30th and 31st Middlesex Regiments - need help!

[keatsbabe]

Hi there

I am the great niece of a veteran of the Great War, and am in the process of writing a book (to be published by Pen and Sword in 1914) inspired by he experience of my great uncle Alfred James Hardiman who, in 1922, killed his ex girlfriend by cutting her throat and then turned the razor on himself. The story made national headlines and the inquest found it to be murder and suicide 'whilst of unsound mind'. Testimony mentions that he was in the army for a year, was involved in an air raid and 'never the same afterwards'. The book is examining the mental health of the nation as a whole after the war.

Undertaking more research, and finding his pension records, I saw that he was discharged from the army in 1917 due to 'enueresis' (ie incontinence). But it is his regiment that has caused me some confusion. He was in the 30th and 31st Middlesex Regiments which I now understand to be labour corps for sons of enemy aliens. Was that always the case? His birth certificate does not show a father listed at all, but he had a confusing background as the son of a servant in the very modest house of George Hardiman, who had children with both his 'lunatic' wife and his servant (my great grandmother Clara Bennett) thoughout the 1880s (borne out by his name actually registered as Alfred James Hardiman Bennett and the fact that he was later absorbed into the family, dropping Bennett by 1891).

I cannot find out much about these works battalions online and I wondered whether there was any way to find out more about his army life, why he might have been placed in that battalion, and perhaps find out whether any would have been involved in air raids. He was certainly passed fit when called up in 1916 so some shock must have caused his later problems, as I know he saw no service abroad.

The fact that he was so badly affected by his army experience which resulted in such an horrific murder and suicide makes it imperative that I find out as much as possible about the background and context within which this slight and apprently quiet, unassuming man, found himself that might contribute to such tragedy.

I can find little out about these battalions online and as I live on the Somerset/Devon border it is not always easy to get up to the archives - I have has a couple of frustratingly fruitless trips!

Can anyone out there help at all? I will of course make sure anything you can help me with is properly acknowledged in the book :-)

Many thanks!

[Mk VII]

You can see some details about them here: http://www.1914-1918.net/msex.htm

[keatsbabe]

Thank you, but I saw that and it just whetted my appetite. It explains so little about why he might have been assigned to that regiment and their ongoing role in the war. The NAM can't help at all so I am a bit stuck!