November 2008
T his year marks the 90th anniversary of the signing of the armistice which brought an end to the hostilities and bloodshed of the First World War on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Those killed in both World Wars, as well as many others over the centuries including those in more modern times, will be remembered this Remembrance Sunday so we felt it most fitting that we should make this a special Remembering Military Ancestors issue.
We have an excellent research guide to tracing your military ancestors and stories from members going back over 200 years, from the Battle of Trafalgar, the Peninsular War and the Crimea, through to the First and Second World Wars, covering the three services of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
In two moving stories we take a look at World War Two from two very different perspectives, that of a soldier and of a child. We also look at an act of remembrance and a trip to the war cemeteries of Belgium to find the name of a great uncle on a memorial.
For the My Town feature this month, we focus on Chatham and its naval connections which go back over 400 years.
As a taster for our December issue, which has a theatrical theme, samesizedfeet explains why her growing collection of theatre memorabilia is her particular family treasure.
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Salamanca 1812
M y great x2 grandfather, Giles Mead, was baptised in Newton St Loe, Somerset, on 11th March 1781, the second known son of John Mead, a labourer, and his wife Lucy (née Keynton), who had married on 20th July 1774. Giles’ brother James had been baptised on 5th February 1777.
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Fought in The Crimea
E dward Parker was my maternal great x2 grandfather and it has taken me years to research him, mostly because he was the first of many generations of soldiers serving in the Royal Artillery, plus his place of birth was transcribed incorrectly from early census returns and also because Read More >> |
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Letter to a son
R ecently a box of items belonging to John Leo O'Keefe (Jack) has surfaced during the clear out of a family home. He was born on 9th May 1895 in Temuka, New Zealand, and was the oldest of the nine children of Denis O'Keefe, an Irish immigrant from Co Kerry, and Mary Ann Moore, a first generation New Zealander, also o
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Awarded the DSO
G eorge Hillis Nelson was born on 14th September 1876 at 62 Mersey Road, Widnes, the illegitimate son of Lydia Nelson. Lydia was the widow of James Wilkin Nelson, an engineer, who had died in 1871. The identity of George’s father is unknown, although the use of the name Hillis as his middle name, seems to suggest tha...
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Grandad's Badges
M y 'family treasures' are my grandfather's cap badges from when he served as a Lance Sargeant in the 11th Royal Irish Rifles of the 109th Brigade of the 36th Ulster Division during World War One. After his death, both badges were left to my dad and on his death, to me. So you can imagine how very precious they are.
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An ordinary war
M y grandmother often talked of her husband’s family’s exploits in World War One. She seemed rather obsessed with a romantic image of war; men riding into battle, swords glinting in the early morning light, some to return in glory, and others left on the battlefield who became, automatically, heroes.
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Traumatised by war
W hen I was young I had very little interest in my family. Like so many young people, all I was interested in was the here and now. I certainly never thought to ask questions. It wasn't until those people most dear to me had passed away that I began to think about who I was and where I'd come from.
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| Wartime Memories |
A Child's Story
I was five years old when war broke out, and lived in Newport, Wales, a prosperous industrial and docks town. As kids, we enjoyed life spending all of our time outside playing. The weather never ever seemed to bother us, and with not much traffic, the streets were our football field, our cricket pitch and our hopscotch was drawn on the pavement. ...
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Memories of a WW2 Soldier
I t is only in very recent years that my father, now aged 93, has talked about his wartime experiences, and I know that this is common for a great many men who served in the Second World War. It is almost impossible for most of us to imagine what they went through, and for some the memory is just too painful. ...
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| Remembrance |
Remembrance Day 1971
I think that the most memorable Remembrance Day service that comes to mind must be the first year we lived in Singapore, which was in November 1971.
At that time my husband, who was a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was attached to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, Princess Margaret’s Own Glasgow and Ayrshire Regiment.
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Visit to Flanders
A fter discovering, through my family history research, that my great uncle, Charles Frederick Garrard, had been killed in World War One , I decided to take a day trip to Belgium and visit the Tyne Cot Cemetery where he is commemorated. ...
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| Naval Connections |
Chatham Dockyard
C hatham is situated on the River Medway in Kent and has connections to the Royal Navy going back to the 16th century.
It was a small village until 1568, when it was established as a Royal Dockyard by Queen Elizabeth I, due to it's strategic location, as the political situation worsened with mainland Europe.
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Walter did well in a Naval career
T his was just about the only thing which we knew about my great x2 uncle, Walter Coleman. He was part of my dad’s family, and a long letter written to Dad in the 1980s by his cousin gave lots of details about the family, including the above little snippet about their great uncle who had died before they were born. ...
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Served at Trafalgar
W hile researching my family tree, I discovered that my great x5 uncle, William Murley, was at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805. He served as a midshipman on the ship 'HMS Belleisle', which was one of the first ships to encounter enemy fire during the battle.
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| Research Guide |
Tracing military ancestors
W hile military records are increasingly being made available online and some have been filmed by the LDS, the major repository for the majority of records remains the National Archives. Their research guides provide an overview of the availability of records for all services. Books, websites and museums can provide more detail. ... Read More >> |
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| Family Treaures |
Theatrical Memorabilia
I was not fortunate enough to be born into a family flush with heirlooms and mementoes which had been passed down through the generations. What few treasures there may have been were most likely sold in times of need (or more likely, in times of greed) by those entrusted with their care....
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