Exchanging identities at enlistment - reason why?

[clive_hughes]

Hi folks,

I have newly stumbled upon a case of exchanged identity on enlistment, and am wondering if anyone else has come across something similar (or might offer a reason as to why it was done).  The families of these men may still be around, so for the moment I'll refer to them as Soldier A and Soldier B.  They lived about 14 miles apart (as the crow flies), were cousins of nearly the same age and also had the same full name.

Soldier A's papers show him aged 19 enlisting in December 1915, just before the closure of the Derby Scheme, but nearly 20 miles from home when there were recruiters also operating 3-5 miles away.  He was a farm worker, and was formally accepted a few days later as a Territorial recruit in the local Infantry regiment, being sent to a training camp.  He gave as next of kin and address his "mother" - actually his aunt, the mother of soldier B.  He didn't last long, being discharged medically less than five months later, having heart disease.  He got a one-off gratuity payment in 1918. 

Soldier B was also aged 19, and enlisted either the same day or one day apart, but at a recruiting station 15-16 miles away from home, close to where his cousin lived.   He was also a farm worker, and was accepted into the same regiment, but for a different Territorial battalion which had a separate training centre.  He gave as next of kin and address his "father" -actually his uncle, the father of soldier A.  He did last longer in the Army, eventually going overseas where he was killed in action. 

Just in passing, this deception led to total confusion as regards his commemoration.  B's real mother did actually get a pension, and his medals; and his father got his back pay and war gratuity.  The W5080 form listing close family members regarding the Memorial Plaque and Scroll was however completed by his uncle, who provided details of his own side of the family's relationships.  He did admit to being an uncle, but gave a B's parents as people with different forenames and resident in a village a good 20 miles away from where they actually lived.  This trickled through into the IWGC as well, since they also asked the uncle for a grave epitaph.  They may eventually have got that from his real parents; but the family details provided for the War Graves register was a further-mangled version of the untrue names and village location.  Thankfully B is commemorated properly in his home village.   The service files, in their present format, contain no paperwork resolving or highlighting the next of kin differences, and if anything they muddy the waters further.  Wherever the Plaque and Scroll ended up, at least B's parents did get his medals and financial settlement.  

There was almost certainly some collusion between the cousins, enlisting apart from each other at more or less the same time but unneccessary miles away from their home parishes, and swapping their parental details and addresses.  They weren't under-age (census checked).  

So there it is.  What could the pair have hoped to pull off by practising this exchange of identities?  

 

Clive

 

[nhclark]

Clive,

I'm not convinced that you can assume that the two boys colluded. It looks to me very like a family history puzzle, as to who was actually who from parish registers, censuses etc., and also don't forget that it was not uncommon (because of large families and low incomes) for a baby to be given to relatives to bring up as their own (I have at least two cases of that in my own family) without formal "adoption." Boys also enlisted some distance from home if one or both of their parents didn't want them to. And, also there is the question as to who was the real father of one or other or both of the boys. One of my unmarried aunts actually had two children, one of whom survived to adulthood (and I'm talking about much later than the Great War) and had passed away before I even knew he had existed - he had been "hidden" from the rest of the family for all that time, a cousin I never knew of until I was over 50 myself.

Good luck with it. I think you have a real puzzler there.

Noel