MGC photo

Comments

[Ali Hollington]

This is probably a gentleman called Harry Skillings, I've posted it on here in the hope that someone might chance across it and help decipher the clues in the picture, ie S shaped badge on his left shoulder.

[benjamin skillings]

hello,... the records i have of harry william skillings of the mgc only state that he was a private. i would be very interested to find out how you came to belive it is an image of him. are you a family member?
i research their military service as a hobby of mine and have very little info about harry. please let me know some more.
best regards
benjamin skillings

[Alistair Hollington]

Hi Benjamin,

Sorry for the delay in replying. I'm distantly related to Harry [and obviously yourself], one of his sisters is my great-grandma.

My Grandma [born 1919] knew Harry and identified this photo as him, like you though my research points to him remaining a private during his service. We have some post war wedding photos in which Harry is part of the group, so we are fairly confident this is him, but cannot explain the rank issue! All suggestions welcome.
Alistair

[benjamin skillings]

Thankyou for getting back to me. I'm glad you can confidently confirm this as harry, its great to put a face to a name. the rank could be temp/field promotion or possibly post war if he remained in service. I shall have a search, if anything comes to light i'll get in touch.
regards
Distant rel'.....lol
Benjamin Skillings

[Alistair Hollington]

I managed to find his service records and it would seem her never rose above the rank of Private, the rank in the photo may always be a mystery, though in another photo another member of my family is using someone else's uniform as it "looked better"- so who knows this might be another case!