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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

funny things you find out from research


chrisainsley

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as an another thread shows i have been researching my great grandfather Edward Ainsley 2nd bat Ox and Bucks, then 5thMGC, then 242 MGC

whilst carrying out the research I discovered he was chased out of Hampshire to Suffolk by a family who's daughter he got in the family way!!

I also am assured that when he died in Bawdsey, Suffolk (a coastal hamlet made famous for the invention of Radar in WWII) he was refused burial by the local vicar in consecrated ground as he was considered responsible for half the kids in the village!!

He was a gamekeeper and reputed as an absolute crack shot winning most country fair comps he entered..hence his transfer into the MGC perhaps???

he died in 1944 aged 64 - he suffered for the last 26 years of his life from the effects of gas in the great war...

having served in france in the MGC from March 1916 till the wars completion I dont care what sort of philanderer he was - I am very very proud of my great grandfather..... :poppy:

anyone else found anything humorous or bits that were unexpected (for example i found it difficult breaking the news to my family that another family member was treated for Primary Syphallis in Ladysmith during the Boer war - he was previously held in much higher esteem as a medaille militaire reciepient when serving with the RFA during the retreat from Mons)

stories anyone?

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My Father lost two Brothers,in WW1,one in 1915 the other in 1918.

He rarely talked about them but was prepared to give the sketchy details, he knew, about the circumstances of their death.

The 1915 casualty,died of wounds,what my Father omitted to say and I only discovered, when I read his Obituary, was the fact that his other Brother was the first to reach him, when he was wounded, and wrote to their Father(my Grandfather) to advise him of his Brother's death,before he received the official notification.

George

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The best I can do is that I have looked at a soldier who was a farmer pre-war. He went home on leave and was so appalled at the state his wife had let his potato field get into that he wrote to his OC requesting an extension to his leave to rectify the problem and hopefully save the crop.

The request was granted with (I think) an extra five days leave.

On first reading, it is quite a humourous tale, but considering the need to keep food production going at full capacity, it takes on a more serious tone.

Cheers,

Nigel

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a family who's daughter he got in the family way!!

he was refused burial by the local vicar in consecrated ground as he was considered responsible for half the kids in the village!!..So where exactly is this village I would like to visit !!!

Yes sounds like he was a ladies man B) B) B)

MC

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When researching my Great Grandfather in the RFA, I was doing some wildcard searching at ancestry - e.g. service number "000*" and regiment "Artillery" and discovered The Honorable Artillery Company.

Crikey I never knew any such company existed, thought the name very amusing - I mean what could they be firing, and I was absolutely gobsmacked when another member pointed me to a blog which explained that they're the OLDEST company in the British forces with origins dating back to the 1200's.

For me it was both funny and surprising - a real eye-opener!

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Hello MC,

Bawdsey is a few miles from me and is on the opposite side (River Deben) from Old Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast. It has a very nice church and is well worth visiting. The mouth of the River Deben is between them and has a very fast tidal race and shoals and can be dangerous to leave/enter.

When you come, let me know and I will buy you a drink in the Ramsholt Arms, halfway between me and Bawdsey. It overlooks the River Deben and sitting outside watching the yachties is great fun. Alternatively we can use the small passenger ferry and cross over to Old Felixstowe and have a G&T there.

Regards,

Norman

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He was a gamekeeper
Sounds like Lady Chatterley wasn't in top position after all!! His "aim" was obviously good, and you never know you might find out you're related to Norman!! Look round the village for lookalikes of yourself ............ now I've mentioned it, I bet you won't be able to resist checking for similarities!! You'll be able to recognise his grave, the one with the tombstone halfway down!

Best one I came across the other day was a WW2 crash landing where one of the crew was taken to hospital suffering from severeD head wounds!!

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One that I researched was a professional roller skater. And researching soldier's families recently came across siblings who were feather curlers and billiard markers. Not at the same time, mind you.

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Not exactly War related but still funny things you find out from research was one that was on a Time Team special - I think it was some sort of mining camp in a Lancashire or Yorkshire valley.

1871 census had a listing for "A man with a big nose". Obviously some chap who refused to give his name or something like that.

I downloaded the page from ancestry.

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Not exactly War related but still funny things you find out from research was one that was on a Time Team special - I think it was some sort of mining camp in a Lancashire or Yorkshire valley.

1871 census had a listing for "A man with a big nose". Obviously some chap who refused to give his name or something like that.

I downloaded the page from ancestry.

I think I may be married to one of his descendants...

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Recently took a photograph for a forum member at Droylsden Cemetery and decided to have a look through the paupers graves and came across my Great Great Grandmother's grave.

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Hello MC,

Bawdsey is a few miles from me and is on the opposite side (River Deben) from Old Felixstowe on the Suffolk coast. It has a very nice church and is well worth visiting. The mouth of the River Deben is between them and has a very fast tidal race and shoals and can be dangerous to leave/enter.

When you come, let me know and I will buy you a drink in the Ramsholt Arms, halfway between me and Bawdsey. It overlooks the River Deben and sitting outside watching the yachties is great fun. Alternatively we can use the small passenger ferry and cross over to Old Felixstowe and have a G&T there.

Regards,

Norman

Norman!.. I am a woodbridge guy but brought up in felixstowe...my grandfather (the philanderers son..lol) came across the river from bawdsey and settled in Felixstowe!....

i shall join you fro your beer at the Ramsholt arms..or maybe even the maybush opposite!

regards

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I think I may be married to one of his descendants...

Nice one Deerhunter!

As the chap has given no name and is "supposed to be out of work" I'll assume you can trace your lineage through a nasal passage (sorry about that).

PS village was called Dent - think it's Lancashire.

post-19423-1269589374.jpg

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Hi eternally grateful,

The more the merrier, but lets not restrict it to one drink, lets visit them all :lol:

My wifes great great grandmother was born in Ramsholt, which also has a very

nice church well worth visiting. Her great aunts middle name was Alderton, a

village just a stones throw away.

Regards,

Norman

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Researching a man from a local war memorial and discovered that his infant son was buried in the grave located between my two family graves in a local disused cemetery.

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I was researching a distant ancestor, Samuel Robert Burwood. Here is the inscription on his wife's gravestone.

‘MARIA MARY BURWOOD died July 14th 1916 aged 42. Also of her husband SAMUEL ROBERT BURWOOD drowned in HM Trawler ‘Kent County’ Dec 8th 1916 aged 45. Also of their son SAMUEL ROBERT BURWOOD late of HMS ANWORTH accidentally drowned at sea Dec 10th 1916 aged 19’

Father and son died only 2 days apart. Samuel senior was the skipper of Kent County. it struck a mine off Lowestoft.

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I was researching a distant ancestor, Samuel Robert Burwood. Here is the inscription on his wife's gravestone.

‘MARIA MARY BURWOOD died July 14th 1916 aged 42. Also of her husband SAMUEL ROBERT BURWOOD drowned in HM Trawler ‘Kent County’ Dec 8th 1916 aged 45. Also of their son SAMUEL ROBERT BURWOOD late of HMS ANWORTH accidentally drowned at sea Dec 10th 1916 aged 19’

Father and son died only 2 days apart. Samuel senior was the skipper of Kent County. it struck a mine off Lowestoft.

three family members in 5 months and two within two days...that sucks!

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Did some research a few months ago into the war diary of my Great Great Grand Pa and found the following:

During the deployment of the 60th Division to the Balkans a couple of notable incidents occurred. Soldiers of the Division had always maintained a strong piquet on the River Vardar as to stop any infiltration of the enemy between themselves and the French.

One day three Bulgar’s approached the sentries by wading down the river in the hope of surrendering. All those on piquet were fishing at the time and began shouting at the three to go away as they were scaring the fish. The Bulgar’s moved to the shore and surrendered to a unit of the Army Service Corps some six miles behind the piquet.

The other story is said to have taken place during the wet season. Some soldiers hitching a ride up from Salonika noticed an Army Service Corps soldier of the 60th Division standing in the road, up to his knees in mud. There was no movement from the drenched soldier and when asked what he was doing, he replied that he was a lorry driver.

The soldiers then asked where his lorry was, to which he replied that he was standing on it and was waiting for the rain to stop before digging it out.

Cheers Andy. :poppy:

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I researched a chap who, once in Salonika suffered from hemorrhoids. Numerous boughts of Malaria followed and then came his DCM for storming a Machine Gun post. I guess he was itching to get at the enemy :lol:

Neil

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Not a all funny, but very tragic. A few years ago, I picked up a death plaque for Major William Ingham Macauley of the Army Veterinary Corps.

On reading his officer file at Kew, it turned out that he had been found with a single gunshot wound, believed self-inflicted, a few miles behind the lines. If I recall correctly, the file commented that he had been disturbed by what he had seen on the battlefield and had been in an unstable state of mind in the days before his death.

It's probably wrong to make assumptions, but I find myself wondering about what he had seen in his last few days, as part of his work with the Veterinary Corps, and how it had affected him

Alan

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Whilst reseaching my grandfather I found out my grandmother died in Nov 1918 of the spanish flu.

Grandfather re-married again three weeks after her death and his first child of the new marriage was born in March 1919, only four months later :whistle:

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Not a all funny, but very tragic. A few years ago, I picked up a death plaque for Major William Ingham Macauley of the Army Veterinary Corps.

On reading his officer file at Kew, it turned out that he had been found with a single gunshot wound, believed self-inflicted, a few miles behind the lines. If I recall correctly, the file commented that he had been disturbed by what he had seen on the battlefield and had been in an unstable state of mind in the days before his death.

It's probably wrong to make assumptions, but I find myself wondering about what he had seen in his last few days, as part of his work with the Veterinary Corps, and how it had affected him

Alan

The suffering of horses in the war was such that I can understand the feelings of a vet, who must have spent quite a bit of him time having to put a number of them down.

Bruce

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I have enjoyed reading the posts in this topic (except for the tragic stories) someone should write a book about it!

This thread could be a long and entertaining one!

One funny thing I came across during my own research (or rather Tom Tulloch-Marshall's research for me) was that my great grandfather was promoted and demoted due to "drunkenness on parade" and "insubordination". To me that was hilarious but not to the more staid members on that side of my family (who are all a bit staid anyway) who were horrified!

Odd also, because his five sons who joined the same regiment (although they too liked a drink), were all apparently model career soldiers with multiple awards for bravery and long meritorious service

I remember being on a Rootsweb mailing list and someone asking why their soldier ancestor would have been demoted and promoted so often and I replied mentioning why my soldier ancestor had been promoted and demoted and they replied saying "oh no, my ancestor could not possibly have behaved in that way" !!! Oh really?!

Caryl

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Being a self confessed groupie of the 60th London Division, I was reading this morning a little bit of Jill Knight's masterpiece - The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War.

There are two portraits of 532005 Private A.L. Robins (who actually served in the 1/15th Battalion, 47th Division), Board of Trade, at the top of page 69, one on enlistment and the other while on the draft for France. The second shows him holding a pipe, which prompted his family and friends to send him tobacco.

'Pals in France thought he would have done better to be photographed eating tinned fruit.'

Cheers Andy.

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  • 1 year later...

While looking in the 1911 census for a man I am researching, I found an amusing entry for the family next door:

Head of family's occupation: Overworked policeman

Wife's occupation: Institutionally lazy

I guess he was having a bad day!

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