• Only registered members can see all the forums - if you've received an invitation to join (it'll be on your My Summary page) please register NOW!

  • If you're looking for the LostCousins site please click the logo in the top left corner - these forums are for existing LostCousins members only.
  • This is the LostCousins Forum. If you were looking for the LostCousins website simply click the logo at the top left.
  • It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here

Remembering the Fallen

Helen7 said:
Yes, that's right. Conscription into the British armed forces wasn't introduced until January 1916. So your great-grandfather would have been safely back in Australia by then.
Click to expand...
And the National Register wasn't compiled until 15th August 1915 - it may have been the trigger for your ancestor to return to Australia.
 
peter said:
And the National Register wasn't compiled until 15th August 1915 - it may have been the trigger for your ancestor to return to Australia.
Click to expand...

Probably not, since he married in Rockhampton on the 24th August 1915, and the likelihood is that he met his wife before he went home and possibly went home to tell them about her.
He had been given the money to come to Australia, and was probably gifted the money to go home to Scotland as well - he'd originally come to Australia as a missionary (!) and was a Baptist minister for the rest of his life, so there was never a lot of money in the family, most definitely not enough to get them back to Scotland for a holiday. My grandmother will willingly tell you how long it took before they had running water in any of the manses she lived in as a child.

I checked again, he arrived in London in May 1914 - would presumably have been in Scotland for the outbreak of war, and sailed back out of Liverpool in September 1914.

The family story was that one of his brother died in the War, although I have disproved this (rather he died of TB in Edinburgh in 1929 at the age of 39), but I haven't been able to find out whether or not any of my great-grandfather's brothers served in the war - it seems unlikely for two of them and the most likely is the one who died young, but I haven't been able to find the proof, and may never be able to.
 
jorghes said:
The family story was that one of his brother died in the War, although I have disproved this (rather he died of TB in Edinburgh in 1929 at the age of 39), but I haven't been able to find out whether or not any of my great-grandfather's brothers served in the war - it seems unlikely for two of them and the most likely is the one who died young, but I haven't been able to find the proof, and may never be able to.
Click to expand...
There are medal cards for most soldiers who served, but if the name is a common one you might have trouble identifying him (particular since there are often errors in army records).
 
peter said:
There are medal cards for most soldiers who served, but if the name is a common one you might have trouble identifying him (particular since there are often errors in army records).
Click to expand...

Pretty common (John Andrew Wright) unfortunately not as unique as some of his brothers!
 
jorghes said:
Pretty common (John Andrew Wright) unfortunately not as unique as some of his brothers!
Click to expand...
There is a John Andrew Wright from Edinburgh in the 'Royal Tank Corps Enlistment Records, 1919-1934' on FMP, which states he originally enlisted on 27 Nov 1914, then re-enlisted in 1920. I've no idea if it's your relative, but there's lots of detail in the image, including his occupation and his mother's name and full address, so you can check if it fits. I found my great uncle in these records and was able to confirm it was him because of his home address (which was the house where my mother was born!). It seems that Army Order 124 of 1919 offered financial incentives to soldiers to re-enlist - as a reserve force for ongoing peacetime military commitments following WW1 - and my great uncle signed up for 4 yrs 3 months (for which he would have received a £50 bounty – worth having in 1919!). It looks like your relative may have done the same (as many thousands did, apparently). I couldn't trace my great uncle's army record (presumably destroyed in the blitz) but this record gave his regimental numbers and so I was able to trace his medal card too.
 
Helen7 said:
There is a John Andrew Wright from Edinburgh in the 'Royal Tank Corps Enlistment Records, 1919-1934' on FMP, which states he originally enlisted on 27 Nov 1914, then re-enlisted in 1920. I've no idea if it's your relative, but there's lots of detail in the image, including his occupation and his mother's name and full address, so you can check if it fits. I found my great uncle in these records and was able to confirm it was him because of his home address (which was the house where my mother was born!). It seems that Army Order 124 of 1919 offered financial incentives to soldiers to re-enlist - as a reserve force for ongoing peacetime military commitments following WW1 - and my great uncle signed up for 4 yrs 3 months (for which he would have received a £50 bounty – worth having in 1919!). It looks like your relative may have done the same (as many thousands did, apparently). I couldn't trace my great uncle's army record (presumably destroyed in the blitz) but this record gave his regimental numbers and so I was able to trace his medal card too.
Click to expand...

I think I've looked at that one before - while the name of his mother is correct (her name was Jane), the age given for that John Andrew Wright is wrong (he was born in 1890, not 1892) and his mother would have been living in Nairn at the time, not in Edinburgh... Plus, this one says that this John Andrew Wright was discharged in 1937, mine died in 1929 - and I know this is correct because I have his death register with the name of his brother on it - his is rather distinct (James Hay Shaw Wright) as he was named after his step-grandfather - if mine did serve, he would have had to have discharged after the war.
 
jorghes said:
Plus, this one says that this John Andrew Wright was discharged in 1937, mine died in 1929.
Click to expand...
Good point! Though I wonder - as it was an army reserve - whether the discharge might be a nominal date and they may not have known he'd died (?!) However, the other non-matching information suggests it's the wrong person (though ages are often wrong on army records). As you say, a rather common name...
 
Helen7 said:
Good point! Though I wonder - as it was an army reserve - whether the discharge might be a nominal date and they may not have known he'd died (?!) However, the other non-matching information suggests it's the wrong person (though ages are often wrong on army records). As you say, a rather common name...
Click to expand...

Pretty much - I don't think that is him, but you never really know I suppose. I think I once found a record on the National Archives website that referred to the correct name and made a comment about TB (which is what John died from), but I've lost the screen shot I took of it!
 
Just a reminder that the Lives of the First World war website will be closing for new entries in mid-March. One of the new communities I created there might be useful to those who had relatives living in Canada at the time. A considerable number of men did not enlist with the C.E.F. but traveled back to England to enlist.
 
Did you have a relative working as a bank clerk in the UK prior to WWI? You probably don't know which bank and it's worth checking the community I set up at Lives . I wish I had discovered these additional resources sooner , they are a fascinating history of the banks quite apart from their remembrance of WWI.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back