Hello
I am rather hoping someone can help me a bit with the identity tag attached.
I get the 1887 is probably the owner id number GR i’m hoping are the initials, Crake is the surname and COE is the religion … where I am stuck is trying to find out more with some certainty what the regiment bit is … I am not sure if it is 1st or 21st, neither do I know what the LB stands for the RFA im guessing is Royal Field Artillery. … If I can get this I can do further research with ancestry and the like to see if it is a relatives or not. Any help will be muchly appreciated.
I ask as I am thinking of buying this as it may be a relatives of mine. the seller is in the NE which is where my family descend from , George is a name that runs through the family so that could help strengthen the case.
Thank you
Mark
Hello Mark and welcome.
What a good question. That is not an easy set of stampings to interpret. My first thought is probably London Battery or London Brigade, which were RFA units of the Territorial Force that recruited locally. There was a 1st and a 21st London Battery, but only a 1st London Brigade. I can’t find any record of a man named Crake with that number, which also makes life a bit tricky, but of course he may have been transferred or renumbered and the later details appear in records. I will see if I can find any other example of the London TF RFA tags.
There is a Gunner 925832 Frederick William Crake. This number was issued in the 1917 renumbering of the TF RFA, and relates to a man serving with 280 Brigade. This had previously been called the 1/1st London Brigade.
And guess what? Men numbered near to 925832 include 925830 Ernest Bell, who had begun service as Gunner 1882. He had enlisted into the 3/3rd London Battery of the 3/1st London Brigade.
On that basis, I would say that Frederick William Crake is probably your man.
The GR is therefore Gr, for his rank.
Transcript from roll of the Silver War Badge
His Dulwich address (screen shot of part of a pension record card from Western Front Association collection, viewed via Ancestry)
Thank you very much this is so intriguing,
GR for gunner makes sense …isnt it good that we learn something new every day,
Im dissapearing down a rabbit hole here …like alice in wonderland 
WOW … amazing … thank you,
I’m waiting for my dad to get the family bible out and see if this gent is acually related … either way its fascinating
thank you again
