Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Lin Moorman:

‘My grandfather Thomas Pilsbury, born on 18 February 1877, volunteered or was called up quite late in WWI. He never recovered from the experience. I tried to find his war records some time ago but no luck. Have you any advice?’

Paul says:

‘The medal index cards for WWI list two men with the name Thomas Pilsbury. The first man went out to France as a private with the Shropshire Light Infantry in September 1915 and so this is probably not your grandfather as you say he was called up quite late in WWI. The other Thomas Pilsbury served with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF) and later the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR). There is a service record in WO364 which will show you that he was a brass locksmith by trade and that he enlisted on 13 April 1918 aged 41 years and two months.

Thomas was posted to the 3rd Bn RDF on 15 April 1918 and sailed for France as a draft for the 6th Bn on 27 August. Two days later he was transferred to the RIR and appears to have joined the battalion in the line on 3 September. It looks as though he spent three weeks in the line before being admitted to a casualty clearing station with haemorrhoids.

He was discharged from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment on 12 March 1919 giving his address as 58 Victoria Road, Bradmore, Wolverhampton. He applied for a pension but this was rejected in 1919 as he had ‘no disability’ (although he had suffered from scabies and haemorrhoids and been hospitalised at various times in Camiers, Trouville and Etaples).

The scabies was possibly as a result of lice, although this is not stated on his pension record. Thomas was a married man (married to Edith Ann Sarah on 13 November 1904), and they had five children: Winifred (7 December 1905), Edith (5 September 1907), Thomas (31 August 1909), Lucy (19 May 1912) and Muriel (22 January 1915). It’s not much I’m afraid but I hope it helps.’

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From Keith Griffiths:

‘I’m trying to trace any record of my grandfather Howell Lewis Griffiths. He was born on 11 April 1878 in Carmarthen, Wales and is said to have fought in the 2nd Boer War in South Africa. I have not been able to trace a record as I do not have a regiment to which he may have been attached. Any help would be appreciated.’

Paul says:

‘You’re going to struggle with this as the medal rolls for the 2nd South African War often only list initials rather than first names. There is one H L Griffiths listed who served with the Commander in Chief’s bodyguard (number 22647) but you’d need more evidence to positively identify this man as your relative.

Why not try the local papers for the time and see if he is named either as going out to fight, or returning home? brightsolid online publishing and the British Library have just launched the British Newspaper Archive, where you’ll be able to search 4 million newspaper pages, rising to 40 million over the next 10 years. Read more about this and register here: www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk‘

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Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Helen Fraser:

‘I have a copy service record for my great grandfather Joseph Brady who served with the Royal Artillery from 23 November 1854 until 20 February 1877. His rank at outset was gunner and driver and he was promoted to bombardier. He is stated to be awaiting court martial 26-28 May 1860 and was then reduced to gunner. He was subsequently promoted again and became sergeant by October 1869. He had good conduct badges and a long service medal and gratuity.

Is it possible to find out why his name was listed ??? times in the Regimental Defaulters Book and also why he was court-martialled and reduced in rank during service?

The Army Index 1861 lists him as number 27 (WO10/2591) and service record says number 4932.’

Paul says:

‘I’ve had a look at Joseph’s service record in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records (WO97) on findmypast.co.uk and in many respects it’s typical of the time; a career soldier who had minor run-ins with authority during the time he was in the army. It’s important to remember too that what survives in WO97 is, for the most part, only a fraction of what would have been in his file once upon a time. Over the years, records have been weeded and weeded again and so what you see now just gives the bare bones of his army service. Had the original papers not been destroyed you would have seen exactly what it was that caused Joseph Brady to be court-martialled.

There’s an excellent book by Alan Ramsay called ‘The Victorian Army At Home’ (Croom Helm, 1977) and I’m going to draw from this in my reply to you. To be court-martialled wasn’t a particularly rare occurrence in Victoria’s Army. Alan Ramsay notes that 18,950 soldiers, or just over nine per cent of the total force, were court-martialled in 1865. This figure reduced consistently over the years but even as late as 1898, close to nine thousand men were court-martialled. It’s probably safe to say that when Joseph had his brush with army authority, he was probably one of 20,000 soldiers or more who came up before his superiors.

A man could be court-martialled for a variety of reasons and Alan Ramsay quotes the following offences:

• Mutiny
• Absent without leave
• Fraudulent enlistment
• Disobedience, insubordination, etc
• Quitting or sleeping on post
• Drunkenness (all kinds)
• Disgraceful conduct
• Making away with equipment
• Other

Of these ‘crimes’, drunkenness was the most common offence, certainly from 1865 until 1880 at least, after which time disobedience and insubordination becomes the main category. Remember too that some crimes that a soldier could be charged with seem trivial today and probably seemed trivial 160 years ago too for that matter. As Alan Ramsay notes, “seven days confinement to barracks for leaving a brush out of a kit display was not uncommon.”

As far as Joseph was concerned, his only punishment appears to have been reduced in rank and within four years he had been promoted to that same rank again and would go on to achieve the rank of sergeant, ultimately receiving the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with gratuity. So as frustrating as it must be to not know the reason behind his court-martial or entries in the regimental defaulters’ book, he was discharged from the army in Secunderabad in 1876 with a character described as very good.’

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Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Brenda Lacey:

‘My late father received a letter in 1974 containing details of the ‘Tyzack’ family from a Mr V Tyzack. As the address was a London office, I have been unable to trace his whereabouts or this family, if he is now deceased.

The information given states that his family lived at Wells Next the Sea, North Norfolk. I have found the tombstone of his Grandfather Edward Tyzack in a churchyard at Buttlands, Wells next the Sea. I have also learnt the history of the ‘Tyzack’ who lived at Little Walsingham via a local historian, but I am stuck with regards to moving forward from Edward Tyzack.

Mr V Tyzack is still a mystery, although he states that a dozen Tyzacks lived at Wells when he was a child, i.e., cousins. Can you please help?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your emailed question.

My first comment is that you are very fortunate! The surname you are researching – Tyzack – is unusual and distinctive. This means that a number of broad, cross-database searches are possible which simply would not be available to you if you had to pursue a more common name.

If using findmypast.co.uk, one way to start is simply to do a very basic cross-database search from the home page. Even if you just type in the last name and search on that, you get a manageable number of results, arranged by record type, which you can then look at by clicking on the record counts (number of results) of each.

Of course, you can narrow down the search by using first name as well, i.e., by searching for Edward Tyzack and looking at all results. You should be able to identify his birth entry from his age at death (you can find his death entry easily, as you know when he was buried), and from there narrow down possible marriages to one or two candidates.

One factor which helps is that earlier this year findmypast.co.uk published fully name-indexed birth, marriage and death indexes. This really speeds up the search for you. Once you have his marriage, you can then look for the births of issue of his marriage, then for their marriages and deaths in turn, continuing the process towards the present day and building up the family tree. Unless some events took place overseas and are not recorded in the overseas BMDs on findmypast.co.uk, you should be able to reliably piece together Edward’s tree to the present day.

When searching census or civil registration records for England, use Walsingham as the registration district up to 1938. For BMD records from 1939 to 1975, however, Wells next the Sea is in Fakenham registration district. You should probably consider London districts as well, given the known family movement to the capital.

As for the London-based professional Mr V Tyzack, keep under consideration that V may have been the initial of his middle name rather than of his actual first name. You can do a Living Relatives search on findmypast.co.uk. If you cannot find the mysterious V, you may be able to find other relatives you have identified as part of the family tree reconstruction process described above.’

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From Maureen Probert:

‘I have been trying to obtain a copy of my great-grandmother Annie Lyons’ birth certificate. She married George Carter on 23 February 1884 in Bolton Registry office and she died in Bolton in 1905. I have a copy of the marriage certificate and her death certificate but I can’t find out where she was born. One census record says Accrington, another says Bolton. Annie was born around 1863 – I have checked the birth records but I cannot find her birth. Her father must not have registered her birth - his name was Thomas Lyons and I can’t find him either. I just can’t understand why her family don’t seem to exist.’

Stephen says:

‘When a question like this is asked, two thoughts immediately occur to me: firstly, the possibility of birth outside England and, secondly, birth under a different surname.

A quick look at census returns from 1871 to 1901 for Accrington (included in Haslingden registration district), for Bolton district, and more generally for Lancashire county shows that a significant number of the families named Lyons are from Ireland. For example, in the 1871 census, there are 350 persons named Lyons resident in Lancashire with Ireland as place of birth.

This total includes a married Thomas aged 35, born circa 1835/36 in Ireland and old enough to be Annie’s father (although there are no children co-resident with him at the address he is visiting in Halliwell township in Bolton). Unfortunately, very few of these census returns are more specific about place within Ireland, which makes it difficult to take research back across the Irish Sea, although if you track them forward through later censuses you may find out more exact information.

For this first possibility to be true, the information in the 1891 and 1901 censuses (to the effect that Annie was born in Accrington or Bolton) must of course be untrue. It is not unusual for census birth place information to be incorrect – it was simply volunteered by the householders without any evidence being provided or checks being made, and there is plenty of scope for error. This leads me to the second possibility, which assumes that Annie was indeed born in Lancashire.

The second possibility I mentioned takes into account such factors as the high levels of parental deprivation (i.e., death of one or both parents of a child), remarriage of the widowed survivor of a married couple, illegitimacy and informal fostering (“adoption”) patterns. All these complicate family structure, perhaps especially in urban and industrial areas. In other words, even though Annie named her father at the date of her marriage as Thomas Lyons, this may not have been correct – Lyons may have been a step-father, for instance, or a foster parent, and Annie herself born and registered under a different surname.

This may be unlikely; however, it is not impossible that both scenarios – birth outside England and birth under a different surname – are true.

To investigate the above possibilities thoroughly will take time and patience and, very probably, the reconstruction of partial family trees for each candidate, Thomas Lyons, for example, so that by a process of elimination you close in on the truth. It could also happen that you persevere with such searches and still get no closer to finding out the answer. Unfortunately, not all family history problems are soluble and many family historians are left with brick walls which no amount of research seems able to overcome.

Good luck with your research and please let us know how you get on.’

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From Linda Durr:

‘I wonder if you could help me please. On Saturday April 17 1938 there appeared an article in the Lowestoft Journal about an engineer, Sidney Howe, who mysteriously disappeared while the fishing vessel was returning from the fishing grounds off Morecambe Bay Lightship in the West Coast. I can find no more information about this.

I was told that there would have had to have been an inquest when the vessel returned to Lowestoft. The ship was the SDT Ramsey BayLT1290 skipper and owner was Mr. D.N Randlesome, 88 Crown Street, Lowestoft.

I know that my grandma, mother and aunt were paid some insurance money from Lowestoft County Court but there is no date on the copy I received. Did they have to wait seven years before he was declared dead and the money paid out? Hoping you might be able to throw some light on this mystery.’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for this interesting enquiry. I did a little background research on the internet and found out that Chief Engineer Sidney Howe disappeared from the trawler – presumed lost overboard and drowned – on 14 April 1937. If the Lowestoft Journal article is from April the following year 1938, as per your email, presumably it was published after the inquest.

In any event, there would be two possibilities for a peacetime death at sea in British waters. Some deaths can be expected to have been registered at the port at which the vessel docked upon its return to shore (in this case, Lowestoft).

The majority, however, should appear in the series of General Register Office death indexes known as marine deaths. I searched these, and sure enough the death of a Sidney G Howe is shown in the GRO marine death indexes for 1936/37, aged 46, on the “Ramsay Bay”. You can, therefore, apply for a copy of the death certificate which, on the face of it, would seem to have been issued in 1937 (although it is possible that the index is one of GRO’s periodic cumulative revisions including later entries alongside contemporary ones).

In any case, if you apply for the death certificate – which you can do online at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates – the certificate will give the date of death and the date of registration.

The notion that seven years had to pass comes from the so-called Benjamin Order, used in probate matters, which is a presumption of death after seven years (its name comes from a 1902 court case which set the precedent). I doubt that seven years had to elapse before life insurance monies were paid out in this particular instance – as soon as the death certificate was issued, a claim should have been feasible. In any event, the date of registration of death given in the death certificate will give you the very earliest date that a claim could have been made.

You can search the marine deaths on findmypast.co.uk’

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From Charles Arthur Wanostrocht in Kent:

‘My grandfather, 25430 Cpl. Charles Arthur Wanostrocht, serving with the 26th.Field Coy. Royal Engineers, was killed in the Boer War on the railway near Naaboomspruit on 4 July 1901. He was gazetted for the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the London Gazette of 26 June 1902.

Despite extensive enquiries, including the R.E.Museum at Chatham and the Imperial War Museum, I have been unable to trace the original citation for this medal (although other sources confirm the award). I would be most grateful for any information - medal lists for the Boer War, relevant website etc. - which would enable me to find this citation.’

Paul says:

‘J B Hayward and Sons published Recipients of The Distinguished Conduct Medal 1855-1909 in 1987 and a note in that book for Arthur Wanostrocht notes “details PRO WO108/158″. This will be a file of correspondence relating to honours and awards and could have a letter from his Commanding Officer detailing the nature of the award.

My thanks to Meurig Jones for supplying this information. Meurig’s Anglo Boer War database containing over 258,000 names is published on findmypast.co.uk.

As far as accessing the original record at The National Archives is concerned, you will need to hire a researcher to do this for you.’

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From Carol Dyer in New Zealand:

‘My great grandfather was on the Odin as ’seamen’s schoolmaster’ in about 1855. He is listed as receiving a medal for service in the Crimea.

1. What would his job entail?
2. What was the Odin doing in the Crimea? I can’t find many references to her.’

Paul says:

‘The rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was covered in a memorandum issued by the Admirality on 15 May 1837. It was introduced as a result of the desire of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty who were, “anxious to extend the advantages of education to the Petty Officers, Seamen, Marines, and Boys of the Fleet” by appointing one Seamen’s Schoolmaster “in every ship of His Majesty’s Navy.” The memorandum continued:

“The person to fill this rating is to be entered or selected by the Commanding Officer of the Ship, with the approbation of their Lordships. Vacancies occurring abroad may be filled up from the ship’s company, if a person properly qualified be found on board; if not, one may be taken from any other ship with the consent of his Commanding Officer, and the approbation of the senior Officer present.”

The Seamen’s Schoolmaster was to be “competent to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, viz., the first four rules, the ‘Rule of Three, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, Logarithmic Arithmetic, Plane Trigonometry, and to keep a ship’s reckoning at sea.”

Commanding Officers of His Majesty’s Ships were obliged to allow as many boys and men who wanted to be taught, provided this did not interfere with the “proper discharge of the duties of the ship.”

So the rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was an uncommon one, and one presumes that medals awarded to Seamen Schoolmasters would command a premium. As for HMS Odin, according to Wikipedia, she was a steam-powered first class paddle steamer launched in 1846 and armed with 16 guns: two 68-pounders, ten 32-pounders and four ten-inch. The ship took part in the bombardment and siege of Sebastopol in 1855, having left Spithead on the 27th February that year. I hope this helps with your research.’

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From Ray Norval in Brisbane, Queensland:

‘Can you help me? I am searching for any information as to the ancestry of my maternal grandmother Nellie Buckley Formiston. We think she was born in 1880, birthplace unknown, but lived in West Hartlepool. Family legend has it that she came from a seafaring family and that her father was a ship’s master and died at sea. She spoke of a brother Geordie. In the census we found a George Formiston who was born about 1875, was a seaman and died in the Throston Road Workhouse in 1902.

We can find no record of Nellie leaving England but we know she married John Frederick Towers in St Mary’s Church Woodstock Capetown in March 1905. The record of marriage does not contain any reference to parents of either party. Her husband emigrated to Queensland in 1889 with his parents and enlisted with the Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War.

He returned to Australia with his contingent in 1902, presumably going back to South Africa in 1905 to marry Nellie. They returned to Australia where the first of their four daughters was born near Ipswich in 1906. Nellie died in Brisbane in 1956, her early life a mystery to her family. Her husband died in a gold mining accident in 1937 - Nellie never remarried. Any tips or clues would be gratefully received.’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your intriguing question.

The first thought that struck me was that I had never heard of the last name Formiston before and that it might be a variant of another name. After a little research, it is clear that it certainly exists in its own right (very locally, in Cheshire, for example) but I believe that the original version of the name for this particular family was Formstone. On the 1881 census there is a family named Formstone including children David (aged 7, born Fleetwood, Lancashire), George (aged 5, born Rock Ferry, Cheshire), Ellen (aged 4, born Birkenhead, Cheshire) and Rosette (aged 1, also born Birkenhead). If I am right, Ellen will be your Nellie.

They are residing at Back Cottage in Church Street, Thornton, in the Fylde, Lancashire. The census reference is RG11 piece 4255 folio 128 page 8 (use this reference to go straight to the right page on findmypast.co.uk’s census reference search. I also noticed that there was a Rose Formiston on the 1901 and 1911 censuses in Hartlepool who was born circa 1879/80 and who, therefore, matches the 1881 Rosette (even though she claims later to have been born in Kilburn or Paddington, London – this may suggest that the family moved to London when Rose was a child).

One tip for searching the censuses is to progressively subtract letters from the end of the last name and use an asterisk (*) for a trailing wildcard search. In other words, if you get no relevant results with an expected spelling, such as Formiston in this instance, start by removing one or more letters from the end of the name, using your judgement as to what might have been either different in the original spelling or, for that matter, misspelt by the census enumerator or mis-transcribed during the process of digitisation. Each time you remove one or more letters, you will multiply the search results returned to you. Searching under Form* will, therefore, bring back all results for last names beginning with these letters, including those relevant to this case (you might also wish to consider replacing the first vowel, i.e., names beginning Farm- rather than the expected Form-).

In any event, the mother of this family is Margaret Formstone, a 25-year old widow and charwoman, a British subject born in “Hindustan” (i.e., British India). If she was the mother of David, then the 1881 census suggests that she had her eldest child when she was little more than 18 years of age. I searched on the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website and found two references to the family: 21-year old mariner Henry Formstone (son of Richard) married 19-year old Margaret Craig (daughter of John) on 11 February 1873 in Fleetwood and their son David was born and baptised there three months later, on 9 May 1873.

Hopefully, with this information, you can resume the search for your ancestors.

Incidentally, I can let you in to a secret. Our plans for imminent new record set releases include two different types of records of merchant marines, plus a significant collection of records for the county of Cheshire. Both of these may well contain records of value to your Formiston/Formstone family history research. They should all be online within the next three months. Good luck with your research!’

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Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Ian McIntosh in Cambridgeshire:

‘Please can you help? My grandfather was in the Liverpool Regiment in WW1. I have his medals which are inscribed on the edge. What I am looking for is which Battalion he was in and where he went during his service period.

His name was Otto Dorer McIntosh. From the information I have on the paperwork that accompanied the medal he was a Sergeant. The number on the medal is 57981.

I believe he was injured and in hospital at one point in Arras, France. I look forward to hearing from you and hope you can guide me to the correct information.’

Paul says:

‘Determining a battalion from numbers can sometimes be done but I’m afraid not in this case. The number does, however, indicate that it was given to him in late 1916; probably November or December of that year. He may have attested earlier, however, and been called up at this time. I see that he married in early 1916 and this would have placed him in a lower call-up category than he would have been in had he been single.

If he had attested under the Derby Scheme, he would have been placed into one of 46 groups. Group 1 was for single 18-year-olds, Group 2 for single 19-year-olds right up to Group 23 for single 40-year-olds. Group 24 was for married 18-year-olds, Group 25 for married 19-year-olds and so on. In early 1916, Otto would have been married and 23-years old so he could have been in Group 29. Alternatively, had he been conscripted he would have fallen into Class 6, which was for those men born in 1892. Without seeing a service record, it’s difficult to know whether he was a Derby Scheme man or a conscript.

Your best bet in trying to track down a battalion would be to have somebody check the medal rolls at The National Archives. As you know, he was entitled to the British War and Victory Medals and at some point transferred to the RAF. Details of his medals are in the RAF rolls: RAF/101 B16 Page 314. It may also be worth contacting the RAF museum at Hendon to see if they hold any additional information about your grandfather.’

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