John (Jack) Purcell & Edward Purcell, 42 RM Cdo

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 20/11/2010 23:29:13

Dear Sir, my name is Stephen Purcell-Evans. My Grandfather was John 'Jack' Purcell, born 07/07/1922. He joined the forces in 1939 with his twin brother Edward Purcell. They both eventually served in 42 RM Cdo. My grandfather's details on my mother's birth certificate of 1947 read: Plymouth X 3280, Corp. John Purcell.
Do you have any information on him and his brother, or are there any veterans who remember them and would like to share their recollections? I'd love to hear. Email: [email protected]

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 03/11/2010 16:37:11

Hi

Just a quick note to say we have a Purcell shown on a document in our gallery Nominal Rolls album. He is shown as in 42RM Commando HQ troop on this link. :

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/nominal+rolls/T2A-Names+taken+from+the+Troop+Notes+chapter+of+The+Third+Jungle+Book+Issue+No_8+sep+1945-42+RM+Cmd_.jpg.html

Please feel free to post any photos of your grandfather or his brother here on this forum message

Hi Stephen

A very warm welcome to the CVA, the nominal roll that Pete refers to was taken from a publication that was produced by men of the the 3rd Commando Brigade during their time in Burma. The publication was called The Third Jungle Book, one of the sections of the book (magazine would probably be a better discription) was called Troop Notes and dealt with the various Troops from each Commando unit that made up the 3rd Commando Brigade ie No's 1 and 5 Army Commando and No's 42 and 44 RM Cmdo. I actually copied the nominal roll that contains the name Purcell from an original Jungle Book that I was loaned by the daughter of a member of No1 Cmdo and uploaded it on to the CVA gallery. While I had this magazine I also made a high quality copy of it, if you are interested I could print one of these off and post this out to you. The copy would be stapled and trimmed to be as much like the original as possible.
Are you also aware that you can apply for a copy of your Grandfather's service records, it only costs £30 and is quite a straight forward process. I and quite a few others on this site have done this already, in my case I received some very interesting copies of my father's original Army / Commando documentation. I can't quite remember where the info is regarding the contact details for the relevant dept that deals with RM applications is situated in the Forum, but some one else here will.

Let me know if you would like a copt of the afore mentioned Jungle Book and I will take care of the rest.

Good luck, Andy