 1939 and April 1941. Then:
- May – September 1941 at Bakarial Camp
- October 1941 at Ferozepore
- November – December 1941 at Jubblepore
- January 1942 at Vadaubhui Camp
- February – September 1942 at Jubblepore
- October 1942 – December 1943 at Razmak (including the action at Dosali on 6/7 June 1943)
- Mid-December 1943 - May 1944 at Peshawar
- May -July 1944 at Ranchi
- Early-July – August 1944 at Lohardaga
- September 1944 to Burma.
Finally, there is nothing in the Collection that is directly attributable to George, however I am attaching a number of images of the 2nd Bn in India. These will, I hope, give a flavour of life on the frontier that George would have known.
Let me know if the Burma diary is relevant/of interest but, in the meantime, I hope this adds to what you know. If this provokes further questions let me know.
This is very useful information but since I’m not next of kin it seems like I won’t be able to access further details of his service record.
