Henry Deeds Nutt MacKenzie RAMC

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

Hi All

        I'm doing some research of the names on the memorial in my local church (just for fun). There is one in particular that I'm working on at the moment; a Captain Henry Deedes Nutt MacKenzie RAMC. I'm am struggling to find much on him other that this article and his medal card. This may be his pension record but I can't be sure. Can somebody offer me some advice on where else I might look? He sounds like a fascinating character.

        Thanks for any help!

Edited 24 August , 2022 by the_ageing_young_rebel
Spelling mistake

[TEW]

I think the pension card is not him. It seems to be for an ordinary rank. Plus it should be an address in Somerset.

CWGC has his attachment as 95th Brigade RFA.

I would start with the RFA diary. I've never had much luck finding Artillery diaries, hopefully someone can advise.

It may have details of his death and original posting to the unit.

If it's divisional artillery which I think it is then the medical officer diary for that division could well have more on his movements.

Then it's a case of chasing him through various diaries.

TEW

[Tawhiri]

The Gazette has a couple of entries for him, starting in 1906 with the award of the Fourth Class of the Order of El Aliyeh by the Sultan of Zanzibar in recognition of valuable services.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27931/page/4805

Commissioning as a temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corp on 6 October 1915.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29343/page/10653

No sign of an Army officer's personnel record for him at the National Archives though.

 

 

[PRC]

The 1917 Probate Calendar gives his home address as 61 Eaton Terrace, Middlesex and his legal executors as John Edward Nutt MacKenzie, journalist, and Francis Jubal Reynolds, solicitor.

Image courtesy https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk

And looking at the reverse side of the MiC it looks like another brother, R.J. Mackenzie, of 20 Blomfield Street, Paddington, applied for his medals.

Image courtesy Ancestry.

The article says he was educated at Bath College, but according to Wiki that didn't open until 1892, when he was in his early twenties, (and a year before he graduated from Edinburgh University). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_College

So unless there was a private school of the same name operating somewhere else, (and private boarding school archives can be a good source of photographs), then his earlier education was done elsewhere. His entry in the Edinburgh Universitys' Great War Roll of Honour doesn't add anything new - https://archive.org/details/rollofhonour191400univuoft/page/476/mode/2up

Cheers,
Peter

Edited 24 August , 2022 by PRC
Typos

[BarbaraG]

Soldiers Died transcript Comments: Att 95/Bde R F

Not sure if this helps...

 

[TEW]

Apologies for the Somerset location. That came from his parents' and wife details from CWGC. Not sure why the wife is not involved in the probate or medal application but maybe too distraught.

Located 95th Brigade RFA with the 21st Division and his death is noted on 4/10/18. WO95/2140/1.

Capt. H D N Mackenzie RAMC TC attd 95Bde RFA was killed by shell fire this morning.

The HQ for ADMS was in Scottish Wood, Nr Kemmel.

4/10/17 entry starts: attack by the division commenced at 5am.

I'll work back from there.

TEW

[BarbaraG]

Family Tree on Ancestry has details for name change - maybe preferable to being known as Nutt??

[TEW]

16/5/1917.

Adinfer.

Capt. H D N Mackenzie RAMC TC posted as MO to 95th Brigade RFA vice Capt. Thierens to 6th Leicesters vice Capt. P M Little RAMC evacuated wounded.

TEW

[Tawhiri]

On 24/08/2022 at 14:41, BarbaraG said:

Family Tree on Ancestry has details for name change - maybe preferable to being known as Nutt??

I was wondering if there had been a name change at some point, as I wasn't finding any MacKenzie births registered in Clutton, which is the registration district East Harptree falls in, beyond one in 1895 which is a step-brother with the Reverend MacKenzie's second wife. Looking for Nutt births in Clutton shows that the Reverend and his first wife weren't overly fond of naming their children before they went to the registration office. There's also an earlier birth in registered in Altrincham.

NUTT, -    Mother's maiden name: ANDREW  (male) (Frank Louis, christened 23 November 1862)

GRO Reference: 1862  D Quarter in ALTRINCHAM  Volume 08A  Page 165

NUTT,  -   Mother's maiden name: ANDREW  (male) (Reginald John, christened 18 October 1865)

GRO Reference: 1865  S Quarter in CLUTTON  Volume 05C  Page 631

NUTT,  -   Mother's maiden name: ANDREW  (male) (George Andrew Penoyze, christened 7 April 1867)

GRO Reference: 1867  M Quarter in CLUTTON  Volume 05C  Page 660

NUTT,  -   Mother's maiden name: ANDREW  (male) (Henry Deedes, christened 23 April 1869)

GRO Reference: 1869  M Quarter in CLUTTON  Volume 05C  Page 644

NUTT, CECIL  CHARLES  Mother's maiden name:  ANDREW  (christened 31 January 1875)

GRO Reference: 1875  M Quarter in CLUTTON  Volume 05C  Page 613

There is at least one daughter born around 1872/73 who's birth should have been registered in Clutton, and who is living with her widowed step-mother in the 1901 census in London, England, but who's birth registration I cannot find. She was, however, christened as Frances Maria Nutt on 18 December 1872. There is also a second daughter who's birth should have been registered in Altrincham in 1864, as there is the christening of a Mary Isabel Nutt on 27 March 1864 in the same church that Frank Louis was christened in.

There's also an infant Nutt death registered in Clutton in 1865, but while the age suggests an 1865 birth, the death is registered the quarter before the one in which the birth is registered, so I'm not sure if this is another son or not.. 

NUTT, BENJAMIN    0  

GRO Reference: 1865  J Quarter in CLUTTON  Volume 05C  Page 435

Edited 29 August , 2022 by Tawhiri

[BarbaraG]

Pre War Medical Directories..

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

3 hours ago, Tawhiri said:

The Gazette has a couple of entries for him, starting in 1906 with the award of the Fourth Class of the Order of El Aliyeh by the Sultan of Zanzibar in recognition of valuable services.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27931/page/4805

Commissioning as a temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corp on 6 October 1915.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29343/page/10653

No sign of an Army officer's personnel record for him at the National Archives though.

 

 

Thanks, Thats great!

1 hour ago, TEW said:

Apologies for the Somerset location. That came from his parents' and wife details from CWGC. Not sure why the wife is not involved in the probate or medal application but maybe too distraught.

Located 95th Brigade RFA with the 21st Division and his death is noted on 4/10/18. WO95/2140/1.

Capt. H D N Mackenzie RAMC TC attd 95Bde RFA was killed by shell fire this morning.

The HQ for ADMS was in Scottish Wood, Nr Kemmel.

4/10/17 entry starts: attack by the division commenced at 5am.

I'll work back from there.

TEW

That's great thanks! Have you got a link to the 95th RFA diaries, I can't find them. Apparently my search skills are lacking

1 hour ago, BarbaraG said:

Family Tree on Ancestry has details for name change - maybe preferable to being known as Nutt??

Thanks, I had this one, but I've yet to find a reason why they changed the name

[Tawhiri]

5 hours ago, PRC said:

The article says he was educated at Bath College, but according to Wiki that didn't open until 1892, when he was in his early twenties, (and a year before he graduated from Edinburgh University). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_College

The confusion arises because there was also an English public school called Bath College that was only in existence from 1878 to 1909. This obviously fits with the dates of his secondary school education at least. Apparently the building the school was in later became the Bath Spa Hotel. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_College_(English_public_school)

 

 

Edited 24 August , 2022 by Tawhiri

[TEW]

The 95th Brigade RFA diaries are in the following link. There's one for his arrival in May and another for October.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ep=Wo95%2F2142&_dss=range&_ro=any&_st=adv

The quotes I posted yesterday are from the 21st Division ADMS diary.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353124

The ADMS diary appears to give details of the postings of RAMC officers to Field Ambulances and to infantry units. However, when I looked through the field ambulance diaries there are officers arriving that are not mentioned in the ADMS diary so it's not the full picture.

It would be nice to find where Mackenzie arrived from in May 1917.

I checked the VII Corps DDMS diary for May with no luck.

It looks like the unit MOs were moved around from unit to unit as needed. It's difficult to say from the May entry but he may have either arrived from a base, arrived from another division within VII Corps or (less likely I think) posted from another 21st Division unit.

The base diaries vary a lot in content, some give details of postings like this others have nothing relevant to postings.

TEW 

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

1 hour ago, TEW said:

The 95th Brigade RFA diaries are in the following link. There's one for his arrival in May and another for October.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ep=Wo95%2F2142&_dss=range&_ro=any&_st=adv

The quotes I posted yesterday are from the 21st Division ADMS diary.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353124

The ADMS diary appears to give details of the postings of RAMC officers to Field Ambulances and to infantry units. However, when I looked through the field ambulance diaries there are officers arriving that are not mentioned in the ADMS diary so it's not the full picture. 

Thats fantastic, Thanks! 

Does anybody know if he would've had a standard service number? In all the CWGC docs (https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/156499/henry-deedes-nutt-mackenzie/) and his medal card there is no service number listed

[TEW]

Not applicable to Officers.

TEW

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

On 25/08/2022 at 10:43, TEW said:

Not applicable to Officers.

TEW

Thanks, I didn't know that about officers

[corisande]

I think we are trying to reinvent the wheel here. That tree on Ancestry referred to above has it all from a close descendant - there are only 15 people on the tree

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/184670067/person/292424296643/facts

There are extensive documents on the tree, including

 

 

 

 

[corisande]

I cannot find why his father changed the family name when he, the father was nearly 50 years old

There were announcements in the press that said the Rev was changing his name in Sep 1888, but gives no reason

His first wife died in 1883 and he remarried in 1890 (in Ireland) as MacKenzie

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

43 minutes ago, corisande said:

I cannot find why his father changed the family name when he, the father was nearly 50 years old

There were announcements in the press that said the Rev was changing his name in Sep 1888, but gives no reason

His first wife died in 1883 and he remarried in 1890 (in Ireland) as MacKenzie

I've been dwelling on that thought myself. I can't find any reason for it, why he changed it to MacKenzie in particular or really anything about the Rev's ancestors

1 hour ago, corisande said:

I think we are trying to reinvent the wheel here. That tree on Ancestry referred to above has it all from a close descendant - there are only 15 people on the tree

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/184670067/person/292424296643/facts

Thanks. Thats actually my Ancentry page that I've been building over the last week or so!

[Tawhiri]

38 minutes ago, the_ageing_young_rebel said:

I've been dwelling on that thought myself. I can't find any reason for it, why he changed it to MacKenzie in particular or really anything about the Rev's ancestors

Did he inherit some money from a relative, with the condition that he had to change his family name in order to inherit? That seems to be a quite common occurrence where there is a change of family surname.

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

8 hours ago, Tawhiri said:

Did he inherit some money from a relative, with the condition that he had to change his family name in order to inherit? That seems to be a quite common occurrence where there is a change of family surname.

Perhaps. I hadn’t thought of that. But at this stage it could be any reason

[corisande]

On 24/08/2022 at 17:36, the_ageing_young_rebel said:

I'm am struggling to find much on him other that this article and his medal card.

9 hours ago, the_ageing_young_rebel said:

Thats actually my Ancestry page that I've been building over the last week or so!

 

So it would appear that you did in fact know considerably more than that article and MIC, and that forum members, including me,  have wasted a lot of time discovering what you knew all the time

 

 

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

44 minutes ago, corisande said:

So it would appear that you did in fact know considerably more than that article and MIC, and that forum members, including me,  have wasted a lot of time discovering what you knew all the time

No, I’ve built that page over the last few days. The help from forum members is what helped me build the page. When I posted the original message all I had was the medal card and obituary. Sorry if it seems otherwise, but that’s the honest truth 

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

Its been pointed out to me that not updating the group here with new info found elsewhere was a bit thoughtless and could result in duplication of work. Hopefully that’s a lesson learned. Sorry to all. But this link will take you to my ancestry page with everything on it: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/184670067/person/292424296643/gallery?galleryPage=1

There isn't much of note that hasn't come from this group other than a couple of mentions in medical journals.

And thanks again for all the dedication, hard-work and thoughtful posts from the group. This forum really is one of my favourite corners of the internet

[the_ageing_young_rebel]

22 hours ago, Tawhiri said:

Did he inherit some money from a relative, with the condition that he had to change his family name in order to inherit? That seems to be a quite common occurrence where there is a change of family surname.

Ok, I've dug further back in his family and found that his Mother's maiden name was MacKenzie, so that at least makes sence of how he chose that name. But still not why he changed it to begin with