rolt968 Posted 31 May , 2015 Share Posted 31 May , 2015 I have (by accident) found a number of articles about the "interesting" career of Henry Bellamy Drakefield. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPT Posted 31 May , 2015 Share Posted 31 May , 2015 Is he the Harry Bellamy Drakefield charged with falsely representing himself to be an officer of the Metropolitan Police in Edinburgh in 1925? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 31 May , 2015 Author Share Posted 31 May , 2015 Is he the Harry Bellamy Drakefield charged with falsely representing himself to be an officer of the Metropolitan Police in Edinburgh in 1925? And the rest! Even in Edinburgh there was more to it! He was lucky not to be charged with bigamy - only saved by the technicality that he hadn't been legally married in Edinburgh because he had bribed the witnesses to say that he had been in Scotland for 21+ days. I'm fairly sure he had committed bigamy before. I have spent most of the time downloading evidence of his career. He seems to have been a serial enlister/deserter. I have found evidence that he served legally or illegally in: York and Lancaster Regiment (pre-war) Northamptonshire Regiment Manchester Regiment Seaforth Highlanders (at least he claimed to) Black Watch Gordon Highlanders In Rochdale in 1916 he rather overegged the pudding and was done for false pretences among other things as he was wearing the uniform of a Sergeant Major in the Seaforth Highlanders and claimed to have been awarded the DCM, Legion of Honour, the Queen's South Africa Medal, the Royal Humane Society Medal for saving life, and more and that he had been gassed in France. Not surprisingly he attracted the attention of the police. He must have genuinely served in France with the Black Watch and Gordon Highlanders - but forfeited his medals. I have a number of service records, though nothing after 1914. I have found the copy of his MRIC in the genealogist but unfortunately it is the TNA single sided version. I can't find either the MRIC or Medal Roll in ancestry. If anyone does could they please let me know? I have downloaded a lot of material and am still reading! RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPT Posted 31 May , 2015 Share Posted 31 May , 2015 Ancestry Gordons/Black Watch MIC - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/1262/30850_A000467-01195/769303?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dMedalRolls%26gss%3dangs-d%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln_x%3d1%26gskw%3d%252220364%2522%252c%2522gordon%2bhighlanders%2522%26gskw_x%3d1%26MSAV%3d1%26uidh%3didw%26pcat%3dMIL_AWARDS%26fh%3d1%26h%3d769303%26recoff%3d%26ml_rpos%3d2&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 31 May , 2015 Author Share Posted 31 May , 2015 Ancestry Gordons/Black Watch MIC - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/1262/30850_A000467-01195/769303?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dMedalRolls%26gss%3dangs-d%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln_x%3d1%26gskw%3d%252220364%2522%252c%2522gordon%2bhighlanders%2522%26gskw_x%3d1%26MSAV%3d1%26uidh%3didw%26pcat%3dMIL_AWARDS%26fh%3d1%26h%3d769303%26recoff%3d%26ml_rpos%3d2&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnRecord I'm very grateful! It is not my day for finding thing in ancestry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 1 June , 2015 Author Share Posted 1 June , 2015 This gets more and more interesting! Two points: He was discharged from the York and Lancaster Regiment in late 1908 [correction] after four years as unfit because he had "valvular disease of the heart". Yet he was accepted into 5 Northamptonshire Regiment in September 1914. He did declare his service with the Y & L, but did not indicate why he left. Presumably the medical didn't look too closely. He was dismissed from 5 Northamptonshire Regiment in November 1914 because he had been sent to prison by a civil court for a month for stealing a bicycle. It seems a bit odd that they didn't try to keep him on or was it too early for them to think that they were desperate for men? (They may have tried to reclaim him after he left prison, but I'm still trying to disentangle confusing threads.) RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPT Posted 1 June , 2015 Share Posted 1 June , 2015 Have you got him pinching a suit in from a Private in the 5th Lancers in 1911, after reneging on a promise to marry his mother? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 1 June , 2015 Author Share Posted 1 June , 2015 Yes and possibly nearly committing bigamy - at least if he really intended to marry her. (Wasn't it the sister not the mother? I could be wrong, mind you, keeping track of the details of his activities is hard work.) Bigamy seems to have been a family habit. Two brothers were prosecuted for it. HB Drakefield was made a Corporal in his brief service in 5 Northants. He was courtmartialled for going awol and busted. In the record there is a written statement from him in mitigation in which he said that he had been living with a young widow with two small children whom he was going to marry and that she was being ill treated by her other tenants so he had gone awol, etc., etc. If this was true it would be most interesting as he was already married with two children! The plot thickens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stebie9173 Posted 3 June , 2015 Share Posted 3 June , 2015 Medal rolls show: Private 8/10. Gordon Highlanders No. S/20364 1/6th Royal Highlanders No. S/41289 1st Royal Highlanders No. S/41289 "Convicted by Civil Power. Auth 7095/Adt. BW&VM Ret'd 109/Bd/13-7-1922" Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 3 June , 2015 Author Share Posted 3 June , 2015 Many thanks That adds another serial number. I know of what he was convicted in 1922 but haven't found the report yet He seems to have been listed as a deserter from the Black Watch/ Gordon Highlanders in 1919. It's in his brother's record as the powers that be thought that his brother might be him! I'm not sure that the authorities ever got clear exactly what he had done. The court in Edinburgh seems to have accepted an inaccurate statement of his original (legal) army service. RM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 27 April , 2016 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2016 I wonder if this was HBD at it again under a very simple alias: Yorkshire Post 28 February 1920. "Henry Bellamy an ex-serviceman charged at Doncaster today with unlawfully wearing military decorations and further with being in possession of a forged demobilisation certificate was fined £5 or a month on each charge." (He was wearing a DCM, MM and GSM when challenged by a police officer. He also claimed to have copies of the London Gazette in which his award was mentioned. He seems to have been claiming to have served in the Machine Gun Corps.) Roger M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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