Guestbook
Please do not use this Guestbook for archive enquiries. If you would like information from museum staff regarding past regiments or family research, please look through 'Research Centre' then click on the Enquiries section.
The guestbook is provided for visitors to contribute their views about the site, to request assistance in contacting old friends and to share items of regimental history.
Apart from comments on the site all messages should have a link to our Regiments:–The 49th (Hertfordshire) Regiment; The 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment; The 66th (Berkshire) Regiment; The 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment; The (Royal) Berkshire Regiment; The Wiltshire Regiment; The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment; The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment; The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry and the people who served in them.
Information about The Gloucestershire Regiment should be directed to The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Custom House, Gloucester GL1 2HE.
The Guestbook is moderated. All items are sent to the site administrator who will decide if they are suitable for inclusion. There may therefore be a delay of a few days before your message appears.
Search the Entries
Latest Entries
shirleylock - 25th Dec 2009
HI IM SHIRLEYLOCK I WOULD LIKE TO TRACE FRDERICK BROWN FROM WAREHAM DORSET IM A RELATIVE OF YOURS MY MUMS COUSIN WAS FRED BROWN FROM SANDFORD AND BILL BROWN WAS MY MUMS COUSIN TO AND ELAINE BROWN IS MY COUSIN FROM WAREHAM MY MUMS MOTHER WAS A GOULDFROM RIDGE AND ARNE CAN YOU GET IN CONTACT IT WOULD BE NICE TO HERE FROM MY MOTHERS SIDE HER NAME WAS DOROTHY CALOW HER MOTHER WAS ADA CALOW MAIDEN NAME GOULD CONTACT ME IF YOU LIKE ON 01202695283 OR MOBILE 07957975244 THANK YOU HOPE TO HERE FROM YOU SOON
Curator's Comment:
Shirley, I have done a quick search through the Guestbook and found one entry regarding a "Frederick Brown", but that guestbook entry was submitted by an individual seeking information on Frederick Brown. As you have not mentioned which regiment he was in I am not particulalrly hopeful that you will get a positive response but I am authorising the entry to be posted in the hope that iyou will get an answer. Michael CornwellLee - 16th Dec 2009
I would like to add a message to say well done to the museum for continuing to provide such an excellent resource for us amateur historians known as medal collectors. I would also like to give public praise to a gentleman who recently enquired with the museum about one of the Regiments former members whose medal he was in possession of and who simply wanted to find out as much information on the recipient as possible. Yes this was for his own interest and pleasure but a by-product of this is that even the most ?simple? of medals survive and a man?s service with the regiment is not forgotten and is recorded for future generations. On making the enquiry it was discovered that the recipient was still alive and had had the medal stolen from a garage two decades ago. Without hesitation the current owner returned the medal to the original recipient, no questions asked. A noble thing to do as it meant that he lost out on £100 (no measly sum to anyone). He even paid for the postage from Canada! He did not receive anything in return. I feel the need to raise this case as often medal collectors are vilified for some unknown reason when after all is said and done they are simply ensuring the preservation of the Regiment?s history in their own way at cost to themselves. Yes this is not an altruistic act by any means as a great deal of enjoyment can be gained in researching the ?man behind the medal? but in this instance, by this collector, it was.
Curator's Comment:
Lee, I endorse everything that you have said about the Canadian Medal Collector. His generousity and the speed in which he reacted are thoroughly commendable. Sadly the person who got his medals back has not written to thank him or re-act to the request to provide a Police Crime Number for the reported lost item, albeit 10 years ago, for the medal collector to try and claim back from his insurance. The medal collector is the one person to come out of this little episode with any credit, whilst being out of pocket. I just hope his experiences will not put off other medal collectors acting in the same spirit that he did if the occasion arises again. Michael CornwellAmy Humphrey - 13th Dec 2009
re: William Seton. Thank you to the curator and to MAC for your comments and help, i'm still getting to grips with military research! I have ancestry membership so was able to trawl unsuccessfully thought there too :-) Have since discovered that William Seton was the colour sergeant in the 30's when the regimental colours were presented to Salisbury Cathedral. (If you have any info or photo's of this event they would be appreciated!!!) Have found the phto's on this site, and worked out which one of the groups William is - thanks (nice tash!) regards Amy
Curator's Comment:
Amy, I will leave the trawl of photos of the Salisbury Colours event to Mac, on one of his Volunteer days in the Museum. Yours Aye Michael CornwellMac - 8th Dec 2009
MESSAGE FOR AMY HUMPHREYS AMY In your post it?s not clear if you located the photos you refer to in this site, or they are ones you have located privately. I apologize in advance if you have already got them from this site but I would like to draw your attention the COLLECTION and in there at OBJECT number 7769 you will find a photo containing a W SETON. (There are other SETONS who may related) - Worth a look, try the name search. Good luck with your research. Cheers MAC
Curator's Comment:
Amy, Any suggestion form Martin McIntyre, is worth following up. Michael Cornwellian j webb - 7th Dec 2009
looking for info on my gggfather john merrott stephens b 1781 he was a captain the lt. col. in the gloucestershire militia then went to west indies died in 1833, many thanks
Curator's Comment:
Ian, Sorry,you have the wrong musuem for the Gloucestershire Milita, we deal solely with the Infantry of Berkshire and Wiltshire, and whist that does include the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and they only came into being in 1994. Stay on our website, click onto "Useful Links" and pick up under the heading Museums, "The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum", which will take you straight to their website and you can place an on-line enquiry. Good Luck and hope that you find the information you are after Michael CornwellAmy Humphrey - 4th Dec 2009
Hi there, firstly i\'d love to express how helpful this site has been. I am currently researching my husbands great great grandfather who was a colour sgt in 1st Wilts up to the mid 1920\'s. I found 2 photos (the only ones we have of him!) and lots of info to fill gaps on your site. Unfortunately since he served past the war, i cannot locate any regimental numbers for him - i have looked for medal cards and all the military sites i can think of.... any ideas?! His name is William Seton, born in battersea in 1889, joined in Tidsworth, wiltshire?? (not sure when). In terms of suggestions for your site - i was wondering if it would be possible to search a range of dates in the war diaries instead of having to guess which dates to look up for points in an individuals career? best regards Amy
Curator's Comment:
Amy, Thank you for your comments. Taking your first point on Colour Sergeant Wiiliam Seton. You seem fairly positive that he served after 1920, which means that he would have moved from Regimental Numbers used in the First World War on Army Numbers post the First World War. I have tried doing a quick search to se if he qualified for any WW1 Medals through the Ancestry web site and drew a blank. Secondly if he was still serving after 1922 his full service records will still be held by Glasgow records Office. Staying in our web site on the home page click on "Useful Links" and scroll down to the bottom of the page where you find a link to "Veterans UK". That link will provide you with the details of how you can ask for service records still held by Glasgow. With regard to the World War Diaries the reason we do not provide a range of dates is to protect our product. If we allowed you to set in a range of dates we could not stop you printing all that detail off gratis. We are prepared to let you have all the information contain in the published War Diaries by purchasing them from the shop. I appreciate that this adds to the cost of your search but the time, effort to transcribe the diaries and make them accessible on the site needs to be recoverable. Hope that provides some answers. Michael CornwellDOUGLAS DUNNING - 20th Nov 2009
To David My Grandfathers name is Sydney James Dunning and the particulars you wrote sound very familiar i have some information if you want to know more please email me.
Curator's Comment:
Douglas, I hope that by posting this message David gets back to youDouglas Dunning - 20th Nov 2009
Hello my name is Douglas Dunning my Grandfather is named Sidney James Dunning and sounds alot like him my email adsress is ddunning@googlemail.com if you want to try and narrow the search down further as i have alot of details and family history and medals .
Curator's Comment:
Douglas, I hope I am right in thinking that you want me to authorise this entry to be posted on the museum's websit guestbokk so that someone can react to your message. If I have misunderstood your intention I am sorry and would ask you to get back to me.Jennifer Small - 20th Nov 2009
I am trying to find any details about the wartime service of my grandfather, Matthew Alexander Green. He was born on 17 Feb 1884 in St George-in the East, London. He enlisted in the Royal Berkshire Regt as a Private at Finsbury Barracks in City Road London on 4 Sep 1914, declaring his DOB as 4 Sep 1883. He was discharged at Warwick on 23 Jul 1917 as physically unfit for war service, having served 2 yrs & 323 days. His Army number was 13444; on discharge, he was awarded the following medals: War Badge; British Expeditionary Force (BEF) France 19 Sep-10 Nov 1915; BEF France 11Nov 1915-13 Dec 1916. I know that he went to France 19 Sep 1915 but nothing of where he served or how he became unfit for service leading to his discharge. Neither do I know which battalion he served in. Family tales say that he was at one time awarded a field punishment of being 'tied to the wheel'(?) but no details are known. Any help on any aspect would be gratefully received.
Curator's Comment:
Jennifer, As you may have read from other enquiry based entries on the Guestbook, I am going to ask you to re-direct your enquiry through the Enquiry Section under the main header of Reseach Services on the web site. The Guest book is intended to act as a postboard for visitors to make comments, good or bad, about the web site in general so that we can hopefully improve our service to the public. By placing your enquiry via the online enquiry section we can ensure that it gets to the Archivist to answer your quetions. Once you have done that we should be able to provide you with the Battalion he served in and then point you to the War Diary that would cover his unit's action in WW1. Sorry if that does not provide the quality of service you were expecting however we do stress on the notes to the gusetbook that this is not the channel for enquiries.Kevin Rattigan - 19th Nov 2009
I have just returned from Anzio 14/11/09 to visit my grandfathers brother - Ed Cruse whom served & died on the front line & was buried in the beach head cemetry in Anzio. I would be very interested if anyone can help me find photos of the 2nd battalion. He died on 3rd June 1944 like many others that day - showing from the amount of graves there. I have several photos of soldiers graves going by names as sgt Rogers whom received the VC. Pink,Puddlefoot & many others. Anyone who can help please email me kevin.rattigan@hotmail.com. One other thing i was issued a certificate of honour from a museum in anzio for soldiers who had fallen in anzio - signed by the President of anzio.This i have details of location etc. This answers the question Sue Cant asked several years ago in 2003.