Reason for a redacted Soldiers Service & Paybook (John Willis-Jones, No.1 Commando)

Grandmother - Barbara Rees - ATS

John Willis Jones in Civilian clothing

Hi Trent

I have now added a selection of the photos you posted to our gallery and they can be viewed here:

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/1/Willis-Jones/

That's great Pete thank you so much!!
I am trying to find out the connection of my grandfather to William E Fairbairn as it seems they spent time together at Fort William before he was sent over to Achnacarry Training Depot, any tips on where to look in regards to the Fairbairn and Fort William time frame?

Pete wrote:Hi Trent

I have now added a selection of the photos you posted to our gallery and they can be viewed here:

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/1/Willis-Jones/

Your grandfather may have attended STC Lochailort in the early days of the Army Commandos. A brief timeline of that period can be found here. Two very good books about Commando training in WW2 are referred to in the sources shown at the bottom of the page on this link:

http://www.commandoveterans.org/EarlyCommandoTraining

Hi Pete, a few more things we managed to find!

P.S - He actually passed away on the 29/12/1977 and not the 27th, is it possible to amend this, apologies, that was my mistake.

Please see attached for some medals we managed to locate, and do you happen to know if its possible to officially obtain replacement ribbons?

Hello mekz48

You should be able purchase replacement medal ribbons from Military Collectors fairs and also online suppliers.

Just make sure they are FULL SIZE ribbons and not miniature medal ribbons.

Good luck
Regards

John M

Blanking out or cutting out of the parents nationality and the soldiers place of birth wasn't related to raids or anything it was an army wide order from 1942 - Army Council Instruction 1770 - this instructed that these details were no longer to be entered and going forward if a soldier was going overseas and had these details already filled in they were to be "obliterated". I have seen it suggested that this was due to the increasing number of Germans, Austrians, French etc serving in British units, not sure if thats correct or it was just considered unnecessary to include it.

Alistair

AB64 wrote:Blanking out or cutting out of the parents nationality and the soldiers place of birth wasn't related to raids or anything it was an army wide order from 1942 - Army Council Instruction 1770 - this instructed that these details were no longer to be entered and going forward if a soldier was going overseas and had these details already filled in they were to be "obliterated". I have seen it suggested that this was due to the increasing number of Germans, Austrians, French etc serving in British units, not sure if thats correct or it was just considered unnecessary to include it.

Alistair

Just saw this reply, thank you for that information :)