Henry (Harry) Duffy - 2nd World War

[rosieno1]

I am trying to trace some information regarding my uncle, Henry Duffy born <after 1911>, died <after 1961>.
Born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, eldest in a family of 4 children, my mum was the youngest. He was always known as Harry.

He was in the army from quite early on in the war, ( given his age), and came out alive, thank God.

After the war, he came home, met and married his wife Bette, and swiftly went south to the greater London area, where he lived in a few locations, til retiring in in the 80's to Swindon, where one of his wife's sisters also lived.

Right that's the potted history. I am interested in the war years here. He and his wife had 3 kids, one still in the London area, one in Australia, and one in Ireland.

I am not really in contact with any of them though we were really close as kids, as my family also lived in the south ( west, Wiltshire & Bristol for me!) He trained as a teacher post war, and rarely in my hearing talked at all about his war years.

I have a feeling at some time I heard he was in North Africa, and he was definitely in India (or what was known as India at that time!), at the end of the war. My mother and all the other siblings are long dead, and I would like to try to trace what he did in the war. My Dad however is very much alive, (86)he said that as far as he remembered Harry never saw action, but I am wondering if that really was the case! Dad thought he was in the RTR's - and I remember from my own experience ( worked as a NAAFI manager at one time) that one of them (4RTR?) was scottish based.

My query is simple - I wonder if there are any online indices that I could use to search for My uncle's details, to enable me to see where he went, and what he might have been involved in.

I heard from an unrelated source that in fact he had been injured, and this has sparked my interest!

Thanks for any help offered and his DOB was <after 1911>.

[LesleyB]

Hi rosieno1

The dates you have given are all relatively recent and so have been edited in line with TS policy. See: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6601
As far as I am aware, army records for those in WW2 are closed for 75 years which means it will be about 2020 before Service Records will be able to be viewed. I think at present they can only be accessed by applying to see the records and paying a fee to do so and as far as I recall you need to be "next of kin" to apply.

There seems to be this web site which allows you to search, but I am not sure what exactly you can find there - perhaps a look at the site would help you decide if it was likely to be of use:
http://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/rec ... tAodlxoAig

Best wishes
Lesley

p.s Some info bit about WW2 records here
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/About ... ecords.htm

[Currie]

Hello Lesley,

I think the comments I’ve seen about the forces-war-records site were that what’s there can usually be found for free elsewhere. Probably all they’re offering for WW2 is not much more than what’s at Commonwealth War Graves.

Al the best,
Alan

[LesleyB]

Hi Alan

Thanks for that - I thought it looked a bit too good to be true, sepecially when compared with what the mod.uk site seems to outime re. availability of records.

Best wishes
Lesley

[rosieno1]

Hi
Thanks Lesley & Alan,I am sorry for including the details you excludes, did not break the rules intentionally I assure you!

I have tried checking the armed forces website you suggested, but there did not seem to be a record that looked like him!

I have looked at the MOD website - so thanks for that. As is obvious from my initial post, I am not 'next of kin' so it looks like I would need to wait until 2020, or encourage one of my cousins to search their memories for information they may have forgotten they knew!, or perhaps I should encourage them to investigate via the MOD themselves!

I see that there have been previous queries of a similar vein as mine, including the one now above me in the index. However, on a more pertinent note, is there information available on where the various regiments etc were stationed during the 2nd world war, which would not be person specific, and therefore available to peruse ??

[rosieno1]

I have had a quick look at an army website, (http://www.army.mod.uk) and it doesn't look like, (at a cursory glance), the tank regiments were involved in the Burma campaign, at the back of which we always thought my Uncle Harry was positioned. On the basis of the fact that he returned from India being the only 'definite' information I have, I assume that he was not actually in one of the RTR's after all! I will have to approach my investigations from another angle, if I am to find any information before 2020!

Ps - sorry unsure how to enter a URL properly!

[LesleyB]

Your URL works perfectly!!

Best of luck with your search. More recent events are often far more difficult to access than events which happened 100years ago! Let us know how you get on with it.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Currie]

Hello rosieno1,

Of course, R.T.R. stands for Royal Tank Regiment, the penny didn’t drop for me. I think just about all of the enquiries we’ve had about tanks on this forum have been about the water holding variety. But then Little Willie, the very first army Tank, was called a tank to disguise its true purpose and make people think it was a water tank rather than something that would evolve into something dangerous.

If you go to the Advanced Search at the CWGC site and in the “Country (commemorated in)” drop-down select Myanmar, and type Royal Tank Regiment as the Regiment, and search with that, you’ll get 21 results. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx

When you click on the names you'll find that most of them have “Royal Tank Regiment, R.A.C. 2nd“ for the regiment, a couple of those have C Squadron. I think I saw one for 6th and some other odds and ends.

Google brings up a fair smattering of stuff in connection with the above which will probably have something of interest. http://www.google.com.au/webhp?complete ... 80&bih=841

I’m wondering if the Bovington Tank Museum would have any information that could help. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovington_Tank_Museum

Hope that helps a bit,
Alan

[rosieno1]

Thanks everyone for your help! I intend to check out the website you advised Allan, and thanks again Lesley for your assistance - and the URL - more by accident than design i assure you Lesley!