If you have an army child or two in your family tree, it may be possible to learn more about them by consulting certain family-history resources, while reading about the military conflicts in which the British Army has been involved over the centuries, and their historical context, may help to inform you about the times, and circumstances, in which they lived.
RESEARCHING ARMY CHILDREN
If you are interested in researching an army child in your family tree, it's best to consult a specialist genealogical publication or magazine, such as the Imperial War Museum's book Tracing Your Family History: Army (2006), for advice on how to proceed. Otherwise, the following basic tips may set you on your way if your army child, or children, were 'on the strength', or 'children of the regiment'.
- If the child was born in Britain, you should be able to track down details of his or her birth certificate in the same way as you would those for a child of civilian parentage (although it is still a work in progress, you can consult http://freebmd.rootsweb.com, which contains birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales, for free).
- If the soldier father was stationed in England or Wales in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 or 1911, you should be able to locate the family in the appropriate national census (for further details, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk, and note that access to the 1881 census is free).
- If the soldier father was posted overseas, the GRO Army Birth Indexes (1881-1965), the GRO Army Chaplains' Birth Indexes (1796-1880) and the GRO Regimental Birth Indexes (1761-1924) may contain details of his children's births, and can be viewed free of charge, along with the equivalent marriage and death indexes, at http://www.familyrelatives.com.
- If the soldier father was stationed in India before 1949, the British Library's India Office Family History Search website, http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/, may be worth visiting. This offers a searchable database of selected birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records, taken from the India Office Records, for British and European people living in India between around 1600 and 1949.
- The Families in British India Society (FIBIS) is devoted to members with an interest in researching British or Anglo-Indian ancestors who lived or served in the Indian Subcontinent from 1600 to 1947, and the background against which they led their lives in 'British India'. Non-members will also find viewable social-history-related material on its website, including a range of records and images. To explore it, click on: http://www.fibis.org
- The Jamaican Family Search website (see: http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com) contains lists of British Army regiments stationed in Jamaica between 1702 and 1962 and information relating to, and contained in, Jamaican almanacs and directories, transcribed books and newspapers, religious registers and wills, Jamaican monumental inscriptions, maps, photographs and much more. Most web pages are accessible only to members, but certain pages can be viewed by all, among them one that includes some details of baptisms and burials of army children; see: http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples/Soldiers.htm
- The Malta Family History website, http://www.maltafamilyhistory.com, is a real boon to those researching British individuals with Maltese connections, including soldiers serving in the British Army and their families. On this website, you'll find nineteenth- and twentieth-century registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths in Malta, indexes of the names of those buried in cemeteries on Malta, as well as of British soldiers who were stationed there, an illuminating article on the army chapel-schools in Malta and more besides.
- If you are researching a child who attended the Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin, between 1765 and 1924, or the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, between 1803 and 1892, you may strike lucky if you visit: http://www.rma-searcher.co.uk. This detailed website presents admissions and statistical data taken from original records relating to both schools (and see http://www.achart.ca for their history).
A SELECTIVE TIMELINE OF CONFLICTS INVOLVING BRITISH TROOPS
1689-97: War of the Grand Alliance
1701-14: War of the Spanish Succession
1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession
1756-63: Seven Years' War
1775-83: American War of Independence
1793-1802: Wars of the French Revolution
1803-15: Napoleonic Wars (1808-14: Peninsular War)
1812-15: War of 1812
1814-16: Gurkha War
1833-42: First Afghan War
1845-46: First Sikh War
1848-49: Second Sikh War
1854-56: Crimean War
1857-58: Indian Mutiny
1867-68: Abyssinian War
1878-80: Second Afghan War
1879: Zulu War
1880-81: First Boer War
1884-85: Sudan Relief Expedition
1896-98: Reconquest of the Sudan
1899-1902: Second Boer War
1914-18: World War I
1919: Third Afghan War
1939-45: World War II
1950-53: Korean War
1956: Suez Crisis
1969-2007: Operation Banner (Northern Ireland)
1982: Falklands Conflict
1991: Operation Granby (the first Gulf War)
2001 to date: Operation Veritas, Operation Fingal and Operation Herrick (Afghanistan)
2003 to date: Operation TELIC (War on Iraq)
TACA CORRESPONDENCE: ENLISTMENT AS A DRUMMER, AGED FIVE
Janet Adams has been in touch with TACA regarding her great-great-grandfather, who was born to a British soldier serving at Gibraltar in 1781. Having been orphaned, he enlisted at five years of age and served in the British Army for twenty-one years, seeing action in the Peninsular War. Janet writes:
'Following our enquiry, the British War Office (WO) provided quite detailed information on my mother's grandfather, Colour Sergeant John Murray, who was born on Gibraltar in 1781 to a serving British soldier. Five years after his birth, his father died on duty (cause unknown), and the child was enlisted as a drummer in HM 50th Regiment of Foot. He later served in many campaigns, including the Peninsular War, and was awarded the Military General Service Medal with five bars. He was discharged without a pension.
I am intrigued by the history here, but his parents' names are unknown, so I don't know how to find more information. Details on John Murray's death certificate (in Collector, Australia, 1857) indicated his parents as "father unknown soldier" and "mother unknown", which suggests that the child had no memory or knowledge of either after enlistment. I have been trying (not very successfully so far) to get information about John Murray's parents as this would shed more light on the circumstances of his early life in the army and that of other children of the time. The opinion given by the WO was that enlisting children into service at such a young age was not unknown. They said that wives of soldiers were sometimes allowed to accompany their husbands overseas, but no provision was made for their support if their soldier husband was killed. In this event, the commanding officer of the unit sometimes permitted children younger than the enlisting age to join up, thus saving the mother and child from destitution.
I thought that it would have been relatively easy to find some information about John Murray, given that we had the details of his service unit and his years of service, but so far have been frustrated in my searching. . . . I must say that as much as I am interested in the boy, I am perhaps more interested in finding his mother, in particular to find out what her fate was. Did she also die on Gibraltar? If so, she must have died quite young as it seems that the boy had no real knowledge of his parents. If I can find more information, it could be enhanced by pictures of uniforms and campaigns of the Siege of Gibraltar and the Peninsular War, so I welcome advice on where to look for such information.'
If anyone has any advice to offer Janet, she would be delighted to receive it, and can be contacted through TACA.
DEATH ON THE MARCH: FALLING BY THE WAYSIDE ON THE RETREAT TO CORUNNA, 1808–9
There was a time when army children accompanied their parents abroad on active service. In his memoirs, Rifleman Benjamin Harris, of the 95th Rifles, recalls the heartbreaking scene that he witnessed on the retreat to Corunna (the port of La Coruña, in north-western Spain) during the Peninsular War, which took place over the Christmas and New Year period of 1808–9, exactly 200 years ago. 'About this period I remember another sight, which I shall not to my dying day forget; and it causes me a sore heart, even now, as I remember it', he writes, before describing seeing an army wife and her young son struggle in vain to keep up with the British troops. The few lines in which he tells his story (see below) are just part of a fascinating account that was first published as The Recollections of Rifleman Harris during the mid-nineteenth century. Rifleman Harris' memoirs remain in print, and this extract appears on pages 87 to 88 of a Cassell Military Paperbacks edition, edited by Christopher Hibbert, published in association with the Windrush Press in 2006.
'Soon after our halt beside the turnip-field the screams of a child near me caught my ear, and drew my attention to one of our women, who was endeavouring to drag along a little boy of about seven or eight years of age. The poor child was apparently completely exhausted, and his legs failing under him. The mother had occasionally, up to this time, been assisted by some of the men, taking it in turn to help the little fellow on; but now all further appeal was in vain. No man had more strength than was necessary for the support of his own carcass, and the mother could no longer raise the child in her arms, as her reeling pace too plainly showed. Still, however, she continued to drag the child along with her. It was a pitiable sight, and wonderful to behold the efforts the poor woman made to keep the boy amongst us. At last the little fellow had not even strength to cry, but, with mouth wide open, stumbled onwards, until both sank down to rise no more. The poor woman herself had, for some time, looked a moving corpse; and when the shades of evening came down, they were far behind amongst the dead or dying in the road. This was not the only scene of the sort I witnessed amongst the women and children during that retreat. Poor creatures!'
TACA CORRESPONDENCE: THE KING'S GERMAN LEGION AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARMY SCHOOLS
TACA has received the following message from Peter Cole requesting assistance.
'I belong to the Bexhill Hanoverian Study Group. As the name suggests, we are researching the King's German Legion (KGL), who were in Bexhill, East Sussex, between 1803 and 1815. They had a garrison school and sent some children to the Royal Military Asylum (RMA). The KGL was an integral part of the British Army, and whilst the soldiers, and sometimes their wives, were in the Peninsula, the children were still in Bexhill. The wives and children had an allowance from public or army funds in their husbands' absence. Although some of the soldiers' marriages were to Bexhillians, a large number were to women of German, Dutch and other nationalities. Therefore the wives could not be sent back to their parish or the workhouse or similar while their husbands were away. The chances of finding the site of the garrison school is remote, but I do have some badly copied records of the school register and the timetable – in German, which I am trying to translate. (These come from the Hannover Record Office in Germany.) If anyone would like to throw in some more information, it would be appreciated. (I already have a fair amount of information from RMA connections.)
Also, can anyone date the 8th Acting Army Schoolmasters' Course (circa 1901 or later)? I'm asking regarding Herbert Cole, who was in the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, 1.7.1875–27.5.1914.'
If anyone has any information that may help Peter, you can contact him through either TACA or the Bexhill Hanoverian Study Group's website: http://www.bexhillhanoveriankgl.co.uk/.
TACA CORRESPONDENCE: EDWARD JAMES BIRCH, BORN 1881, BERMUDA
Jack O'Brien has contacted TACA with the following request for assistance.
'I am doing genealogical research, seeking any relevant information on Edward James Birch, born December 17, 1881 at Ireland Island, Bermuda. He was the son of James Birch, who served at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda, and who retired from service in 1895 while stationed there, and Alice Corker (or Corber) Birch. I have also been trying to find any burial records for Alice Corker (or Corber) in Bermuda. My understanding is that James Birch retired from the British service in 1895, but then went on to India, where he died. He would have been with the Engineers in Bermuda or possibly with the infantry guarding the base.'
If you think that you can help, you can e-mail Jack either directly (jobrien@hireintegrity.com) or through TACA.
FAMILY-HISTORY RESEARCH: ROBERT AND SYDNEY COCKMAN, GORDON HIGHLANDERS (AND AN ARMY SCHOOLMASTER) DURING THE BOER WAR
'. . . The bulk of the fighting was now over for the two brothers. Sydney would have received bad news from home. His wife and children had moved to live with her mother in Glasgow while he was away, and on 18 May 1900, baby Sydney died there, from gastritis and convulsions. Nellie, notifying the death, betrayed her confusion about the names that she was supposed to be using: she gave the baby's name as Sydney Douglas Cockman, his father's name as Duncan Douglas Cockman, alias Douglas, and her name as Helen Dempster Cockman. By the time of the 1901 census, she had the story straight again . . .'
To read Virginia Silvester's absorbing article in which she presents the fruits of her research into the lives of two of her great-grandmother's soldier brothers – one of whom was an army schoolmaster – and their families, click here.
PICTURE: 'THE CHILD HE WILL NEVER SEE!'
The World War I-era postcard reproduced below may be steeped in pathos, yet accurately illustrates just one of the devastating effects that war can have on family life when a soldier is also a parent.
PERSONAL STORY: REFLECTIONS ON REMEMBRANCE DAY
Terry Friend, whose father was in the Royal Horse Artillery, was born in Kiel, (West) Germany, in 1947. Here, he reflects on Remembrance Days past, and on the significance that 11 November holds for him and his family. (For Terry's recollections of the camp at Hohne, (West) Germany, click here; for a description of his family's married quarters in Hohne, click here; for his memories of going to school in Hohne and Wilhelmshaven, click here; for the knock-on effects that the Hungarian uprising had on the Friend family, click here; for his account of Christmases in Germany, click here; and for more about Terry himself, visit his website: http:// www.anothercountrysong.com.)
'For a military family such as mine, Remembrance Day became as significant for us as Easter or Christmas – another important day in our yearly calendar. I have never in my life experienced anything so hauntingly beautiful in its melancholy as the sound of a lone bugler playing the Last Post, followed always by the cathedral-like hush of the minute's silence. It brought a lump to my throat then, and it brings a lump to my throat now. Conjuring up images of Grandad Lavers covered in mud on the Western Front. Of Father in the desert, or struggling up the Normandy beachhead. Of my brother Chris enduring dive bombers in the Falkland Sound. Or of myself trekking through those dingy, hate-filled, dirty little back streets of Belfast.
I first heard that lonely bugle lament in the Globe Cinema at Hohne in 1951 or 1952. Married families would be seated in the "gods" upstairs, and the regiments of the garrison would be marched to the cinema to file in downstairs. There gathered, we would all take part in the traditional church service for Remembrance Sunday conducted by the padre. There, in that building normally associated with the pleasurable pursuits of the silver screen, I became acquainted with the Remembrance service and its melancholy ceremony. I, who had not lived with the grim reality of war, often wondered what was running through the minds of Mother and Pop. One had been under bombardment from the enemy force. The family home was nearly destroyed in one raid, when a bomb landed in the street and destroyed three houses opposite number thirteen, a mere 15 yards away! The other had campaigned for six years, going from the heat of the desert to the freezing conditions of the winter of 1944 in Holland. He was wounded twice, both times in Africa, the first time being a bullet in the knee, and the second time, a shell splinter in the face.
After the service, the units would march back to their own area of the camp. There would be a march past and a salute. I was always struck by the fact that most of the soldiers had "naked chests". It was the era of national service, so most of them were no doubt unwilling conscripts. In contrast, at the rear of the squad marched the senior ranks, sergeants and warrant officers, all weighed down with medals, these jangling and shining proudly in the feeble autumn sun. Pop himself wore the 1939–45 Star, the Africa Star and the France and Germany Star, plus the Defence and War medals. These were to have another medal added to them in 1958, when he was presented with the army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal awarded after twenty-two years' service.
I always remember my father best, the evening before Remembrance Sunday, at home, seated at the table in the living room. The table was covered in newspaper, and he was armed to the teeth with button stick, button brush, yellow duster and the familiar tin of Brasso. Before him lay the task of cleaning his medals, which had probably lain neglected in a drawer for some months. To me, as I watched, it all looked a very fiddly and awkward job. Great care had to be maintained not to get any Brasso stains on the ribbons. I admired the old soldier as he sat there, whistling as he worked. Weren't the stars awkward to clean? The button brush was very handy for this. I had a secret ambition: I, too, wanted to be like Pop and have a chestful of medals one day.'
Terry Friend (b.1947).
TACA CORRESPONDENCE: INFORMATION SOUGHT ON BEECH-HANGER COURT, CATERHAM, SURREY
Jane O'Connor has contacted TACA with a request for information.
'Some time around 1945, my great aunt was principal matron at Beech-hanger Court, Caterham, in Surrey, which I believe was then a school for the daughters of Scots Guardsmen. However, my mother always believed it was an orphanage. She used to spend a month at a time with her aunt, spending a lot of time playing the piano with her and singing.
My great aunt's name was Elsie Shaw, and in 1931 she would have been 38. She was from Great Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, and her father was a boat builder. She had worked as a Red Cross nurse at the military hospital based at Marsh Court at Kings Somborne, Hampshire, during the First World War. (I have a few photos if anyone is interested.) I have no idea how long she stayed at Beech-hanger Court, or when she started and finished her job as principal matron there, though. She got married late in life (in 1945), at the age of 52.
I wonder if you can confirm whether Beech-hanger Court was indeed simply a girls' school; whether there are any records in existence of the staff who worked there during the war period; and whether it was built near, or on, the Guards Depot. Thank you for any information you can give me.'
If you think that you can help Jane, do get in touch: she can be contacted through TACA.
LINKS
The following links provide historical background information that explains much about many army children's lives and times.
- The National Army Museum: http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk
- The Imperial War Museum, which encompasses all aspects of war in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: http://www.iwm.org.uk
- The Army Museums Ogilby Trust's (AMOT's) website is approved by the Ministry of Defence as being the definitive guide to the regimental and corps museums of the British Army throughout the United Kingdom. It also provides details of specialist books and gives advice on researching army ancestors. Visit it at: http://www.armymuseums.org.uk
- The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum's website includes a 'Children of the Regiment' web trail that comprises pages entitled 'Travelling with the Regiment'; 'On the Strength'; 'Off the Strength'; 'Army Children at School'; and 'Order of 1812': To set off on the trail, visit: http://www.rnrm.org.uk/web_trail/web_children_01.html
- The British Empire website is a rich resource for those interested in imperial British history, including as it does biographies, timelines, a map room, a glossary, a discussion forum, articles and information on many aspects of, for example, the armed forces, art and culture and science and technology during this period, as well as research tools. Visit it at: http://www.britishempire.co.uk.
- The RevWar'75 website (http://www.revwar75.com) focuses on the Revolutionary War (or, as it is also called, the American Revolution or the American War of Independence, 1775-83). Don N Hagist's article 'The Women of the British Army in America' includes statistics and information relating to the children of British Army soldiers who found themselves in North America during the American Revolution; to read it, click on: http://www.revwar75.com/library/hagist/britwomen.htm.
- The War of 1812 Website (http://www.warof1812.ca) is dedicated to the conflict between Britain and the United States of America that prevailed between 1812 and 1814. Included among the articles on this informative website are pieces that touch on the experiences of army children during the War of 1812, including: 'Extracts from the Journal of a Subaltern's Wife written in Canada during the years 1812, 1813, and 1814', edited by Don Graves (http://www.warof1812.ca/wife.htm); 'A Soldier's Family in the British Army during the War of 1812', by Robert Henderson (http://www.warof1812.ca/family.htm); and 'Soldiers' Families under Fire: Ambush at Toussaint Island, 1812', edited by Robert Henderson (http://www.warof1812.ca/ambush.htm).
- To read about the history of the British Army in Bermuda from 1776 to 1977, including the regiments and units stationed there, visit: http://www.bermuda-online.org/britarmy.htm. And to learn more about the cemeteries where British soldiers and sailors and their families who died in Bermuda were buried, visit http://bermuda-online.org/britishmilitarygravesbda.htm.
- The Forgotten Soldiers of Bangalore web page (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/9460/index.html) is dedicated to the memory of the British soldiers and their families who lived and died in, or around, Bangalore (or Bengaluru), the capital of Karnataka state in southern India. Here, you'll find links to further web pages of interest, including a list of regiments stationed in Bangalore from 1807; photographs of war memorials and monuments in the locality, as well as of cemeteries and lists of the British individuals buried in some.
- The lively HistoryNet.com website (http://www.historynet.com) is the portal to ten history magazines published by the US Weider History Group. A number of archived articles can be accessed through the website, including 'Napoleonic Wars: Women at Waterloo' (http://www.historynet.com/ napoleonic-wars-women-at-waterloo.htm#high_1), which first appeared in Military History magazine, and which gives an indication of the conditions that army children endured and the sights that they witnessed at the Battle of Waterloo (1815).
- Hidden Lives Revealed (http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk) is a virtual archive dedicated to the stories of the children in the care of The Waifs and Strays' Society (today, The Children's Society) between 1881 and 1918. This absorbing website presents contemporaneous photographs; details of the homes operated by The Waifs and Strays' Society; a list of relevant publications and articles; and a selection of case studies. Army children feature among these, including Case 9308, or 'J', a boy born in 1896 whose mother had died in childbirth in 1900 while his soldier father was fighting in the Boer War (for more details of J's case, see http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/cgi-bin/displayrec.pl?searchtext=soldier& record=/cases/case9308.html).
- The Second World War Experience Centre's mission is to 'collect and encourage access to the surviving testimony of men and women who lived through the years of the Second World War and to ensure that different audiences share and learn from the personal recollections preserved in the collection'. Explore it at: http://www.war-experience.org
- Children (& Families) of the Far East Prisoners of War (COFEPOW) is a registered charity dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Far East prisoners of war and advancing knowledge of the suffering endured and sacrifices made by them during their years of captivity in World War II. Several of its members are former army children, and the stories and memories of some can be read on COFEPOW's sobering, information-filled, reminiscence-rich website. Access it by clicking on http://www.cofepow.org.uk.
- The huge British Armed Forces and National Service website (http://www.britisharmedforces.org) is home to reminiscences and information on many aspects of the British armed forces and national service.
- The Britain's Small Wars website (http://britains-smallwars.com/) homes in on the history of British military conflicts since 1945. Here you'll find articles, reminiscences and anecdotes, as well as a forum, an online museum and memorial, recommended reading and much more.
TO READ VIRGINIA SILVESTER'S ARTICLE, 'FAMILY-HISTORY RESEARCH: ROBERT AND SYDNEY COCKMAN, GORDON HIGHLANDERS (AND AN ARMY SCHOOLMASTER) DURING THE BOER WAR', CLICK HERE.