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

[DeeBoneham]

This has been a fascinating thread.  I cant help at all but wish you all the best and hope you track this young man down.  All power to your elbows.  I have learnt a lot just reading this!
Dee

[Craven-Harrison]

Dear all, Carole, Dee and Roger,

Roger, Ok on the September visit to London and the British Library, I'll talk to you more about this prior to going. Dee, welcome, I'm glad your are along for the ride and enjoying it, my elbows are OK, but I can't say the same for the brain. Carole, further checking and discussions with Brian reveals that he engaged all the necessary research acumens including the enlistment the the head archivist’s services. I've given him the subsequent date information that you provided (thanks) and he confirms that he covered this date in his research

Sorry I've been off the air for a couple of days, I've been tracking lots of clues. One that I followed that I should mention and had previously mentioned is an NAA reference to a Mrs. AE Millar, who on behalf of her husband William Harrison Millar was requesting transportation to Australia from England in the 1920's. To most, this is a long way from AE Harrison, but this fills all the criteria necessary for me to launch a search


AEH's Mothers name was Miller (near enough to Millar)
AEH's father was William Harrison
His middle name was Harrison and last name Millar
His Wife's Christian name initials were AE the same as AEH (might not have actually been his wife requesting help but some other false identity or gender)


The details of this couple were located and they were found to be who they said they were and not AEH in disguise. One of the strongly held thoughts regarding men who take up alternate names, is that they often use their mother's maiden name. So I have often looked at A and AE Miller's and the obvious permutations

There were some other names that I have tracked and researched in the last couple of days and these also turned up nothing.

I built a list of all the Harrison’s of all ranks that died in WW1 there were 619 Harrison deaths and of these 41 were Officers, none could have been AEH given date of birth and year of death. Most died prior to the end of the war and as we know AEH was Discharged in England after the war. The list does include men who died after the war.

A couple of new issues have arisen. As time goes on and discussions on the AEH subject evolve, memories are triggered and stories emerge that have previously been forgotten or lost. One of the grandchildren has reiterated strongly that his grandmother (Nora) was sure that AEH had created another family in England

The second issue was stimulated by the discussion of the North Russia forces and the mention of the 45th and 46th Royal Fusiliers, this triggered a memory of a previously insignificant Military badge in the possession of AEH's grandson Brian. This badge was originally owned by Syd Harrison AEH's eldest son, and there appears to be no logical reason that he should have this badge, given that he was an Australian. The badge is from the (RWF) Royal Welsh Fusiliers and I have been investigating this unit for the last 24 hours along with reading the ANZACS in Archangel book in an effort to proceed further with this line of research.

I have also found an Albert Edward Harris that has some of the necessary attributes to continue investigation albeit not in the RWF unit and not an Officer but a S/Sergent

I'll have to put the MOD application on the back burner for another month as my assembly of prerequisite application identification and references is in the hands of others who are currently travelling in Europe.

The major issue for me in the next couple of days is to broach issues of the RWF unit and see if I can align a suitable candidate against the unit


Cheers for now

Ian







 

[Redroger]

Thanks for update Ian.

[Craven-Harrison]

The story of the North Russian Forces continues, I'm halfway through the book and there is much more to this matter than I originally thought.

It was a mess like Vietnam and Iraq and as usual the Pollies egos were behind it, in this case Churchill's, he was obsessively against Communism and the Bolsheviks.

There appears to be another force involved apart from the three already mentioned previously.

Much of the records have been destroyed, either by the WW2 London bombings and also soon after the affair, there were some unsavory aspects that didn't warrant publicity, records were destroyed intentionally.

Not much hope in identifying AEH as the personnel records are probably destroyed and I believe that if he had joined, it would have been in Elope or Syrene forces and not the NRRF force. The general rule appeared to be that you would not automatically  assume the rank that you originally had. For example, If you had been a Sergeant you might end up being a Corporal for some reason.

There appears to be lots of Aussies that had alternate names, the reasons were numerous, to evade parents who were trying to locate their sons who had joined up illegally, apparently there were thousands (for WW1) that did this by dropping their ages anything up to 3 years, you only had to identify your age not your date of birth. Some having been court-martialled previously, or had poor conduct in their own names, so a new name was necessary. And those dodging their wives and families, all these aspects are identified in the book.

I've had no luck on the Royal Welsh Fusiliers yet but will endeavor to do some more later on in the week

Ian

[DeeBoneham]

Ian sounds like you are looking for a sharp needle in a haystack!  I know from what you have said in your previous posts that you will probably have looked into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers websites.... I wonder if there are some millers/harrisons in Wales (if he ended up there). Is it worth contacting the local papers to see if anyone had an Aussie grandfather with a murky history?
Dee

[Redroger]

Ian, I am only too familiar with boys putting their age up to join the war, and it wasn't just Australians. My father's story was as follows, orphaned age 2, brought up by aunt and uncle, left school at 12 to go into farm service. 3 years later volunteered for war service, gave age as 15, told by recruiting sergeant too young to join, but the recruiting unit would return to the area in April 1915, if the war was still going; "Over by Christmas remember!", only don't be 16. The next april now aged 19 Dad joined up "Because he was bored by life on the farm.!All too common a story I'm afraid, patriotism rouses some high emotions as I remember at the start of the Falklands War, and we caused that conflict remember by withdrawing the antarctic survey ship the previous year to save a few £. What are we going to cause when we cut the defence budget by 40% I shudder to think.

[Craven-Harrison]

Hi Dee,

Funny you should coin the phrase "a sharp needle in a haystack"  I have designed proton magnetometers and metal detection technology in a previous life, it would take me about a minute to find a needle in a haystack....LOL

AE Harrison is proving to be a bit more elusive. I spent 4 years working on my British family history. A co-researcher mentioned that there were some documents at your TNA apparently donated by a well known English historian Harry Speight, The documents related to a Harrison family from the Elslack and Broughton-in-Craven area of West Yorkshire. When I received these documents I realised that the family was mine and this one document covered all the research that I had done over the previous 4 years, almost a waste of time, albeit a great journey and wonderful learning curve.

The reason that I mention this story is really the genesis for this quest to find AEH and all our respective research quests. I believe that we all covet this one very important axiom.

"The Journey"

We know that the answer to our brick-wall is just around the corner, it exists and somebody knows about it, there will be evidence somewhere, and it could be tomorrow that a handwritten letter arrives in the mail, explaining the whole problem and there goes another 4 years.

I have often thought that a quick fix would be to put an Ad on "who do you think you are"? and ask all of the UK do you have a dodgy grandfather? I might get too may replies...LOL

After several years at this and doing the normal ad-hock research jumping from one clue to another, I'm now getting much more analytical and organised. If I could be sure that he kept his real name it would be a lot easier. Yesterday, I spent the whole day on Ancestry looking at NCO's, building more lists and matrixes to compare with other information that I hold. Nothing appears to be set in concrete. Just because a man was a Captain or there is a document that describes him as having a Commission and a T2L/t isn't necessarily the last word. At this point, I can't discount anything, so the economies of scale are huge.

Some may ask, why look at the NCO's? The records show, men loose their rank or are promoted, there are aspects in these records that describe previously unexplained military issues.

Notwithstanding the above, I think it's an excellent idea to pursue an Aussie Grandfather with a murky past in Wales, but I won't do this until I have some sort of confirmation that the recently found RWF badge has some relevance. I have just started to look at the relevant RWF websites and off course, I'm still doing the North Russian thing.

So, thanks Dee, for another idea, if the North Russia thing doesn't pan out then I will get to the Wales thing and see where it takes us

Cheers

Ian

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day Roger,

In my family and circle of friends there are numerous examples of age increase to join. (AEH kept his up to continue a previously created age fraud to marry an older woman) The army knew they were too young, but men were scarce in Oz, particularly in the latter stages of WW1

My uncle had a heart attack in WW2 was discharged and rejoined as a private a few weeks later, they worked him out and sacked him again. His military career was his whole life and never got over being discharged, was eventually run over by a car while drunk, still depressed after many years.

Another uncle was discharged medically unfit to join WW1 so he came across from WA to Victoria and joined here without a problem.

For many men the chance to make something of themselves is a seriously important thing. The chance to see the world, take some risks, be part of an important event and not receive a white feather was an important dynamic. King and Country was I'm sure important then.

As a lad,  I wanted to Join the Military and undertake a Commission my father wouldn't allow me. I should have done a second tier entry later in life and didn't do that either..?? He didn't mind me being in an Emergency Service. I guess he didn't want me to go to Vietnam and most men who have fought wouldn't want their sons in the same trouble and that's quite understandable.

Cheers

Ian

[Redroger]

All agreed Ian,except putting the age up to marry an older woman. I have the reverse, grandfather was at least 66 on his second marriage, don't know exact age but was baptised 1828. He showed his age as 55, her's was 35, which was correct, she couldn't put her age up though as she was at least 6 months pregnant, so the gap was shown as 20 years when it should have been over 31!