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My interest in the RAMC is totally about a great grandfather - great in the sense he was a magnificent man who it was a pleasure to be related to. His name was Albert John COLLIER (27 Mar 1888 - 10 Mar 1978) and I will attempt to fill in as much as I can about his early life and his war experiences. As a child I remember my mother showing me this huge photograph of him in his uniform. When she died I found a postcard seen below which I then realised was this huge picture I had seen earlier. Strange how things seemed so much bigger when I was a child. This postcard fired my imagination to find out what had happened to him during the war. When I first saw the post card it was in a sad and sorry state so I decided to spend some time in trying to restore it. The colours seem to have changed but the end result (below) was definately worth it. On the reverse of it is 39th Field Ambulance written in very faint writing. It was here I started looking for answers. I knew that the 39th Field Ambulance were in Galipolli and went on to Mesopotamia and his son, my uncle, said he remembered grandad talking of Galipolli. So it seemed all was right with the world - I knew where to find him. |
It was upon this basis that my research was founded until I went to the Public Record Office in Kew, London. As I was looking for War diaries (the daily record kept by fighting units) I thought I would try to see if his Army records had been released. I knew the chances of finding anything was not large but it was worth a shot!
I was shocked and pleased to see not only was he there but his was the first name on a film and his Attestation papers ( a log book of his Army career) were there intact. For those of you who are new to these papers they can be a wealth of information and an insight into the past. Below are the facts that I was able to get from them.
At the time he joined the RAMC, 19th October 1915, he was living at 52 New Road, Staines, Middlesex. He was 29 years old and his profession was that of a miner. He had already served 183 days service with the 1st Worcesters. As an aside, he was enlisted by a sergeant Povey of the Queens Regiment with whom my wifes grandfather - Joseph Wheeler was serving at the same time.
He was 5 foot six and a half inches tall and had a thirty six and a half inch chest measurement with an expansion of an inch and a half. He was married to Amelia Fanny Proud who was a spinster at the time. There were three children shown on his papers, they were my mother, Amelia Dorothy Charlotte Collier , who was born in Pillowell in the Royal Forest of Dean, Albert John Collier (Bert) and Frank. Albert was born on 21st June 1914 in Westbury on Severn whereas Frank was born 21st February 1916 in Egham. Unfortunately Frank later died on 4th June 1917 whilst the family were living at 12 Station Road Egham, he died of Tubercular Meningitis. There is even a copy of the fee he had to pay, 2 shillings and 7d (13 pence) to register the death.
Albert left home on 6th March 1915 for France and served there until 29th October 1918 when he was sent home again to be demobbed on 13th February 1919. On the 10th April 1919 he was awarded a pension based on having attributable Pluerisy which gave him a 30% disability. For this he received 8 Shillings and 3 d (41 pence today) and a further 3 Shillings and 6d (18 pence) for his two children each week. At the time of the award he was living at 42 Carey Road, Wokingham, Berks. It was also stated that his unit was the 36th Casualty Clearing Station. He also had a Protection Certificate and Certificate of Identity for the sick and wounded. It confirmed he was a member of the 36 th CCS and also that he fought in the Northern theatre of war.
After the war times were hard and there was not much about. Men had to take what was offered and be prepared to move to where it was happening. It was for this reason that the family must have moved back down to "The Forest" from Egham. We know this happened from a copy of a letter enquiring about his pension dated 18th March 1919. You ust put it into context by remembering it was a time of recovery and hardship. The soldiers had just put their lives on the line for their country and now they expected help when they came back to nothing. It read:-
c/o Mrs J Tunley, 7 Blakeney Hill, Blakeney, Glos
Sir,
Just a line to let you know my new address. I was not able to let you know before as I was not settled. I have had to leave my old address to look for work as there was no work about and I want to know when my pension is going to be sent to me. It is a long time coming. You expect our addresses but not so forward in sending the money due to us and I see you have marked me A1 which is wrong. I was A1 when I joined up but not half so fit now I cannot do the work I could do before I joined up. I even sold my small farm and left the pit work to join up and now come back to nothing so I hope my pension will soon arrive that is granted to me.
Oblige yours truly
72228 A J Collier RAMC
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