Army service records

[Thunder]

Yesterday I viewed the Second World War service file at TNA of Stanley Imeson, also stated to be Manfred Stanley Imerson (WO 423/119896: [1939-1963]: Name: S Imeson. Service number: 220535715. Date of birth: 4 December 1906.

This is the second time the details in the file do not match other sources. His file says that he was born on 4 December 1906 [there is no trace on ancestry for 1906] in Northallerton, Yorkshire. He is also named as Manfred Stanley Imeson, his death index in the October-December quarter of 1970 says he was born “about 1899”. He was baptised on 21 December 1899 (the entry is online at ancestry) with his birth being registered in the January-March quarter of 1900 in Northallerton Registration District. This does raise the issue of how accurate the enlistment form details are, but a six year difference is a lot, it seems the Army clerk filled in the form and he (Stanley or Manfred) just signed it.

[Mick Loney]

A case of recruit wanting to appear younger than he was, unlike WW1, when boys pretended to be older than they were. So lying about their age was not so unusual

[Hardwork]

Maybe someone misread or transcribed a 6 for a 0 at some point? We don't know how the information was collected. Also, years ago people often were a year out on their birth date as they weren't using it to the same extent we do today, as a means of ID, and were probably calculating backwards from their remembered age. If that was so in this case, Manfred's 1900 for 1899 would make sense. Manfred may well have just signed it without studying the form as you suggest.

[VALLMO9]

Depending on when he enlisted perhaps he was worried he wouldn't be accepted at age 40-ish. So he shaved 6 years off his age. Maybe he preferred the Army to the Home Guard. In the 1939 Register his DoB is 04 Dec 1900.

In December 1941 Parliament passed a second National Service Act. Men were now required to do some form of National Service up to the age of 60, which included military service for those under 51. The main reason was that there were not enough men volunteering for police and civilian defence work, or women for the auxiliary units of the armed forces.

Side note: I have a soldier who enlisted at the turn of the century when he was 17. Yet his Attestation record says he was 14. Men played fast and loose with their ages when it came to enlisting.

[VALLMO9]

Question: Was MSI a chef who also resided in London circa 1945? There's an April 1945 newspaper report regarding a chef with that name (age 46) who stole dripping.

[Thunder]

I can't recall the address but there was no mention of such an incident on his file.

[VALLMO9]

The newspaper report listed the name as Manfield Stanley Imerson, but it could be Manfred, allowing for OCR errors with names.

[Thunder]

Currently TNA have just over 22,000 open files (including those who Christian names are "unspecified") on their catalogue but 161,000 closed records in series WO 423 covering 'Other Ranks' and Nurses.

[Thunder]

I have been through a selection of these files at TNA and researchers might like to know that some men have as many as three files on them, names are mis-spelt and Christian names that are listed as [Unspecifiied] because it would appear that they are not on the file cover but are inside!. IN one case a man changed his name after he got his British Naturalisation which explains why I couldn't find his death entry. One man has three different years for his birth year.

[meekhcs]

Hi Thunder

Do you know if TNA are operating a death rule for accessing Army Records? We tried to access my husband's Grandfather's record but after a very long and protracted process (might as well have done it the old way!) were told we couldn't access it until 2028, which will be 30 years after his death! As far as we know there is nothing contentious in there.

Many thanks