Artificial intelligence helped a family uncover their grandfather’s wartime story

After 17 years searching, Mark Townsend has found photographs and records that helped his family understand his grandfather’s wartime service. He told BBC Somerset that a search assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) supplied the photograph that opened the trail.

Cyril Smith, who lived in Frome, died in Germany in 1945. For decades, the family had little more than a newspaper clipping and rumours about secret duties.

The search surfaced a named group photograph. Townsend’s mother recognised her father, and the discovery led to his service record and a regimental history.

The British Resistance Archive records Smith’s posting to Special Duties with Auxiliary Units in March 1941, followed by his return to conventional military service in 1944.

This is one family’s experience of using AI to find a lead; the documents provide the evidence behind the history. The archive also links to Smith’s service record for further checking.

For Townsend, the result is personal: “The more we know, the more proud we are of him.”

Sources

• BBC News — AI helped me discover grandad was a covert WW2 soldier
• British Resistance Archive — Cyril Smith