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

[Craven-Harrison]

Hi Carole,

You said:  "On 10 October 1919 Nora received a letter"

"Dear Madam,

I forward herewith Form of commission covering the appointment of your husband ex-Captain A E Harrison 19th Battalion as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Regular Forces of the British Army, for transmission to him. This refers to the first appointment to Commission and not to subsequent rank. Will you kindly let me know whether same comes safely to hand by signing and returning the attached receipt form.

She signed and returned the receipt on 24 October 1919"............ Why?

I am not an Expert!!! but several experts have concluded that this is an informal and unofficial way of alerting Nora of her husbands circumstances in England, by using a form of Commission document. The important phrase here is "for transmission  to him" so Nora signs and returns the receipt back to base records, then they know that she knows what Albert is up to.

The Base records staff know that Albert has been dismissed but they no longer Have an AE Harrison on their books.  because they have divorced themselves from him via Court Martial. This "form of commission" document never gets to Albert he never knows that she knows he's in the British Army, and Importantly, Nora would never in normal circumstances be required to be party to some document exchange regarding a Commission......?

Note:

it never sais where he is or what unit he is with, just enough to let her know that Albert is alive and well and getting on with his life in the UK, there were no queries from Nora because the letter that Nora got may have had more info than the one we see in the records and she would understand its hidden meaning, this was a good will gesture from a good heatred Major at base records

You said: 

I know this is only asking an old question, but if he was dismissed by his court marshal why did Nora receive a letter dated 13 June 1918 saying that Albert had applied for and was eligible for discharge from the services from 28 August 1918 which was over a year after the court marshal took place?

I believe that this was the first stage of clearing up the mess. He was officially missing and not returned to Australia to be properly discharged.
By actually discharging in England he may have been then able to join the Permanent army, he would have needed his discharge papers........? "a bit like divorce papers" you can't get married again unless you have your divorce papers .

If he had returned to Australia via a troop ship, as he was supposed to, then he would have been required to be discharged properly at the end of that voyage.  Army red tape and bureaucracy.

When discharge is completed normally, The file is sent back to Australia, all the wheels start turning such as medals, pensions, etc.

Meanwhile back in Australia Nora and her family were amping up the questions and trouble. By discharging in England it would sever Albert's connection and then perhaps allow Nora to initiate proceedings for War Gratuity, back pay etc etc...............!!!???

Getting Complicated !!!! If anybody else has some ideas please flame away!!!


Ian

[Redroger]

Nothing new unfortunately, however just an observation; presumably an Australian is going to have a recognizable accent, so he will show up as different in his new unit. I am certain in my own mind that his commission into the British Army was engineered by the General previously referred to.

[jds1949]

I have only seen a limited number of officers' files, but I'm pretty sure that in all of them there was information on at least one referee, someone of substance and standing who vouched for and recommended the man concerned for a commission. Perhaps the General previously mentioned stood as referee, and this might be useful in identifying your man, if he did make changes to his name. It's not going to help you find him, but it might be a piece of evidence that you have got the right man, should you get as far as an actual file.

jds1949

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day JDS1949,

Thanks for this little pearl. I recall having seen some Officers commission documents previously and you are quite right about references, some of them had Ministers and School Teachers as referees.

If you were intent on changing your name you would have to go to some degree of trouble, ie write your own references and Commission documents I guess?

The fellow that Albert used as a character witness in his GCM was subsequently killed in action, but he did have his written reference and quite usable if he didn't change his name.

As of today I am starting a project that I should have started a few years ago.

Previously, I've been locating UK Medal Index Cards that contained names that met my search criteria, (ie), initially every Officer of any rank under Major with the naming convention of A E Harrison, then the A Harrison's, then names that could have the A changed easily to perhaps an R or an H or an E etc, then I would locate and download the respective Officers Records. I would then check the information for such things as his parent’s names, date of birth, references, Commission date, date of entry to the service etc.

It’s been pretty easy to establish that the records that I have historically recovered and checked have not belonged to my AE Harrison unless he was an amazing liar, above and beyond the call of duty,  perhaps a politician etc ......LOL

Needless to say, this comparison and acquisition program has been pretty ad hock, without order or without subsequent tracking records. I have recently learnt that I am backtracking and or duplicating records. (stupid and costly)

So, I'm about to get organised and build some sort of a record matrix, tying all the existing record pairs together and other related documents into one huge comparative index system. I'm not sure how I will do this. Certainly in the first instance the physical files together in groups and pairs then some sort of IT or paper based solution is needed.

Any good ideas will be gratefully accepted

Ian

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day Redroger,

Albert was the son of a Yorkshire father and a Scottish mother who had both come to Oz in 1849 and 1850. Interestingly most of the kids at the schools in Richmond during the 1880 and 90's had either 1st generation Aussie/British accents with British parents or were directly from the UK. Apparently he had a bit of an English accent, and it wouldn't be too hard to add the extra bit, would it?

OK, I admit there is a difference between a Londoner and a Yorkshire accent.

At the end of the day, all he needed to do was get his foot in the door and given that Australian and British forces were together in Battle, Camps, Hospitals, pubs and the streets of England, France and Belgium, the secret of his identity wouldn't be a secret for too long

Again, maybe he didn't try to conceal his identity and this whole problem is down to destroyed or missing records........

One thing is for sure, if he joined the British Army he is mentioned somewhere in the London Gazette

Ian

[jds1949]

One thought does occur to me, if your man was intent on disappearing it would make far more sense to re-enlist as a rank and file soldier; much less likelihood of ever encountering anyone who had known him previously and a lot easier to manage. The most famous example being T E Lawrence who enlisted as Aircraftsman Shaw. If, on the other hand, his intention was to somehow "redeem his honour" or put the record straight in some way, then re-enlisting as an officer, under his own name, would start to make a lot more sense. That said, you still have the problem of why he then did not return.

jds1949

[Trillium62]

I'm still enthralled with this thread.  What a fascinating hunt.

Is there any possibility that he went to Canada or the United States after the war?  It would be relatively simple for a British subject to slip into Canada, especially if he had a useful skill.  Lots of British subjects also ended up in the U.S.

Carol

[Redroger]

Though I doubt it, I think it should be checked for the sake of completeness. If all otherwise OK intend visiting the National Archive next week. Will keep you posted.

[Craven-Harrison]

Hi Carole,

I've been going over all my AEH documents for the last couple of days, interestingly, I came across a couple of older Email messages that refer to the correspondence to Nora regarding the  "Form of Commission"  and I've also taken to oppertunity to re-read many of his documents again after several years.

The two Emails that relate to the Commission document suggest that Nora returned the Commission document to Albert, and I think that this is your feeling also, I can't get my head around this although its possible I guess.  I've read and read the original text numerous times and I think there may be an Actual Commission Document that isn't in this file and that is what Nora has received

I believe this is what she received:

1: The covering letter with the attached  text referring to the "Form of Commission"
2: The Receipt card , which she returns to Base records
3: The Form of Commission, which is I believe a separate document that an Officer Receives a copy of when he is Commissioned as an Officer into a service and I believe that she would have kept this copy which will have contained all his details

Therefore if this is true, I believe that Nora will have known where he was and under what circumstances...........................................................and after this correspondence there were no further requests by Nora as to his fate or location!!!!!!!

Take two: 

"I forward herewith Form of commission covering the appointment of your husband ex-Captain A E Harrison 19th Battalion as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant in the Regular Forces of the British Army, for transmission to him. This refers to the first appointment to Commission and not to subsequent rank. Will you kindly let me know whether same comes safely to hand by signing and returning the attached receipt form"

For those that haven't seen Albert's service Records here is the link below,  I should have attached it previously, sorry about that, it has the above documents in it (less the Form of Commission) a British Document......!


http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/imagine.asp?B=4741402&I=1&SE=1

Cheers

ian