First of all, to go to a good website about the First World War,
click here (not forgetting to come back
afterwards).
First of all, to go to a good website about the First World War,
click here (not forgetting to come back
afterwards).
Now down to some specifics: of Cynthia's relatives, the only ones who were of the right age to serve in the First World War, and of whom we have photos, were her two elder brothers, George Thomas Roebuck II and Wilfred Roebuck. They were aged 18 and 16 respectively when war broke out. The next child was a girl, and the rest were too young. The father was approaching 40 and too old for active service - actually he was a pacifist.
Left: This photo is of George Thomas Roebuck II. What we can tell from observation is that he is a soldier in the British Army. He is wearing khaki-coloured battledress on his top half which is made of a woollen material which is hairy and slightly prickly. Under the battledress he would wear a collarless shirt, of a lighter coloured, thinner material called flannel, with no tie.
The leather sash-type item is a bandolier, which was used to store ammunition for his rifle. The bandolier is made of brown leather.
The white rope around his left shoulder, going down to his pocket, is a lanyard. Originally it was used to support a field gun when firing, but has since been retained as purely ceremonial. Lanyards are different colours in different regiments.
On his bottom half he would be wearing trousers of the same material as the battledress. Below the knee he would be wearing puttees, which consist of a strip of similar woollen cloth, bandaged around the calf from ankle to knee. On his feet he would be wearing hob-nailed boots with woollen socks.
He would wear a flat, peaked cap made of khaki material, on the front of which would be a metal regimental badge. He would of course have various other kit and battle equipment also not illustrated here.
Another clue we can pick up about George is that as yet he has no rank insignia, which probably means he is a Private, the lowest rank. Once promoted he would have large white chevrons near the top of his sleeves, pointing downwards, either one, two or three stripes. All his buttons would be engraved with his regimental badge. The photo is indistinct, but from the shapes on the buttons, we guess that he belongs to one of the Yorkshire regiments - he lived in South Yorkshire when he enlisted, but it does not necessarily follow.
More
information would have come from the badge on his sleeve, below his right
shoulder. This is his trade badge, which is a star, with a letter inside it,
which we can not make out. The presence of a trade badge means either that
he went straight into the Army following the trade which he did in civvy street,
and has therefore only done his basic army training so far, or that he has been
in a bit longer, and has trained for his badge in the Army itself. From
his apparent age, and the family group in which he also appears dressed like
this, we would date this photo at 1916. George would most probably have
been conscripted (drafted) rather than joining as a volunteer.
Right:
Here is a full length picture of George Thomas Roebuck II, showing his full
uniform.
Having enlarged the picture, we are 99% sure that this is the emblem of his cap badge, which is the Royal Field Artillery, which was in charge of guns of all kinds. There are also three letters on his epaulette, R or H, followed by &, followed by A. We do not know which division he was in, but the RFA was very active in the First World War. There is an interesting write-up about the RFA in the 1914-18 website mentioned above.
Every
soldier who went to foreign shores in the First World War received the British
War Medal, and if they also went into a theatre of war, they would get the
Victory Medal. We can access online the medal rolls at the National
Archives Office, and have found about 16 George Roebucks who have been decorated
thus, but we don't know which one is ours without a lot of expensive research.
In any case a large proportion of First World War records were damaged in a
fire, in an air raid on London during the Second World War, thus only about 20%
of ordinary soldiers' records remain on microfilm. George got
through the War safely and went on to lead a long life.
Left: Our other soldier is George's younger brother Wilfred Roebuck. He too is an ordinary soldier in the British Army. On enlarging the image on the left, the buttons look as if they may belong to the Royal Engineers, which would figure, as he was certainly an engineer by trade subsequently.
Right: This photo gives us some more clues, Wilfred is wearing both a bandolier and a lanyard, the latter being of different design and probably colour to George's. It is written on the back of the this photo that it was taken at Winchester, Hampshire, where he may have been stationed.
In the medal roll
at the National Archives Office there are only three Wilfred
Roebucks, one serving in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and two in the
Manchester Regiment, so the design of the buttons may have confused us.
Wilfred
also got through the War safely and went on to lead a long life.
APPEAL FOR INFORMATION: If George or Wilfred's descendants, or anyone else, can elaborate on the biographical details above, please contact Janette!
Thanks to Alun Walker for the military expertise.