Lives of the First World War

Up and running again so I am determined to finish one more of "my community" soldiers.

 

I have just caught up on all this as I too have been adding information to Lives of the First World War. It's certainly been interesting to read the comments. On the whole I haven't had a problem adding the information I wish to, but my frustration comes because I am so used to Ancestry and Find My Past. They have a wide variety of records on line, and while I do know that more records are being added to Lives of the First World War, I am finding that quite often I am adding links to prove my facts instead of a direct record from their site. I am sure it will come, and so far so good actually. I think it's a wonderful commemorative way of remembering all those who had some involvement in WW1

 

It has taken me hours to add reasonably full information about one chap who served throughout WWI. The excessive scrolling and clicking required is very reminiscent of its sister FMP website.

I'll probably not add anyone else, it's too painfully slow and I'm certainly not paying for yet another subscription.

 

I think I have entries down to a fine art once I am sure I have the right soldier. I am only adding enough census info to prove identity mother and father and family members who were also involved in military . I am certainly relying on external links and not waiting for the promised CWGC link
Not sure I will do more than my family and the one village.
My criticism would be that I don't think the information which would really flesh out the lives is on FMP or Ancestry

 

My father fought in WW1 and I was quite delighted at the notion that I could 'commemorate' him on this website. I found him on the site and have managed to upload a photo and I could certainly write a bit about him. However, it seems that in order to input his birth, marriage and death dates - all of which I know of course - plus census information that I have already sourced via my Findmypast membership - I would have to pay a £50 annual subscription. To what end, from my point of view? He is virtually the only person whose details I would want to flesh out.

 

Me too, Tim.

 

Thank you for this Alexander. Obviously I was too hasty!

 

Agree. The only relative (a distant one) to whom I have added much is a chap who won the VC, and he gets a mention on quite few web pages.

My chief criticism is that the pool of people seems ot be severely limited (at present). Apart from the fact that there is nobody from Royal or merchant navies, RFC/RAF or civilian workers, I haven't found 2 relatives who are clearly documented as being in the army. One was killed and is on the CWG site, the other unveiled his local war memorial having gone through the war as private soldier. I don't know why neither of them would be on the medal index, but apparently not.

 

The man who was killed was Arthur Widdrington Herdman. He was lieutenant with the 1st Battalion King's Shropshire Light infantry, and as an officer didn't have a service number (is that right?) "He arrived in France on 10 September 1914 but only six weeks later on 25 October he died, one of three officers among 55 soldiers killed at Le Quense Farm, Bois Grenier near Armentieres whilst serving with B Company, 1st Battalion KSLI. He is believed to be buried at Ration Farm Military Cemetery but is listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the missing."

The survivor was Frederick James Hemsley (Fred). The info I have on him is from his Short service record - 151394, Corps of mechanical Transport (?) but served Royal Warwickshire Regiment. enlisted 19 Nov 1915, aged 24 yr 1 month

I'd be delighted if you can show me as incompetent by finding them, as I would like to 'remember' them.

 

Could these be the people you are looking for

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1840475

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1829487

 

I think Mike is right, so I am going to remember Fred and Arthur so they won't be unrecognised until you have a chance to go back and add a personal touch. I did wonder if it was easier because I had logged in so I logged out and they were still relatively simple to find by using just the surname and their regiment information. As has been mentioned before the service numbers often change and are best "ignored" if everything else seems correct. Something prompted me to google Arthur's name and this story I found I hope you intend to share at the site

 

Thank you both (all?)for looking for me. (I was still having difficulty getting onto the site until today)
I don't know why I couldn't see them before (unless the site has been adding extra records all this while?)
Britjan - yes, that is the chap; I think that website/page is fairly new. I have lots of refs to him, but didn't see that one before a couple of days ago. He is not a close relative, but he and all 3 of his sisters died unmarried, so there will be nobody very close

 

Well you can now call me thoroughly miffed with Lives; being an impatient type I wasn't about to wait while they put the CWGC website details on the site as an "official record". I entered them as an external record because they are often the records I find most useful in confirming an individual prior to listing other official records. When I went back to check it seems they have arbitrarily cancelled the website link. I am also finding the copies of the images in "official" service records very hard to read and keep going back to Ancestry for a clearer image.

 

Aaarghh! Can it be true? I have loads of such links!!!!!

 

britjan _ I just checked on one of my Lives (https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/2377950) and the CWG link is there