Interesting that he has two serial numbers - one for the Devons and one for the RSF.
I'd guess that he was promoted - note the 'A[cting] Serjeant' rank above 'Pte' in the Devons - then posted to a new unit or new draft as an NCO, away from his old ranker pals. I bet that happened early in the war too, as units rarely had that luxury later on!
Nice touch a Taffy name like "Owen Owens" in a Scots unit. No disrespect to Welsmen, BTW, it just reminds me of the old joke about
3rd Devons
1st Devons
1/4th Royal Scots Fusiliers Territorial Force Battalion
(1) - Threatre of War number 1 which is France and Flanders.
Actually its a shame his name is Owens, discussion on another forum with someone on the inside at the TNA reveals that there will not be any more updates to the Ancestry service papers index as the search engine used by ancestry has come into question by the management of TNA. It will probably be about 3 -4 years before we see another update. So dont hold your breath on that group!
You were however lucky to find the MSM card, I am still waiting on a great number of MM's.
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