Call up age for WW1

[TracyL]

Hi

I am now entering uncharted waters!  

I have a birth certificate from 1905 for my (adopted) grandfather giving the natural father's name as Arthur Day Lawrence.  His occupation was given as accountant (bank clerk on a baptism a year or so later).

If I assume he was a similar age as the mother, he would have been born around 1878.

Would a man of this age and this occupation been called up to fight in the first world war?

I can find no records at all for him that I can identify as being him - (there are many, many Arthur Lawrences but nothing stating the middle name).

Are deaths in wars overseas recorded anywhere other than the War Graves Commission website?

Thanks
Tracy

[IMBER]

Yes, he could have been called up when the pressure on manpower began to tell.  Is there any particular reason why you mention deaths overseas?  CWGC records also deaths in the UK where many thousands died.  All war deaths are, in theory, recorded by GRO and GROS

[TracyL]

Hi Imber

The only reason I mentioned deaths overseas was that I wasn't sure if the death was recorded in the normal way here if, for example, a soldier died overseas.

Sorry to be dim but what is GROS?

I did say this was uncharted territory for me

Tracy

[harribobs]

conscription went as far as men of 55 (IIRC) so he is well in range

i think the GROS is  GR - Over Seas

edit...

Tracy

GROS is General Register Office for Scotland.

there are several arthur lawrence's in Soldiers Died In the Great war, can you give us any further info? place of birth perhaps?

[TracyL]

Hi

The only solid info I have is that he fathered two children in 1905 and 1906 in Warwickshire.  The first was born in Erdington, the second in Edgbaston.
The mother was from Walsall and lived in Kenilworth in 1901 and Leamington thereafter.  They never married and both children were given up for adoption.  I have posted other threads, but have never researched the military route.

His occupation in 1905 was stated as accountant and in 1906 as bank clerk.  I thought the middle name 'Day', being quite unusual would help but this has not proved to be the case.  I cannot find any exact match.

My main suspect was born in the Birmingham area, but I would stress that this is based on proximity, occupation and age - nothing concrete!

Hence starting down this route.  I would think that the youngest he could be at the outbreak of WW1 would be 24 but more likely around later twenties.

Sorry I have no more to go on.

Tracy

[TracyL]

p.s. It may not be relevant, but his son Arthur Aubrey Lawrence, 'ran away'
aged 14 (knowing by now of his adoption and using his real name) and joined the 2nd Battalion Royal Warks Regiment as a boy soldier in 1919.  He studied at the Royal Military School of Music and then was posted to India (Nasirabad) until 1929.

[harribobs]

i can't find one with a midlands connection, give me the details of the one you suspect and i may be able to rule him out ( or not)

[IMBER]

Tracy

Sorry - GROS is General Register Office for Scotland.

[TracyL]

Thank you.

My main suspect is Arthur Lawrence, born 22 December 1878 at 139 Cromwell Street, Aston.  Son of Shelley Samuel Cartwright Lawrence and Evelina (formerly Banford).  He was living in Parliament Street, Aston in 1901 and, I believe, he and some of the other members of his family (including his parents) moved to various addresses in the Handsworth area in the early 1900s.

Many thanks for your help.

Tracy