3652380 Private Joseph Patrick Finley
We do not currently have a photograph of Private Finlay and have based this
story of his life on publicly available information sources. We have identified a series of changes of names,
both his middle name and surnames, together with inconsistencies in the spelling of his surnames, one of these
being spelt as both "FINLEY" and "FINLAY".
If anyone has any information to enhance the accuracy
and detail of this story please contact us
3652380 Private Joseph Patrick Finley was the son of Elizabeth Ann Quinn, born on 15th
November 1912 in Liverpool. Joseph's birth took place prior to the marriage of Elizabeth to James Finley and
his birth registration was in the name of Joseph Quinn.
On 25th November 1912 Josephus (Joseph) Quinn, son of Elizabethae Annae Quinn, was baptised into
The Roman Catholic Church at St Brigid, Liverpool, Lancashire, England.
In the spring of 1917 Joseph's mother, Elisabeth Ann Quinn, married James Finley in Liverpool.
In the 1921 census of England and Wales Joseph is listed as Joseph Quinn Finley.
There is also inconsistency in the spelling of the Joseph's surname1.
Not only does the T & E Book 11, page 65 record his middle name as Patrick it also records his surname as FINLAY.
The middle name
of Patrick is regularly used throughout the remainder of Joseph's life. However, this spelling of FINLAY rarely
appears, with the surname generally being spelt FINLEY.
The entry in the T & E book appears to have been written by 3
different people. Thus, it is likely the entry was not made by Joseph himself and, therefore, the spelling of his
surname may be attributable to an error by the author of the document.
It appears likely the original entry containing Joseph's name was made at the same time as the entry of '4.7.33'.
There is also an entry in the left hand column of
'D.L.I.', suggesting he originally joined The Durham Light Infantry on 4th July 1933. Since he would have
been aged 20 years in July 1933, it is feasible he could have enlisted at this time.
At the age of 23, 3652380 Private Joseph Patrick Finley successfully completed parachute course No. 44 at
Ramat David in Palestine from May 26 to June 08, 1943.
We have been unable to find any evidence of Joseph being deployed operationally in Arnhem or that he came to
Nijmegen with the seaborne tail after the Battle of Arnhem. However, since his medal card issued on 19th
November 1953 shows he was awarded the France and Germany Star, he participated in operations in Northwest Europe.
He is believed to have transferred to the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) on November 19, 1944, as indicated in the
T & E Book entry. Thus it is unclear
whether his participation in operations in Northwest Europe was in September 1944 or with the DLI in 1945. If you
are able to shed any light on this, please contact us.
Additionally, Finley appeared on casualty list 1708 as wounded on March 17, 1945, in the DLI. There is then a
correction
on casualty list 1778/30, dated June 9th 1945, correcting his battalion to 1st East Lancashire Regiment,
who were part of the 53rd Welsh Division.
Thus it appears he stayed with 1st East Lancs until the end of the war as that is what appears on his medal
card. His medal card is dated 19th November 1953 and gives his address as 1, Albany Road. Kirkby, nr
Liverpool.
A little under 6 years before the issue of his medals, on 12th September 1947 Joseph married Alice
Marian Kemp in Liverpool.
Between 1949 and 1952 electoral registers show Joseph and Alice were living in 7C Hurst Gardens, Liverpool. The
next record of an address is on the medals card. There is also an annotation on the medal card of "(Gone Away)
RE-ISSUE 2/6/54". We are unable to find any other electoral register entries after 1952; this, combined with the
annotation on the medal card and the overlaid address suggest Joseph and Marion moved to the Albany Road address
sometime in 1953, before 19th November.
We are unable to locate any other records of Joseph Patrick Finley until his death on 21st September 1976, when he was living at 216 Southdene Road, Liverpool2.
1Also having previously been identified by Mr R.P. "Bob" Hilton, during the course of the research conducted by Remember The XIth, we became aware the surname is spelled variously as 'FINLAY' and 'FINLEY' on official military documents.
2Further research conducted by William Davis, RTXI, drawing upon publicly available records and additional research conducted and shared by researchers on ancestry.co.uk.