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

[Redroger]

Thanks Ian, When I next visit the National Army Museum, I will ask if they have any knowledge of such a list. It could save a great deal of further leg work. Most of this game is knowing where to look, which is why it is sometimes necessary to set on a professional researcher. A short anecdote from the early days of railways: A company bought a steam locomotive from Geo. Stephenson which developed a fault, their mechanics could not fix it, so they sent for Stephenson himself, he took one look, asked for a sledge hammer hit the motion of the engine, and submitted a bill for £5. The company directors were horrified and asked him for a breakdown. This was his reply "To hitting motion of locomotive 6d; to knowing where to hit it £4/19/6d"
JDS has done most of the really hard graft.

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day Colin,

I've been looking into your question regarding the "Suspence list" issue, and again I have sought superior knowledge to answer the question. "herewith the result of my RFI on your question, verbatim"

"My understanding is that the 'suspence list' reference simply means that he was to be investigated on some disciplinary matter and that the issue of his medals was to be suspended until the investigation was concluded. It could then be that the authorities would lift the suspension, and that his medals would then be issued. Reasons for being placed on this list could be that he was taken POW and there was a question-mark as to the circumstances of his capture, or that he was considered to have transgressed in some way (I've seen it in the case of officers who were courts-matialled and dismissed for being 'unsuitable'), etc. I've only ever found it on officer's MIC's, and in every case the suspension was lifted and the medals were issued. So it wasn't a formal 'List' such as the army list, it was a list of people who were being investigated at various times during the period during which the WW1 campaign medals were being issued.

I have no reason to believe that there ever was a formal list of those exonerated or those who remained on 'suspence', and the 'list' does still exist in the form of the MIC's. You will commonly see 'suspence list' and 'exonerated list' on the MIC's. Like I said earlier, I have come across cards for men whose medals were definately issued but whose MIC's still state 'suspence list'. And the reasons for suspension can easily be surmised (from my experience) by checking his service file" (The HeadGardener- Great War Forum)

So, it appears that there isn't a formal list and our genereal thoughts are confirmed that AEH was initially not to receive any medals due to GCM

Hope this helps, It has certainly helped my understanding, thanks for initiating the query

Ian

[Craven-Harrison]

G'day JDS,

Once again many thanks for your time and trouble in persuit of AEH.

Thanks for checking Alfred Ernest again, I was pretty sure he was ridgy-dig, but with other service Records within his and a couple of other issues it really needed to be checked again.

Regarding the WO338 AEH man. I do agree with your sentiments regarding this fellow as always there are reasons for and against.

The issues:

1: The name match is perfect
2: The ink blot over the unit name is another example of really bad luck or perfect placement,  I'm trying to resolve this by locating the original index
3: The DOB is quite wrong but this could be as simple as Alfred Ernest's DOB in the wrong place/cell. he was born in 1887 near enough to 1888, if it had been deduced by a clerk for some differentiation reason"...?
4: As yet, there is no other Officer reference found with the name Albert Edward Harrison in any other repository or record, or, should I say, he is the only Albert Edward Harrison Officer found in any record or registry.
 
I agree that hypothetically a thin file particularly without significant issues such as medical, pay, crimes, promotion or valour might be subject to culling.

However,  there are approximately six service records missing in a sequential group including the ink-smudge AEH's, suggesting that its exclusion isn't peculiar to AEH.
I'd like to think it is nothing more than a clerical mistake during the TNA archive creation phase many years ago. I keep finding mis-files everywhere.

The consideration that AEH might have returned back to Australia is certainly tantalising but this would render my original research an abject failure. I originally researched all Australian BMD's to find AEH and never found a Death Certificate. I am not rejecting a return to my original civilian research. Logically the Military issues need to be resolved prior to a return.

The family have recently opened up some discussion on this subject, some of the grandchildren lived with Nora in her later years and what came from this connection and discussion was that AEH did build a family in England after the war, naturally there is no evidence of this.

Albeit, that it appears that Temporary Officers aren't listed in the Army Lists , I have purchased the 1918 Army List and will have this by next week, I'm not sure what I will see there but will let you know.

I have found some interesting issues with Royal W Fusilier NCO's and I'm tracking these

I'm building another list of all the A and AE Harrison London Gazette entries, initially from August 1918 until October 1919 and because of Roger's concerns I'll broaden this search to include a wider date range if I don't find anything. It is looking interesting at this stage.

"Too many secrets"

Ian

[Colin Cruddace]

Hello Ian,

I'm sorry I gave you an extra burden because you have enough on your plate, but I still have a feeling that the Suspense List exists somewhere, or did exist!

The reply you got was quite logical - a dodgy soldier gets investigated, and until the matter is resolved his medal entitlement is suspended, but my concern is why would they note it as "Suspense List" as opposed to Suspended or Referred or Withheld. Beurocracy was fairly precise with terminology in those days, so that it could be understood across the board, without misinterpretation. In my books, a List is a List.

Regards,
Colin

[Redroger]

Next visit to the NAM I will make enquiries as to whether this list has ever existed. Like you Colin, I believe that a list is a list.

[Craven-Harrison]

Dear all,

at this stage we believe that AEH was actually using his real name, a large percentage of of time and energy has been spent looking for a possible alternate name.

Sylvia has found a list of AIF men who were using aliases and for many reasons it's amazing to see them.

So many men?, why did they do it?, aliases nothing like the real name?, etc, etc..!!!

AEH isn't present,  I've attached the list for interest sake, it's interesting to see the variations from the original names

Ian

   
REF: "ADF project"

[Craven-Harrison]

Roger and Colin,

probably not such a bad idea to ask the experts at the NA for some help on this subject, but I'm guessing that if a list did exist, it's probably well and truly gone, but let's hope..!

I'm also looking at why a half a dozen records in the sequential list of W0339 records are missing. JDS has requested an answer on a previous occasion and apparently it isn't known, so this is another unknown issue requiring resolution

Ian

[jds1949]

Ian,

Not strictly true to say that it isn't known. A lot of the files were weeded in the 1930s if they contained little or nothing of administrative value. I suspect that files on officers who were commissioned for a short period immediately after the end of the war would have had files with very little in them and would therefore be prime candidates for weeding. If the file in WO 338 was our man [and I believe it was] and if he was in the army for only a short while, then his file could easily have been weeded as having no administrative value.

I agree that we don't know for certain that is what happened, but it is a logical scenario which fits the known facts. As I have also said previously there was nothing unusual in this, scores of files were treated in the same way, including one relating to one of my great uncles. However, I shall ask the question again next time I am at Kew.

jds1949

[Redroger]

Agree with JDS on this oneThe empty file in WO338 does fit the known fact. However, Ian will lokk at the National Archive, I willl ask at the NAM. Regarding the list of aliases there seem to be two main categories at a brief glance, i.e definite name changes, and spelling variants. There may of course be other possibilities.