Douglas Service Department London,Help Required

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Hello everyone,
Thank you for allowing me to join.
I've got a mystery that I need a little help with!

Background first :
My  family have come across a large amount of photographs of my grandfather as despatch rider in WW1 .
I have a attached a picture of my Grandfather (far left ) with three of his good comrades .The man on the far right you can see,  is marked as 'Mason' . They are pictured on a Triumph H  here but I know they also used Douglas bikes .

Last week I purchased a trio of WW1 medals that  came from an auction in Bristol .
I believe  that these may be Masons medals .
In the box with the medals was a business card for 'Douglas Service Department 'London ( Attached below) . Its a long shot but I was wondering if anyone knew anything of the business or of A.Mason the proprietor ?
The medals card held in national archives say that A. Mason was a Mechanist Corporal (first name Alexander ).

Any information that people remember  I would be very grateful for .
Best wishes 

ps Ive also added a photo of my Grandad on  a Douglas in 1915 during training before they left for France at the end of July!

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Business card Picture that was enclosed with medals

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Ernest, Holmes ,Stewart and Mason

[Red]

I found an entry for Alec Mason in the Post Office London Directory for 1940. He was listed under Motorcycle Agents and Dealers at 12A Mornington Crescent. I have tried a couple of times to load a jpeg file of the page, but for some reason it wont load.

Roy

[Red]

Interestingly 12a Mornington Crescent is still a garage

Roy

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Wow , thank you Roy for taking the time to look !
That’s so  interesting that there is a garage still there!
Please can you point me in the right direction to view the post office records . Next stop I guess will be to look at the census now weve narrowed down a date and an address !

Thank you so much, that’s amazing 😊

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Ok, just realised that’s impossible due to the 100 year law and also none taken 1941 due to ww2 ..... thinking caps on !
Any ideas ?

[Hutch]

Hi Dorsetapplecakes and welcome to the forum!. Thanks for posting the great pictures of your grandfather and his collegues.

I have recently finished reading the diary of Corporal O. H. Davis MM R.E. ("Triumph on the Western Front" compiled by Philip Holdway-Davis, his great nephew) who was a pigeon carrier and dispatch rider in WW1. On pg 143 Davis referrers to a Cpl. Keeling, who would train and billet him. this was around the end of July 1916. I wonder if this is the very same Cpl. Ernest Keeling shown in your post?? I cannot recall any details of the names of other men in your picture mentioned in Davis's diary but I will have a quick scan.

I will pass on details of this post to Philip as i'm sure he would be interested in the pictures.

http://www.triumphonthewesternfront.com/

cheers

Ian

[Hutch]

PM Sent

[Red]

I have now tried half a dozen times to attach the jpg file of the post office directory, but each time it fails, Don't know why! If you PM me your email address I will email it to you. The only Census you could check is the 1939 Census that was carried out to issue ID cards. I don't currently have a membership of any genealogy site which allows access to this data base.

Roy

[Red]

Found this in the 1911 Census. He is the only Alex Mason that comes up in the Somerset area and he has mechanical ability. Might be the Alex Mason you are looking for and Pensford is only about 6 miles form Bristol. By 1916 he would have been 28 which is in keeping with the sort of age you would have estimated from the photograph you have.

Roy

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Hi Roy,

So sorry  for the delay in replying today.
Thank you for looking up the census information and managing to find this ! It does look it is very possible  to be our man!
I think you are right that the next move should be to look up the national Identity card information and 1901 info .
Its all tantalising in touching distance.....
Thank you so much for helping me ,your a star !

[Dave]

Roy,

If you would like to email the photo of the post office directory to the address shown in this topic, we can add it to your post above.

Dave
Site Admin


Updated details for emailing photos - Dave, 11Feb2021

[Red]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the offer, but not to worry I managed to send it to her via email. Its not something that would be of any interest to any other member and was purely to help her with some genealogy work she was carrying out.

Roy

[Dorsetapplecakes]

Hi Everyone,

I just thought I would post a bit of an update !

So since the last post I have been busy reading OH Davies Diary :Triumph on the Western Front .
I am really excited to be able to say that my Grandfather Cpl Keeling .Sgt Holmes and Cpl Mason are all mentioned by Oswald Davies in the diary ! There is even a fully documented conversation between Mason, Keeling and Davies!  The diary is a truly astonishing account and I  feel so lucky that we have a snap shot of what this time was like for my Grandfather and his Colleagues.
  There are also other men that were working alongside Ernest ,Mason and Oswald  of whom we have named and dated pictures within our family collection .
We have managed to find some of their regiment numbers . I'm amazed to be able to say that M.C Corp  A  Mason (Alexander) 30263  of  my newly purchased auction medals has a regiment number within 7 numbers of one of the other men within the B corp Signals!!!
I think we can 99.9999% say that through some huge sheer fluke I have landed the medals of my Grandfathers comrade !

I havent been able to further my research of the census as yet but hope to carry on and continue the search !
A  huge thank you to all of you  on this  forum . We would never have been able to find this out if it wasnt for you ! We are so grateful xx

Heres a picture of Mason on his bike !