2nd Lt George Henry Camp

[westkent78]

Hello All,

This is my first post on this forum so please bear with me.

I'm trying to find out any information on my Grandfather's war service and was hoping that some experts on the East Surreys had come across him in their research.

Family rumour has it that he served on the Somme in 1916 and was severely wounded in the hip. I've read that many families automatically believe that their relative served on the Somme, with it being the most prominent land battle of the war, so I'm not 100% sure this is accurate, but it's all I have to go on at present.

Sadly I haven't identified which battalion he served in.

We don't have any of his medals but I assume they would be BWM and Victory. He apparently didn't collect them. Can this be true or were they automatically sent to the recipient?

I'm eagerly awaiting the PRO release of the 'C' MICs later this month in the hope he's there.

I realise that this is a long shot, and this is the beginning of a long road, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Matthew Camp

[Tim1915]

Matthew,

Welcome to the Forum.

The knowledge of some of these members regarding the Great War is staggering.

Please see this link, which will give you a start.

I hope the MICs that should be released later this month will be of some use to you.

Regards,

Tim

The Long, Long Trail

[westkent78]

Hello Tim,

Thanks for the information.

Now to just find out which battalion he was in!

Regards,

Matthew

[Tim1915]

Matthew,

You're very welcome.

All the best with your research.

Regards,

Tim

[rflory]

The only "G H Camp" that I can find in the Army Lists is a George Harry Camp who was commissioned as a 2nd Lieut. in the 23 Battalion, The London Regiment on 5 August 1915. He was promoted to Lieut in the same unit on 1 Jun 17. He appears in the November 1917 Army List but not the November 1918 Army List. If this is your ggf, I think that you will find that his service papers are available at the National Archives (PRO) under WO374/11971. Regards. Dick Flory

[westkent78]

Hello Dick,

Thank you for doing this research. it's greatly appreciated.

This sounds like my grandfather, as I think his second name was "Harry" - just wasn't sure if this was his given name or his familial nickname.

Regards,

Matthew

[westkent78]

Well, there's been a fair amount of water under the bridge since my first post.

I've been thwarted so far in my hopes for the onlines M.I.C.'s to "Camp" and the "C" entries have resolutely remained at 90% since March.

However, I recently asked the NA for an estimate of when these particular M.I.C's would be made available. Although they were reluctant to give a date, they were kind enough to offer to find a particular M.I.C. for me. I chose my grandfather (the subject of this thread).

Here is what they replied.

My colleague has kindly looked at all the microfiche for you and discovered the following:

His attempt to find George Harry Camp produced a nil return so he searched through each and every Camp for whom a Medal Index Card was written. It was surprising how many Camps were in the London Regiment! 

What he honed in on is the Medal Index Card for George HENRY Camp who was an Honorary Lieutenant with the 23rd London Regiment.  George Henry Camp was awarded the Silver War Badge so would have been wounded/injured.  He thinks this happened on the 2nd April 1918. The card does not indicate where he served but he is sure that the 23rd were involved in repulsing the German "push" of March 1918.

The Silver War Badge was number 233444.

On the card were two addresses-

49 Drakefield Road. Balham.SW17. and 43 Grimwood Road. Twickenham.

Matthew Camp may recognise one or both of these and this would certainly support George Henry being our man

So it looks like he was listed as both George Harry and George Henry. It all seems to fit with what we now know except for the date of the wound. According to the London Gazette he resigned his commission due to ill health on 13th March 1918 with the honorary rank of Lt, although he had been promoted to Lt. from (temp) Lt. on 1st May 1917 with precedence from 1st June 1916. I suspect he may have been wounded on 2nd April 1916 instead of 1918.

So this new information raises a few questions, that I hope may be answered by the collective brains of the Forum:

1. Does anyone have access to the SWB roll to confirm the number 233444? Can an approximate date of issue be divined from this number?

2. Is it possible that a MIC would only have a SWB reference on it? This would fit in with the strong possibility that he didn't claim his medals.

3. What were the 1/23rd London doing on 2nd April 1916?

4. Is it a correct assumption that he could not have been serving at the front having resigned his commission due to illness?

Any further help will be greatly appreciated.

Matthew