Hello there! In about 2010 I posted here about finding my grandad who left home in 1949, anyway to cut a long story short I found he ended up in Florida married twice again. His step daughter from his first marriage in the US who I am in contact with said he visited Scotland back in 1962 to see his daughter out of wedlock. She was born in the early 50's and all his step daughter said was her name was Hilary and her mother called Ella. I finally got his service records after waiting 11 months and saw he had an address in Edinburgh in 1952 before he left to go to the US. I assumed his daughter out of wedlock might have been born in Edinburgh whilst he was still in the army but after a number of advertisments in Edinburgh newspapers I didn't get anything concrete back. I have attached some scans of his records to see if anyone knows where he was specifically based. The service records don't give an idea to me anyway of where he may have been based. If I can find where he was based I can put a few more advertisements in local Scottish papers. I received some cinefilm of the trip my grandad made over here in 1962 and I have screen captured a image of this Hilary who would be my mother's half sister. Any help or advice would be appreciated. These are not all his records but just the latter part which states where he was between 1950-54, he went to the US in 1954 to live.
Merseyman, two possible routes for you. 1. The Army keep service records themselves, you say you have some of his service papers, are these from the Army?, if not write to them with your enquiry.
2. The national archives at Kew in London have many historical records, almost all of the various Government departments, including the services,official papers. (note of caution here, I dont know if Scottish records are kept there), a visit to their website will tell you more.
Hi, i have all his records from the mod. Quite a lot of paperwork, i only scanned the latter of his records. I have everything on him. Its just finding out where he was based from the info on these scans. cheers
just a thought but have you been on the site scotlands people . you can search by first name only and between certain dates for the births in scotland. i have find it very useful . although you have to pay a little for the actual results of the search the info they give had proven to be very valuable .knowing that the mothers name was ella and quite an unusual name should help
Strange one. Seems he was with or attached to a number of different units. Seaforth Highlanders, Royal Army Service Corps, something I cannot read, Royal Artillery and it mentions Royal Armoured Corps as well. Seems he qualified as a clerk. TOS means taken on strength and SOS means struck off strength. The latter just means you left the unit, nothing bad.
Thanks for all your replies, I've done a few searches on Scotlands people for a Hilary born between 1951-4 in Edinburgh, someone kindly looked these up for me in Edinburgh but there was no sign of a mother called Ella or any where the father isn't mentioned. He probably galavanted off base so it opens up a whole new world of searching for her. Didn't really get anything back from the advertisements in the Edinburgh papers so maybe he went a little further afield to have his fun. All I have is a picture of Hilary aged about 11 i captured of cinefilm which I got off my grandad's step daughter in the USA. This I put in the Edinburgh newspapers but still no reply.
i know its expensive but there are about 11 pages of hilarys born between those years in scotland, perhaps widen your field from edinborough might get a few results. apologies if you have already done it
Thanks for the reply, yeah I know 53 Hilary's born in that time fram in Edinburgh City. I know I can look at each of those birth certificates in detail in the Edinburgh records office for free but have work commitments and a new baby boy that makes doing anything like this impossible.
