Hillyard & Douglas Stuart

[Rosemary*]

 Hello to all,

       As you can see I´m still searching for the origins of Hillyard Stuart.

       The following letter has been discovered amongst some old papers .. which seems to indicate that Hillyard was at Trentham in 1916 and discharged at the beginning of 1917.

.. from there it seems he moved to Hastings.

Please could someone inform me if there exists any archive of  Inmates at Trentham during 1916. . or list of discharged people at the begining of 1917?.. or even any information who belonged to "The Expeditionary Forces".


    As the letter begins "Dear Old Gee" ..Maybe Hillyard had another first name .. so it would be interesting to see what other Stuart´s were at Trentham during that time. 
       
 







   

    The printed letter heading is:-

 

 ‘N.Z. Expeditionary Forces

  Trentham.   20th June 1917

 

It reads:-

‘Dear Old Gee but I’m sad

 

Since you left us we have lost Fountain and Taylor so that the happy family was doomed for a short life and a gay one. Three chaps from No 2 mess have replaced the transferred men but altogether the good fellowship has not been the same. The cat occasionally visits us but we are sorry to have to report that she is in an interesting condition and the boys here say that although they are sports they would not like to take the blame – no doubt the whole thing will come out in routine Orders until then nuff said –

 

(This next sentence is interesting!)

........................................... I have received a letter from you which I showed to the rest of No 1 mess and I have re-addressed a few letters and a parcel to you at Hastings. Barney who knows all tells me to inform you that all discharged men since 1st January1917 are to receive I months pay at least – So you may get a big cheque some day from the Govt. as a back pay. Jenkins wants to know if his bag has been sent back yet. He hasn’t received it and he says that you might have sent it by rail and yet no advise has been sent to him regarding same. There is no great urgency first but if you have already sent it you can drip me a line giving directions.

 

All the boys have had colds and coughs but now they are all fairly right again – we are being worked like bullocks now – Wilding transferred to Q.M. Stores. S.M. Yarrow is still ..? .. for a presentation and still all ass.

 

Kind regards from

Yours Sincerely …? Rudole Budole?

 

Some of the other signatures look like Allan Guthrie, J Hewitt,  ? Taylor, G Campbell, Barry O’Sullivan.’



      Regards   Rosemary

   PS .. Got my fingers crossed .. this could be "The big Break"

[Thamesite2017]

http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/cenotaph/locations.aspx
If you search the database you can see names of STUARTS in the exped forces
Bye
Althea

[Rosemary*]

    Althea thank you !    I have turned the site inside out with every combination of his name ...  but just can't find a match.

     Would you know if there are any archives of  WW1 soldiers discharge papers ?.


     Regards   Rosemary

[Lucy2]

Hi Rosemary

You certainly have a mystery on your hands, here.   

The letter from Trentham is intriguing ... and yes, seems possible Hillyard had "another first name"  ... (you'd sort of like to think that it began with the letter "G" ) ??            I'll get back to you on exactly what army resources are available.

In the meantime, can you just clarify the following please?

In your other thread  "Immigrants - Blue Registration Form - 10 July 2007", you confirm that "Gordon Campbell STUART born 1922 and Aileen Dorothy STUART born 1924, are part of this family".    I'm presuming that means they are also children of Hillyard and Dorothy ?   

That being the case, do you know where these children were born ?

Just one more favor .. could someone just check if there is a birth of a Douglas McNiven in NZ 1920 ish. ?

Not sure whether this question was ever answered ?   
Can confirm  that there were NO New Zealand registered  "McNIVEN" births in the years 1918 to 1920 ... (and in 1921 only a birth for a female "McNIVEN").

I find it a bit curious that Hillyard has stated that he retired from the Australian Navy on 20th February 1920 (of course we don't know from that whether he was physically 'in Australia") ... and just a matter of weeks later, his child is supposedly born in Auckland (6 March 1920).    And what of Dorothy ?    Has she been living in NZ whilst he was in the Navy ?    He was also c. 44 years of age when discharged from the NZ Army - seems a little strange perhaps that he'd link up for service with Navy  ... and in Australia ?

Could Hillyard's year of birth be wrong ??

Do you have his death certificate ??

Lu