Halsey's Lost War Records

The experiences and travels of Tewkesbury photographer, Halsey Sydney Viscount Freeman during World War 1 were recently recounted in the Bulletin with the aid of extracts from his 1918 diary and family photographs from the period. Now, thanks to the discovery, fortuitously, of copies of Halsey's army papers at Kew Public Record Office (an estimated 60% of such records were destroyed during the second world war) it has come to light that he did not join up, as had previously been believed, but was called up, was conscripted in Birmingham, where he had been working for two years in a protected occupation, and made his first and last will and testament within five days of reaching the Western front.....