wmfinch Posted 4 December , 2021 Share Posted 4 December , 2021 Hello All, a small group of volunteers are trying to create a WW1 memorial for a group of Great Western Railway employees who died during WW1. They all worked on the Honeybourne Line before joining up. We have details of No. 17000 Lance Corporal George Hopkins but no photo of him. Evidently, there is a photo of him in the GWR Magazine, Vol 27 October 1915. Had anyone got access to this please? We would be very grateful for a picture of him. V/R Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted 4 December , 2021 Share Posted 4 December , 2021 Would this be him.... https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56012028/george-hopkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david murdoch Posted 4 December , 2021 Share Posted 4 December , 2021 6 minutes ago, BarbaraG said: Would this be him.... https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56012028/george-hopkins That's him. Lance Corporal George Hopkins | War Casualty Details | CWGC There are several family trees for him on Ancestry with his details but none have the photo. He is mentioned in the Gloucestershire Echo - Monday 06 September 1915, which notes him being ex GWR conductor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 4 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 4 December , 2021 37 minutes ago, BarbaraG said: Would this be him.... https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56012028/george-hopkins Barbara, you are (once again) an absolute STAR! Thank you so much! 28 minutes ago, david murdoch said: That's him. Lance Corporal George Hopkins | War Casualty Details | CWGC There are several family trees for him on Ancestry with his details but none have the photo. He is mentioned in the Gloucestershire Echo - Monday 06 September 1915, which notes him being ex GWR conductor. Hi David, That is a brilliant confirmation …. Very much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 4 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 4 December , 2021 3 hours ago, david murdoch said: That's him. Lance Corporal George Hopkins | War Casualty Details | CWGC There are several family trees for him on Ancestry with his details but none have the photo. He is mentioned in the Gloucestershire Echo - Monday 06 September 1915, which notes him being ex GWR conductor. Hi David, are there any family trees close to Cheltenham please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david murdoch Posted 4 December , 2021 Share Posted 4 December , 2021 11 minutes ago, wmfinch said: Hi David, are there any family trees close to Cheltenham please? It's hard to tell. I'm seeing 12 trees for him on Ancestry with varying amounts of information. A couple of them are private. Looking at the keepers of these trees, they mostly don't say where they are based. There is one based in Swansea and one "Hopkins family tree" kept by an Ann Hopkins, who looks to be descended from George's youngest brother. Again some of these keepers have not logged in for months or over a year. I can send a message to Ann Hopkins through Ancestry. Usually if you get a message it they send an alert to your email address - so possibly would pick it up. He was from a big family. He being the oldest, he had six sisters and four brothers. The two others serving in WW1 mentioned in the paper would be Philip John Hopkins 10564 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps and Alfred Hopkins 1475/242353 2/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted 4 December , 2021 Share Posted 4 December , 2021 (edited) Further details here... Reference: WFA Pension Record Cards also... https://fallenrailwaymen.omeka.net/items/show/53547 Using 'Cheltenham' in Search box brings up 22 names. https://fallenrailwaymen.omeka.net/search?query=cheltenham&query_type=keyword&record_types[0]=Item&record_types[1]=File&submit_search=Search&page=1 Edited 4 December , 2021 by BarbaraG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 5 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 5 December , 2021 14 hours ago, david murdoch said: It's hard to tell. I'm seeing 12 trees for him on Ancestry with varying amounts of information. A couple of them are private. Looking at the keepers of these trees, they mostly don't say where they are based. There is one based in Swansea and one "Hopkins family tree" kept by an Ann Hopkins, who looks to be descended from George's youngest brother. Again some of these keepers have not logged in for months or over a year. I can send a message to Ann Hopkins through Ancestry. Usually if you get a message it they send an alert to your email address - so possibly would pick it up. He was from a big family. He being the oldest, he had six sisters and four brothers. The two others serving in WW1 mentioned in the paper would be Philip John Hopkins 10564 2nd Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps and Alfred Hopkins 1475/242353 2/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Hello David, thank you so much for looking. Perhaps we should leave the ancestry side for now as it sounds like a long shot but the newspaper cuttings can be part of our display … fantastic! We are having a meeting on Wed to discuss how far to go with the research as we don’t have an infinite area to display what we discover. However when it opens, we will publicise it in advance in the railway press and local press in the hope descendants will pick up on it. We have some excellent folks who can do that for us. Once again, thank you for helping us to take another step forward 👍. 13 hours ago, BarbaraG said: Further details here... Reference: WFA Pension Record Cards also... https://fallenrailwaymen.omeka.net/items/show/53547 Using 'Cheltenham' in Search box brings up 22 names. https://fallenrailwaymen.omeka.net/search?query=cheltenham&query_type=keyword&record_types[0]=Item&record_types[1]=File&submit_search=Search&page=1 Barbara, that’s brilliant, thank you so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted 5 December , 2021 Share Posted 5 December , 2021 Interesting to see Census details - very much a Railway Family. In 1911 George appears to be a ‘Platform Policeman’ The family remained at ‘The Mount’ seeing reference for George’s father’s WILL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 5 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 5 December , 2021 5 hours ago, BarbaraG said: Interesting to see Census details - very much a Railway Family. In 1911 George appears to be a ‘Platform Policeman’ The family remained at ‘The Mount’ seeing reference for George’s father’s WILL. Really appreciated once again …. Great strides now being taken with so much help 👍👍👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted 6 December , 2021 Share Posted 6 December , 2021 (edited) Look forward to hearing how things go. Have another Casualty for you to consider who was discharged as unfit, he later died of a cerebral tumour. Hope he is acceptable for your research, I will start a new thread for him. Harry Duester Edited 6 December , 2021 by BarbaraG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 6 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 6 December , 2021 4 hours ago, BarbaraG said: Look forward to hearing how things go. Have another Casualty of you to consider who was discharged as unfit, he later died of a cerebral tumour. Hope he is acceptable for your research, I start a new thread for him. Harry Duester Hi Barbara, will definitely keep you informed 👍. Was Harry Duester a local railwayman please? Can’t find a link on ‘Fallen Railwaymen’ but he may not be on there because of dying from illness ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david murdoch Posted 6 December , 2021 Share Posted 6 December , 2021 1 hour ago, wmfinch said: Hi Barbara, will definitely keep you informed 👍. Was Harry Duester a local railwayman please? Can’t find a link on ‘Fallen Railwaymen’ but he may not be on there because of dying from illness ??? There is quite a lot on this man which as Barbara mentioned warrants a separate thread. Harry Deuster Pte 6619 Glos. Regiment, he died after discharge, April 1916. He was a pre war regular then reservist and GWR employee 1905-1914. Mobilised in August 1914 and wounded in action November 1914. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted 6 December , 2021 Share Posted 6 December , 2021 3 hours ago, wmfinch said: Hi Barbara, will definitely keep you informed 👍. Was Harry Duester a local railwayman please? Can’t find a link on ‘Fallen Railwaymen’ but he may not be on there because of dying from illness ??? Found him on a very comprehensive list of men and a reference to the ‘Great War Book’ which you might know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 6 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 6 December , 2021 2 minutes ago, BarbaraG said: Found him on a very comprehensive list of men and a reference to the ‘Great War Book’ which you might know of. Hi Barbara, unbelievable! An unusual name too. Definitely add him to our list. Do you have any more links to him please? I’ll try a few that I have 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 6 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 6 December , 2021 2 hours ago, david murdoch said: There is quite a lot on this man which as Barbara mentioned warrants a separate thread. Harry Deuster Pte 6619 Glos. Regiment, he died after discharge, April 1916. He was a pre war regular then reservist and GWR employee 1905-1914. Mobilised in August 1914 and wounded in action November 1914. Many thanks David, that’s brilliant! I’ll start a separate thread as you and Barbara suggest. 👍👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david murdoch Posted 6 December , 2021 Share Posted 6 December , 2021 6 minutes ago, wmfinch said: Many thanks David, that’s brilliant! I’ll start a separate thread as you and Barbara suggest. 👍👍 Already up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmfinch Posted 6 December , 2021 Author Share Posted 6 December , 2021 42 minutes ago, david murdoch said: Already up! 👍 Many thanks 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lulabelle Posted 8 October , 2023 Share Posted 8 October , 2023 Evening i just came across this when googling the date of George’s death- he was my great uncle. If I can provide any information on family etc from what I know Happy I do so. Thank you for including him, all the family were GWR people and I’ve recently given my own fathers large collection of documents to the GWR museum, kind regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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