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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Charles Proctor


MelPack

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Charles Proctor has been discussed in this thread started by John (Hett 65):

http://1914-1918.inv...howtopic=159258

The summary of available information is as follows:

Charles Proctor was born at Fence Houses, County Durham in 1877. In the 1911 census he was living in colliery housing at Tudhoe, Spennymoor with his wife and six children:

Reg. District: Durham Sub District: Brandon Parish: Tudhoe Enum. District: 26 Address:138 Tudhoe Colliery Spennymoor County: Durhamspacer.gif

Name Relation Condition/ Yrs married Sex Age BirthYear Occupation Where Born

PROCTOR, Charles Head Married M34 1877 Coal Hewer Fence Houses Co Durham

PROCTOR, Mary JaneWife Married12 years F33 1878 Trimdon Grange Durham

PROCTOR, John Son M12 1899 School Mount Pleasant Durham

PROCTOR, Robert Son M10 1901 School Mount Pleasant Durham

PROCTOR, Elizabeth Daughter F6 1905 Mount Pleasant Durham

PROCTOR, Ethel Daughter F4 1907 Tudhoe Durham

PROCTOR, Priscilla Daughter F2 1909 Tudhoe Durham

PROCTOR, Charles Son M0 (11 MONTH) 1911 Tudhoe Durham

He enlisted in the 20th Battalion Rifle Brigade - created in 1915 and consisting of supernumerary TF soldiers. He was sent to Egypt in 1916 for garrison duty along with his Battalion. He is commemorated on the Tudhoe Memorial unveiled on 6 August 1921.

There are no surviving Service or Pension papers and his MIC confirms his entitlement to the Duo with service numbers 663 and 202715. There are no further entries beyond the Medal Roll reference.

Interestingly, there is no compatible England & Wales Death Index entry age wise which tends to rule out a post discharge death and no compatible CWGC or SDGW record.

A possible death in transit at sea did occur to me. Any other ideas?

Mel

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Mel

As you hint, the difficulty here is the lack of any evidence that he died. There is no SDGW entry, there is no Overseas death certificate entry, there is no obvious England & Wales death. Frankly, there's nothing more to be done unless something turns up - if there is any clue, then it's probably in the local newspapers, or subsequent entries in an electoral roll confirming that he didnt die within the CWGC period.

John

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Thanks John.

I have double checked the BMD index for the Auckland District then I realised that Tudhoe was not transferred to this District until 1937.

There is a compatible entry for Charles which I missed the first time around :blush: in the March Qtr 1921 for the Durham District (includes Tudhoe) ref: 10 a 537.

It looks as if it could be the proverbial bus or, at least, a cause unrelated to service unless Charles died of some exotic disease such as malaria.

Mel

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Mel

I'm afraid IFCP's finances don't permit us to take a punt on buying the death certificates for post-discharge cases. However, if John (Hett65) wants to take the punt (and I would if I were him) and the case looks like a runner, then we'll happily refund him the cost and submit the case to CWGC/MoD for him.

John

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John

Mel has given me a date of death and I am going to check out the local papers for that time for his death notice.

John

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Looks like his grave is in Tudhoe Cemetery. Spennymoor Town Council have their records on line

Spennymoor Burial Records

Chris

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Chris

Thanks for the above information, I have already recorded all of the soldiers buried in that cemetery and Proctor is not one of them. There are 24 soldiers buried in the cemetery, the 'War Graves fo the British Empire' book, Durham 39-183 only records 18 of these men, three of the men died in 1921. He certainly does not have a CWGC headstone, and as he died in March 1921 I would have thought the council would have recorded details in the burial registers against his name of his service as they did with the others. He may have died from natural causes and for some reason has been recorded on the memorial. I will check the details in the local paper and try and sort this one out.

John

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I would have thought the council would have recorded details in the burial registers against his name of his service as they did with the others.

Not necessarily post-discharge - they would not have known of his service, if no-one told them. The online info looks pretty certain that he's buried there.

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  • 9 years later...

Was a DC ever purchased for this man? Pension records indicate that he died from general paralysis of the insane (GPI) aggravated by service:

 

Fold3_Page_1.jpg.40e4f092c30fa6d7d8c2148c89cfca5c.jpg

 

Fold3_Page_2.jpg.599beac96b65e8a4286f928010d1474f.jpg

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Paul

 

I would check with Terry on that one

 

Chris

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