James Talbot at Gallipoli in 1915

It's exactly one hundred years ago today that my Grandfather, James Talbot, entered the First World War and the Gallipoli Campaign. He was a soldier with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers.

As this blog is about researching my family tree I'll only relate what little I know and how I discovered it. If you want to know more about the Gallipoli campaign then a good place to start is the Wikipedia entry, there is also an account of the Royal Fusiliers' role in this 1922 book about the Royal Fusiliers during the Great War.

I believe that most of my Grandfather's military records were destroyed, so until about a year ago I knew very little about his military history. My Mother had two photos of her father in military uniform, one where he appears to be serving in India:

on the reverse of the first photo there is an advert for the photographer, C D Silva who was based in India:

  The other photo he is wearing the uniform of the Royal Fusiliers:

You can see the RF badge on his shoulder:

Recently my uncle (my Grandfather's son) sent me a couple of documents that revealed a couple of useful details. The first was a letter that my Great Grandmother received from the War Office stating that her son had been hospitalised in Malta due to frostbite on 17th December 1915:

The second document is a Character Certificate which soldiers received after they had left the army:

From these two documents we get the following information about James Talbot:

Regiment: 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers

Regimental Number: 14249

Served in: India, Mediterranean & France

Rank: Private in 1915/16, Corporal in 1919

Injuries: Frostbite in 1915 in Malta, wounded in France

 

Once I had James' Regimental Number I found his British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Card on Ancestry UK:

Here it states that he first entered the war on 25 April 1915 and the Theatre of War was "(2B) Balkans":

I found a webpage listing the WW1 Operational Theatres of War 1914-1920 at http://www.greatwar.co.uk/places/ww1-theatres-of-war.htm

which states that (2B) Balkans was located at Gallipoli.

I still have a few gaps about James Talbot's military history, for example his service in India and how he was wounded in France. If I find out anything more then I'll post it on this blog.