WW1 servicemen profiles

Famous last words on that list of WW1 servicemen I uploaded - I knew there would be some extras to be added once I'd managed to identify more details about them, but I wasn't expecting to trip over numerous others! Five RAF, two Royal Navy and three Army boys so far.

I've also finished profiles of the first couple of WW1 servicemen, both men that died in 1914, and one has been added to the website. This did produce a conundrum for me - as a one-place studier I'm interested in everyone who ever lived in Wing, even if it was just for a short while. You can depend on your research to throw up unusual situations though and that's what I have with this first man. His entry for National Roll of the Great War has his address as Littleworth in Wing, which is why he was on my radar, however I've done a fair bit of digging and I'm pretty sure he never actually lived in Wing!

I do know exactly why he was recorded that way, and what his connection to Wing was, and on balance it seems wrong to exclude him from my list since someone may come across that National Roll entry and want to know why he's not on my list (or I might have a senior moment in future and think I've made a glaring omission!) Also, I have already done all that research which might be of interest to someone out there. My solution was to add him to my servicemen list, with a comment he is "of Stewkley", and include his profile complete with an explanation of his Wing connection. If you are interested in Leonard KEEN of Stewkley who first set foot in France 100 years ago tomorrow, head on over to the first of my Servicemen Profiles page to learn more.

Incidentally, I've decided to set up the servicemen profiles pages with a page for each surname. This follows the same logic as the memorial inscriptions pages, namely that if you are interested in one particular person of that surname you are likely interested in others so I may as well have them together on one page.


I've also tripped over a few non-WW1 servicemen (mostly 19th century) in the process, namely BATES and BOYD, and they have been added to the website.

By the way, that process was via placename searches across Find My Past's WW1 record collection. It looks like some of these likely came as a result of their project to re-scan the WO363/WO364 series, but others will simply be differences in indexing as compared to Ancestry.com.

1831 militia men

There's a very small update to the website today, the addition of three Wing men from the October 1831 muster rolls for the Royal Bucks Militia.

Lights out

Today is the centenary of the outbreak of WW1 and  I have turned the lights out on the Wing One-Place Study website to acknowledge those from Wing that served.

If you continue on to the website, you'll find that the WW1 page has been expanded. You may recall at the beginning of the year I was planning to have profiles of each serviceman up on the website beginning this month. The rapid escalation in the number of men (and women) with Wing connections who served during the war has meant I've now declared this a four-year centenary project. Today I have updated the list of servicepeople, expanding it from 125 to 315 people, so that you can see who I've identified so far - the first step in the project. This won't be my "final" word on the names of WW1 servicemen born in, living in, or with other close connections to Wing, but it's getting there - there's around 50 more men I don't have full names or regiments for yet.

If you have a serviceman ancestor from Wing, have info to share, or are simply keen to see their profile make it online sooner rather than later, please email me so I can prioritise them (and perhaps we can work together on researching them). While you're waiting, can I suggest a trip to the wonderful new Wing At War website from my friend Sarah? She has transcribed the parish magazines for Wing for the WW1 period and collated information on a variety of topics for you to read about.