Tag Archives: Military

Stranger things have happened

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As a keen family historian, I spend a lot of time researching off-shoots and branches of mine and my husband’s family trees. From time to time my eye is caught by a record which opens a whole new area for me to research.

Such a thing happened when I was following the record trail for Jane Bean (1817-1887) my first cousin five times removed. Jane was baptised on 23 January 1817 in Acklam in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She was the daughter of William, a nurseryman and his wife Ann. In the 1823 Baines directory the family were living in nearby Leavening.

Jane married George Grey, a tailor, in York, in 1840 and they had four children. By 1851 three of them were living with Jane’s parents in Leavening and no census records for either George or Jane could be found.

I wondered what had happened to George and Jane and was surprised to find her next in the 1861 census in Dorset, some considerable distance from Yorkshire. There she was described as the wife of James Cameron (1813-1882). The couple were recorded as living in Clifton Road, Grove, Isle of Portland, Dorset where James was an assistant warder in the prison service at the nearby Grove prison. Other warders from the prison were also living in Clifton Rd. Two of Jane’s daughters, Mary Ann (and her husband John) and Georgiana (1845-1914), were living with James and Jane. Mary Ann (1841-1931) had married John Carrick Rennie (1831-1914), a prison warder, on 17 May 1860. The witnesses to their marriage were her sister Georgiana and William Parkin. The certificate gives Mary Ann’s fathers name as George Grey, a tailor, but does not indicate if he was alive or dead. John and Mary had moved to Brixton by 1871, where John was a prison officer in Wormwood Scrubs. (The following OS map dated 1903 is Dorset LVIII.SE.)

How Jane and James met is not clear, nor is when her first husband George Grey died. What is interesting about James is that he was in receipt of an army pension. His military records suggest that he was born on 13 October 1813 in New South Wales, Australia. James had enlisted in the British Army in the East Indies on 20th October 1826 at the age of 13. He served in the 13th Light Dragoons and participated in the Crimean War (1854-1856). As a private he was a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade which took place during the battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854. It is said to be one of the most “infamous blunders” in military history, according to the National Army Museum. (The following painting of the Charge of the Light Brigade dated 2 Jan 1855 is by Henry Brabazon Utmston.)

James was wounded in the battle and eventually ended up in Scutari hospital where he spent from 31 October 1854 to 27 March 1855 recovering, before being sent home. He was promoted to corporal on 1 September 1855 and then sent to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham where he was declared unfit for service due to his chronic rheumatism 15 December 1855. James was discharged from the army on 17 October 1856 with no trade and his declared destination as London. James’ pension records provide potential clues as to where he went next. When he first received his army pension, he was in the London North district; by July 1857 he had moved to the Salisbury district, according to his Royal Hospital Chelsea records.

By the 1871 census James and Jane had moved to Lancashire and by 1881 were living in Salford with Jane’s daughter Georgiana and her family. James died on 11 December 1882 and buried in the Weaste cemetery in Salford. His death notice in the Manchester Evening News edition of 15 December 1882 was headlined “Death of a Balaclava Hero”. Perhaps almost 30 years later views on the Charge of the Light Brigade had begun to change to acknowledge those who had survived that most infamous military blunder?

So, it was something of a surprise that I had a link, through my first cousin five times removed to a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Note: the map used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography

Battle of Balaclava. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-balaklava : accessed December 2022.

Baines 1823 directory. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Acklam/Acklam23Dry : accessed December 2022.

British Army Service Records. Collection: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Admission Books, Registers and Papers 1702-1876. https://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

Census records. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

Grove Prison Museum. https://www.dorsetmuseums.co.uk/grove-prison-museum : accessed December 2022.

Ireland, Royal Hospital Kilmainham Pensioner Discharge Documents, 1724-1924. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

Lives of the Light Brigade. http://www.chargeofthelightbrigade.com/allmen/allmenC/allmenC_13LD/cameron_j_412_13LD.html : accessed December 2022.

Manchester Evening News. https://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : December 2022.

UK and Ireland Find A Grave Index, 1300s to Current. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

UK and Ireland newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s to Current. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920. https://ancestry.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

Urmston, Henry Brabazon. (1855) The Charge of the Light Brigade. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page : accessed December 2022.

Yorkshire baptisms. https://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

Yorkshire marriages. https://www.findmypast.co.uk : accessed December 2022.

A submariner in World War II – George Leonard Mason (1913-1943)

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George served on the submarine HMS Turbulent during World War II and was declared dead after the submarine went missing while out on patrol in 1943. He was my third cousin 3 times removed and his grandmother Elizabeth Haw (1837-1902) was my first cousin 4 times removed.

George was the youngest son of Albert Mason (1870-1932) and Kate Adams (1876-1955). While his father Albert had been baptised in Monk Bar United Methodist Chapel on 14 February 1870, his mother Kate was a Roman Catholic. Kate’s parents had been born in Ireland and Albert and Kate married in St Wilfrid’s Roman Catholic Church, York on 14 September 1895. George was baptised in St Sampson’s Church, Church Street, York on 27 April 1913 when the family were living at 3 Wilmots Court, Swinegate (see the following map for Swinegate and St Sampson Church which is just nearby in Church Street and circled in red).

Extract from OS Map York 1910 CLXIVNW

By 1939 George had married Annie Upton (1912-1991) and they had had a son Leonard (1936-2003). The family were living at 44 Kyme Street, which is inside the city walls and part of the Bishophill area of the city of York. George gave his occupation as a “maintenance mechanic motor transport”.

By 1943 George was a submariner on HMS Turbulent where he was described as a “engine room artificer 4th class”. An artificer is a Royal Navy trade and they are skilled mechanics. Presumably George’s previous experience as a mechanic was being put to use here.

The following photograph shows HMS Turbulent on the outboard side, moored up with HMS Taiku on the inboard side, in Algiers in 1943.

HMS Turbulent – Royal Navy Official Photographer, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

HMS Turbulent is known to have left Algiers on 23 February 1943 for a patrol in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean, to the west of Italy. She did not return from her patrol duties and was declared overdue on 23 March 1943. It is likely that she was torpedoed and sunk in early March, but the precise details have not been conclusively confirmed, and her wreck has not been found. Members of George’s family continued to live and work in York and George’s death is commemorated on the Naval Memorial at Plymouth.  

I am interested in knowing more about all the people mentioned in this blog post. Do contact me if you have any further information which you are willing to share with me.

Note: the map used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography

Commonwealth War Graves Commission. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/ : accessed October 2020.

HMS Turbulent. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205147929 : accessed October 2020.

HMS Turbulent. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/HMSM_Turbulent_FL20300.jpg : accessed October 2020.

HMS Turbulent (N98). https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3505.html : accessed October 2020.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed October 2020.

Royal Navy Trades. https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/blog/2016/01/15/royal-navy-rank-and-trades-explained : accessed October 2020.

Ancestors in Australia

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So far in my family research I have found very few people who have emigrated to Australia from either my husband or my own part of our family tree. The most notable person was Thomas King, born about 1813, who was transported to Tasmania for stealing.

Recently I discovered some distant cousins, one of whom emigrated to Australia in 1928 and the other who joined him in 1949. The first to emigrate was Frederick William Ellis (1906-1957) who was born in Luton, Bedfordshire and by 1928 living in Cople in Bedfordshire. He left England for Australia on 13 October 1928 on the ship SS Orford where his occupation was given as farming. Information on the ship he travelled on is included on the Passengers in History website.

SSOrdfordfrompassengersinhistoryFrederick seems to have settled in Western Australia and so far I’ve been unable to determine if he received assistance for his passage. He wasn’t listed as a new settler arriving on the ship SS Orford in the list published in The Western Australian newspaper dated 10 November 1928.

 

Frederick was living in Northam, Western Australia when he enlisted in the Australian army in WWII. After the war his sister Helena (1904-1988) and brother-in-law Ashley Herbert Lansom (born 1906), my fifth cousin once removed, together with their two sons, emigrated to Australia on the ship SS Otranto. They left Tilbury Docks, London, England on 14 October 1949 bound for Freemantle in Western Australia. On the passenger list Ashley’s occupation was listed as a plumber and they gave their intended residence as c/o Ellis, 58 Hovea Crescent, Wundowie, Western Australia. The Lansom’s seem to have settled in a suburb of Perth called Dianella as they were recorded living there in The Government Gazette dated 31 August 1979.

A resource that I’ve found really helpful to add context to these two men is the National Library of Australia’s Trove website. It is free to use and is where I found copies of The Western Australia newspaper and The Government Gazette.

Note: the photo of SS Orford came from the Passengers in History website under their Creative Commons license. It has not been modified.

The unidentified John Sarginson

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It was probably about a year ago when my brother Tim set me a family history challenge. He is interested in a specific name on the WW1 war memorial which resides in St Helen’s Churchyard in Escrick; the village we were born and brought up in. The man’s name was John Sarginson. Neither of my parents was able to shed any light on this man who shares the same surname as we do. Our uncle Taff, one of my father’s brothers, wasn’t able to help either when we asked him about him earlier this year. Mind you he didn’t know that one of his ancestors from a nearby village had served in World War One, survived and is included in one of the historical books about Riccall; the village which he lives in.

Anyway how hard can this be to identify someone who is currently unidentified I thought to myself. Well much harder than I’d anticipated is the short answer. I started with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and found some John Sarginson’s who had not survived the war but, having carried out further research,  I don’t think it is any of them. Then I thought well perhaps he is in some of the other WW1 records: Ancestry, Imperial War Museum lives of the Great War, Findmypast and the National Archives at Kew. No luck there though.

Then I realised that there would probably have been some meetings to discuss the war memorial and discovered that some papers and meeting minutes had been lodged at the Hull history centre as part of the Forbes Adam collection. Perhaps this was going to be the eureka moment that we family historians crave. Yes you’ve guessed it, it wasn’t. A very interesting letter from Lady Wenlock written in 1921, just after the commemoration service for the war memorial, did reveal some of the local feeling around it and some of the the names which had been included on it. But no the papers didn’t provide any information about who was going to be included on the memorial. A separate sub-committee run by the Rector made those decisions; and so far it doesn’t look these papers still exist or are accessible.

So it was back to the drawing board. After extensive further research, including also looking at the other soldiers on the war memorial and who they served with, I am no further forward in identifying the unidentified John Sarginson. I am loathe to leave him as a mystery so have written to the local historian who wrote a book about Escrick to see if he can help.

If you know anything about this John then do please contact me. I have also posted this blog to my other genealogy website https://sarginsonfamily.com/.

Postscript: it looks like John may no longer be unidentified. He was probably Corporal John Sarginson of the West Yorkshire regiment. It would be good though to know more about his connection to Escrick as he wasn’t born there. If you have any further information do please get in touch.