In my last post I explored a variety of photos which appeared to be linked to one man; a Mr Woodward. Having examined this further with my Dad who subsequently discussed his own memories with others it seems we have a hypothesis.
Edward did indeed have a friend by this name and it is this friend we suspect the photos relate to. Cyril Woodward is remembered as a post war friend of Edwards. They shared similar backgrounds and war time experiences having both been prisoners of war.
Whilst I do not know the full details of this friendship, I would presume that given Edward held such personal items of Cyril's, that they were close. I therefore decided to reexamine the photos collection for further clues. It was during this process that we came across an image I had so far decided not to include.
Due to the photo having been taken after the war, I did not initially understand its relevance to Edwards war time story. In fact, such was my nonchalance to its inclusion I had chosen to cut Edward out of this image for my websites home page. However, revisiting the photo with my Dad, he is pretty confident that the gentleman sat to the left of Edward in this image, sporting matching outfits and enjoying a pint is in fact Cyril.
With this in mind we then revisited the other Woodward images in the hope of finding a similar face, and have found what we believe to be a match. Knelt in the front row (right) of the first image explored in my last post, can be seen an individual of very similar if not more youthful features.
I cannot confirm this to be the same person. However, given the name written on the back of the photo and the gentleman in the images sharing a strong likeness, I would suggest it is highly likely. He also appears in the "show" photos but due to the smaller image and variety of outfits this is harder to compare.
I am yet to establish exactly how Cyril's photos came to be in Edwards possession. Possibly they were gifted to him, maybe he inherited them. What is clear is their link to one another as people post war.
Before moving on to explore other documents, I chose to run a quick search of Cyril's own war. The results are both intriguing and frustrating. Having checked both Ancestry.co.uk and Forces-War-Records.co.uk there were very limited results matching his name, with only one record providing what would seem a likely match (given his prisoner of war location).
Lifted from the 1940 - 1944 Register of Transfers In, Book 15, General Service Corps (source: Ancestry.co.uk) is a record of one Cyril Charles Woodward. Sadly this record stands alone and is not at this time linked to any further online available documents.
The Army number did not provide any further results and this record alone only notes his time of discharge (02/12/47) and presumably joining (17/02/44) . However, it is in the title that the document is filed under where my intrigue lies.
Is the regiment a coincidence or did they serve together? The year and time of year the record is added appears to correlate with those of Edwards own action. The prisoner of war camp we know Cyril spends time in (Stalag XVIII A) certainly received British troops from the Italian theatre from November 1943 onwards.
I would however expect the record to be stamped with "prisoner of war" as Edwards had been. The first date would also have to represent his time entering the theatre of war rather than enrolling as I had previously insinuated in Edwards own record. Maybe this is why Edwards date did not correlate correctly with his enrolment papers?
I am not at this time able to confirm these records to be those of Edwards friend Cyril, but it is pleasing to have established his link to Edward and to know what he looked like.
The records suggest there is more to learn of this relationship.
Maybe they shared more than just similar war experiences?
Maybe they were there together?
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