Help: Court Martialled & Missing in UK, Capt: Albert Edward Harrison AIF

[Redroger]

Ian, When you are ready please contact me either by email or pm. I was interested in the Caux/Katte story, and read it thoroughly.When I started and saw the Katte name I was convinced that he had possibly fought on both sides, and was reminded of an incident when the late French President Francois Mitterand awarded the Legion d'honneur to all the surviving men of Strasbourg who fought in WW1. The award was accepted and worn proudly alongside the Iron Crosses they were awarded earlier when Strasbourg was again part of Germany!My father and his 2(possibly 3) brothers in law all fought in WW1, one uncle ex RHA regular never talked about it, though he once let slip something that made me think he had commanded a firing squad near the end of the war, the other uncle was secretary of the regimental OCA, and talked about the war incessently, he also had nightmares every night for 50 years! Dad didn't say much, but had a copy of the regimental history, when I read it and piecing parts he had highlighted along with a letter from his CO that has survived it seems he was on duty as a HQ signaller when it was struck by a shell and most present including the Lt. Col of the regiment were killed or seriously wounded. Not surprising Caux/Katte didn't want to remember the war.

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day Roger,

yes, the Katte/Caux story is unusual, the book is a good read and really just tells a sad story about a young fellow with a pretty wild imagination and some bad decisions at a young age.

Interesting the aspects of your family and their WW1 involvement, here we are still spending our time nearly 100 years after trying to unravel the circumstances. All wars are terrible, WW1 was just unbelievably terrible.

I'm still working on the lists, sorry for the delay

Ian

[Redroger]

No problem Ian, I shall not get much done before thursday now, have to take grand daughter on a steam train tomorrow!!

[jds1949]

Dear Ian and Roger,

Managed another quick visit to Kew today - not much to report.

The handwritten Harrison Albert Edward reference [210475] was indeed part of WO 338 and referred to a file that definitely no longer exists. There is a gap from 210474 - 210480 inclusive. The introduction to the Long Numbers file states that some records were weeded in the 1930s as they contained little or nothing which was "of administrative value." I don't think that this is suggestive of anything sinister. One of my great uncles has an officer long number reference with no surviving file. He served in the RFA and part of his service papers survived - he was a gunner, but he was sent on a number of courses which may have been the prelude to a posting for officer training. There was certainly a rumour in the family that he had been an officer at some point. I suspect that he may well have begun the course - hence the file - but the end of the war intervened and that was that. Come the 1930s' weeding exercise and his file gets trashed as being of no "administrative value."

If the above reference was indeed for "our" AEH - then I think that's as far as we shall get. It may well be that AEH's career in the British Army was a very short one. Perhaps the authorities were not immediately aware of his status as a dismissed officer from the AIF - once that became known his British Army career was quickly terminated, leaving a very thin file which was subsequently weeded. That might also explain why he is not showing up in the Army Lists -he wasn't around long enough to make an impression.

I did also look at the Army Lists for July 1920, January and July 1921 - the only A E Harrison was our old friend Alfred Ernest from the 4th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment.

I managed to look at 6 further files from WO 374 - temporary officers. All of them had initial letter "A" in their names - numbers 31336 - 31341 - none of them could have been AEH; all had plenty of documentation from various sources which made it abundantly clear that they were not him. There is one more file with an initial "A" in WO 374 and 6 more that are just "E" - I shall try and look at them next time.  

The resident expert on the Great War was not on the desk, but the very helpful person who was did phone him for me. I got the impression that he did not recognise the phrase "Form of Commission" - his answer suggested that he thought it might have something to do with the posting in the London Gazette. He was - as far as I can tell - fairly confident that we had got just about as far as we were going to get and that the reason we are not finding anything is because there is nothing to find. He did say that the Commission Books for the First World War - giving details of officers who were commissioned - are missing and have been missing as far as anyone can remember. That's all of them - not just the volume that might have had something on AEH.

Fast running out of ideas at this end!

jds1949

[Craven-Harrison]

A quick question regarding British Death Certificates:

Do the certificates carry the date of birth of the deceased on them?

Does the Ancestry BDM resource, provide date of birth searches?

Thanks

Ian

[barryd]

Britain has an Air Force, Army and Navy but the main three BMD certificate issuers since 1922 have always been separate that is England/Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Only England/Wales gives birth dates on death certificates and this started on 1st April 1969.

I suppose  you could Google a birth date however most indexes run by the year but some like Ancestry when seeking English/Welsh Certificates do break them down to  quarter/year - likewise Free BMD.

[Redroger]

Just a thought on the WW1 Commission Books. I wonder if a set survive at either the National Army Musueum, or the Imperial War Museum? I have a reader's ticket for the NAM and will check this out next time I go.

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day JDS1949,

thanks for having a look at the long number issues and the AEH long number fellow. I knew he wasn't our man as his DOB was 1888, this was just too far away from our fellow and I think I know who he is, more checking required. It would be interesting if this WO338 listing is drawn from another source that is in date order (ie) the numbers were created when an Officer was Commissioned, this could be an interesting solution to one of our problems. How were the NCO's and others Soldiers numbers created?

Ok on the 1920-21 army lists and no sign of our man only Alfred Ernest who keeps popping up everywhere

Ok, on WO374 numbers 31336 - 31341 records, I'll cross these off the list of possibles

The Officers Commission books missing in action is bad news, I understand your sentiments regarding running out of ideas, and I can assure you I often feel the same way.

I am now absolutely sure that the term used in the correspondance to Nora (Form of Commission) is infact a Commission Form, why it isn't in his records, or known to the family is unknown..........................?

Cheers

Ian

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day Barry,


Thanks for the info, up until now I had no idea that the British Military issued their own death certificates, are these held in the same place as the Civilian BDM's?

I was hoping that if birth dates were on the death certificates then I might be able to distinguish between several men of interest's death certificates. (I don't have their actual certificates yet, only the indexes)

Thanks

Ian