Family history trail

When Linda Mackay contacted us to try to find out more about her father’s wartime service, she ended up learning more than she’d bargained for – and starting off a whole new thread of family research!

It all started with her father’s notebook, which featured a sketch of a Green Howards cap badge.

Ernest had been taken prisoner in North Africa during the Second World War, but escaped from a POW camp in Italy with four friends and walked to Switzerland.

It’s a story Linda has known all her life, and has been incredibly proud of, but she couldn’t work out how that related to two sets of medals she also had.

It turns out they were medals from the First World War and had belonged to her Dad’s father and his brother, and had been passed down to her through him.

Linda is now going to apply to the Ministry of Defence for her father’s service record, so that she can understand more about his time with the regiment in the Second World War and the places he served, as well as looking further into the lives of her grandfather and great uncle.

If you want to find out more about your service ancestor, visit our family history page and check the what’s on for details of our research events.

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