Tracing relative who went off to war

Snobbles100

My boyfriend's mother had an uncle that, according to her mother, went off to the war, and was never heard from again. I'm trying to trace him - I've found his census record from 1911 but that's about it. From that, he was born in 1902 or 1903 in Cork, he grew up in Passage West and his father worked in a shipyard near there. He would have been only 15 or 16 when WW1 ended, and around 37 when WW2, does that make him too old to have signed up for WW2? I've signed up to ancestry.co.uk, haven't really found anything concrete.
Does anyone have any information or sites on Irish men who signed up for the British Army? If he had joined the army, where would he have joined it? Could he have joined up between the world wars? Would he have joined up in Cork? Any help gratefully appreciated!

dido2

Hi Snobbles, i've someone too that we heard was in the Army, from Passage too, but born in 1897, I haven't been able to find anything about his time in the War either online, I think you'd have to go to Kew to get the records..... If you want to post his name we can give it a go too..

Jellybaby1

I searched for years for someone who I was told had 'gone off to war' and discovered recently that the story was not true. But these are the sites for WWI which I had spent a long time trawling through and they may help you. There is another thread here on Boards on the same subject in Military/World War I/Research a soldier. I suggest you do a search here in Genealogy as well. Pay-for sites http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ or www.ancestry.co.uk have military records. I'm not one of the professionals here so others may have more information for you.

Many teenagers signed up for WWI who were under age. I wouldn't have thought they would have rejected a 37 year old for WWII.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055652075

http://irish-genealogy-news.blogspot.ie/2014/01/new-free-database-of-irish-soldiers-who.html

http://imr.inflandersfields.be/search.html

http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/search/sw/home.jsp

http://www.cwgc.org/news-events/video-news/honouring-ireland%60s-war-dead.aspx

http://www.1914-1918.net/soldiers/research.html

These of course are only for those who died.

Also if you ever find out what regiment he was in then Google the regiment as they have their own websites.

Waitsian

http://images.nitrosell.com/product_images/15/3652/large-9781903462997.jpg

The above photo shows the cover of a great book. I've borrowed it from Newry library more than once. You can either buy it or try your own local library. If they don't have it on site they'll try and get it from another library (if it's in the system).