Dear all,
on Friday at work I wrote a response to JDS, I kept being interupted by work (an imposition) so I was writing it in Word and saving in an off-site repository, whereupon to my suprise our IT folk shut down the remote site at Camberra. I will recover this file tonight after 20:00hrs...Grrrrr!
On Saturday I wrote to you both and again at work I was being interupted (another imposition) to such an extent that the Rootschat session ended taking my response with it.
I guess the rule should be don't work at work...!
I hope JDS's response is coming tonight, (at work) so, here is another regurgitation of the original to Roger and Robyn...sorry..!
Dear Robyn,
AEH was born to William and Catherine Harrison on the 28th August 1879,
at home in Brick St Richmond Victoria. He had nine siblings and another seven who had perished in infancy, childbirth or in their youth. He was one of the last kids and had siblings that were up to twenty years older than he. My grandfather who was born in 1875 and AEH were great mates and grew up together. His mum died at 56 years of age and left him without a mum at (c) 15 years. His dad was a lot older than Catherine and so a lot of his care went to his older sisters.
Yes, he definitely did serve in the Boer War and became a Sergent, he was the colour Sergent Major at South Melb Colledge in Cadets. He was in the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles and I have previously mentioned his involvement during the Whilmshurst Affair on this Forum. Note: he says nothing of his previous service at his Courts Martial. I don't have his actual records, but have quite a lot of info about his service
The 1888 fellow in the WO338 index is possibly our AEH but there is the issue of his birthdate in the RH column being 1888, this is the average age of men who served in WW1 so there is lots in this area. Albert was old about 35 years of age I believe. The only reason we have taken a more intensive look at this fellow is that there doesn't appear to be another Albert Edward Harrison Officer in WW1 but the 1888 age is not correct, perhaps its a mistake. I do want to locate the original register of Officers book and view the ink spot and see if there is some way of uncovering what is beneath the smudge, to reveal this man's regiment.
Back to his age, Albert was very much like my Grandfather (I'm thinking Arthur Dailey the TV used car dealer) would describe them both pretty well, no flies on either of them, all the family was into the horses and perennial punters, all were very good at maths, my grandfather was a bookie and played cards and pool for money apart from his real job at JC Williamson the Australian Entrepreneur. Albert was many things but ultimately a Salesman and Traveller and I believe before he left for WW1 was Selling alcohol, we have recently discovered that he was bankrupt in Victoria and this is probably why he went to NSW in about 1908-1910. So the common thread for both my grandfather and AEH is women, money, horses, gambling. My grandfather had another woman on the side for 30 years she turned out to be my grandmother, two complete families. These two men were very fine looking fellows, were charismatic and bold, "Will-O-The-Wisp's" AEH 5'10'5" and my grandfather 6' both tall dark and handsome and both sportsmen.
The family is pretty sure he stayed in England and made another family, as for South Africa, I'm not sure I don't believe he would do that, he was a city boy living in Melbourne and then Sydney, he hankered for action on many fronts, so I'm thinking London would be his place of choice.
Sorry for the delay, hope this makes sense
Ian
