Looking for help, Harold Keller

[Dazscuba]

I am looking at

private 1668 Harold Keller

2/1st East Riding Yeomanry 

died 28,11,15

at home

born and enlisted Hull

can only find army effects and nothing else on Ancestry. 

Nothing in the local paper either 

can anybody see anything else please

 

also anybody with FMP see anything in there and if so will go to local library to download thanks 

[keithmroberts]

I suggest that you look up the unit. Did it serve overseas?

[ss002d6252]

Harold never served overseas - his war gratuity tells us that.

 

A quick tip is to look at the shillings that were paid in the war gratuity - if a man served overseas they are only in units of 10s, if he only served at home they are in 5s units.

In this case he was paid £3 15s net - this was £5 15s gross for 15 months qualifying service. This would tie in with him being a Territorial who served at home until his death The gratuity would indicate he enlisted in the month from 29 Aug 1914.

 

Craig

[ss002d6252]

To narrow the dates further,
 

#1641 was allocated 7 Sep 1914
#1691 was allocated 11 Sep 1914

 

Craig

[Dazscuba]

Craig that’s great thanks and very interesting re the War gratuity 

[Doctord84]

1671 was allocated on 7th September. Keller is recorded on a memorial tablet at St. Nicholas church, Withernsea (Hull Daily Mail 24/11/1919) and was buried in Withernsea cemetery. Not seen anything that gives cause of death - he was about 22.

[PRC]

He was serving with the 2nd/1st East Riding Yeomanry at the time of his death, which was recorded in the Patrington District of the East Riding of Yorkshire. That Civil Registration area included the Civil Parish of Withernsea. As far as I'm aware that unit didn't stray too far from its recruiting area before early 1916. So any death that required a Coroner's inquest would almost certainly have been recorded in the local paper - if he'd died elsewhere I'd have suggested checking the newspapers for that other area.

 

Sadly no obvious Civil Probate for him, so can't use that to confirm where he died in the Patrington District. If he did die at home from an existing known medical condition that was under medical supervision, then could potentially be a chance he was already discharged, although the size of the war gratuity counts against that possibility. If the condition was service related and he died as a direct result of it in the qualifying period (1914-1921), then he would still be within the remit of the CWGC.

 

Without his service records and in the absence of press coverage, it may be a copy of the death certificate will be the only way to find out where and how. If he was still serving it may well also confirm unit, rank and service number.

 

Cheers,

Peter