Researching my grandfather's military record with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

[SG Williams]

Good afternoon,

I have been researching my family tree for several months and recently found details of grandfather's military record on a genealogy website. I remember my grandfather quite well - he died when I was 14 - and I cannot recall him mentioning the time he spent with the RWF, though I was aware that he spent time in a catering corp during WWII. I'm very interested to know more about what he did and where he served with the RWF between 1925 and 1929.

I have downloaded from a genealogy website an entry in a double paged 'Army Book 358', which provides the following details:

Number - 4186230
Name - Arthur Bowen
Date - 21/3/25
Period enlisted for - 4 years
Age - 22 years 10 months
Place of birth - Acrefair, Denbighshire
Discharged - 20/03/29
Place of discharge - Shrewsbury T/E Para 193 (i) 2 apps?

The record also indicates that mr Grandfather re-enlisted 28/04/39 '4th RWF T.A.' and was discharged 01/02/1944.

If it helps I could supply a PDF copy of the record containing the above details.

Any information I receive would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Stephen G Williams
Acrefair
Wrexham
Wales
07487 257710

[allyeff]

Hi Stephen.

My Grandad was also from Acrefair and in the RWF. He was in from 1928-1935 then again 1939-46. We got his service record from
Glasgow. My grandad never spoke much of his service, so thanks to the info on his record, this site and the excellent book Red Dragon by Peter Kemp we now know a lot more.
Red dragon is no longer in print but you can find it on Secondhand sites for £30-ish.
You can look at www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records. There is a charge I think it’s £30.

good luck
ally

[SG Williams]

Hi Ally, my apologies for not replying sooner. Since I posted back in April, I've been chasing up my Grandad's records with the MOD but, as expected, there is a huge backlog due to the current pandemic and people working from home. I've also found out that Wrexham museum holds lots of records relating to the RWF. They have a volunteer researcher who is willing to look further into my Grandad's records based on any information I eventually receive from the MOD. I'll take your advice about the Red Dragon book.
Many thanks
Stephen