My mother passed away some time ago and when going through her things I found a school essay my father had completed in 1948 which basically asked pupils to write essays on the Great War quoting fathers,grandfathers,uncles and so on. Until I found this I has absolutely no idea my paternal grandfather (Richard Berry Sant) had served in WW1 but I became intrigued and did some research. However I am stuck. I have found that he registered with the Staffordshire Regiment at West Bromwich shortly after his 18th birthday in May 1918. Dads essay refers to his father doing basic training at Sutton Coldfield in the summer of 1918 but by the wars end my grandfather was serving with the Derbyshire regiment as a Military Police Officer? I can find no records of a transfer or anything relating to his time in the army but do know he spent sometime in 1916-17 as a cadet with the Birmingham Police Force. Certainly he had left the services by 1920 when he married my grandmother and was working as a Sawyer according to their marriage certificate. The essay suggests he served at Dieppe with the MP and escorted wounded soldiers back to Derby in December 1918/January 1919. He also visited a friend who was wounded and infact died from his wounds in June 1919 at Hammerwich,Staffs and always wore a fob watch which had belonged to a cousin (Herbert Sant) who had been killed at Loos in 1917. I am anxious to establish where my grandfather served and when and imparticularly why he was seemingly transfered to the MP with a regiment other than the one he certainly joined in May 1918? Any comments or suggestions gratefully recieved.
