WW1 Pictures

Hello

My great grandfather was Thomas Edward Duff who was killed on 16 August 1917.

He enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, 9th Battalion (Princess Victoria's) and diesmbarked in France with the 36th Ulster Division on 4 October 1915. In 1920 he was awarded the 1914-15 Star. On his medal card he has the page reference where he was awarded the 1914-15 Star but also has the words "Deleted from 1915 Star Roll B3/C 42 Auth B3C Enc 53B".

I have his War Medal and Victory Medal but do not know about the 1914-15 Star in light of the above. If anyone can explain what the above means I may be able to follow this further.

Also, if anyone knows where I may be able to find a picture of Thomas Edward Duff, I would be grateful. It seems that his records are within the "Burnt Records".

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Katy Russell-Duff

 

I have looked at the medal card in Ancestry and it looks like it is referring to a duplicate entry. The way I see it: B/9b 320 is replacing B3/C 42 and the rest of the characters might refer to authority numbers.

If you don't already have it you can download a cert and photo of his burial place from this page at the CWGC
It's also in FindaGrave here

Sorry I don't know where you can get a photo of him. The army service records do not have photos of the service man. I have seen a fair few, one of them being for my maternal grandfather.

 

I think probably the possible y source of photos is De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour - can be searched on both Find My Past and Ancestry, but the chances of finding one is very slim. I did search for your Thomas Edward Duff, but couldn't find an entry. I was luck enough to find an entry for my Great Uncle Arthur llewelyn Williams and my Great Aunt's fiance John Edwin Bayliss, but I think they were only there because the family had contributed sone information. So sadly no use to you but I thought it worth a mention in case others were not aware of it.
Carolyn

 

You will get a better idea of how difficult it is to find a photo if you look at my on line colleague James map project. He linked CWGC listings for WWI with the IWM Lives of the First War website remembrance. One of the features he has recently added is an opportunity to sort CWGC listings with an "on this date" option. For Thursday 16 August 1917 over 4000 men are listed including your great grandfather but if you scroll through you will see how few entries have a photo attached. Those marked "IWM" are from sources such as De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour and those marked "Lives of the First World War" were contributed by relatives, local interest groups and from regimental records etc. The Lives site closed for new contributions in April 2019.
You might find some clues about Private Duff's regiment and even friends he enlisted with in a local newspaper. Local newspapers for the time period also occasionally include photos of groups of newly enlisted men. If you know where his closest family were living at the time of his death it's also worth while contacting the local archives if you have not already done so.
I've never found a photo of either of my two great uncles from Norfolk that I know died during WWI and they are only remembered on memorials. Two of my other great uncles from North London also served during WWI but I can't trace them at all after enlistment.