Census v Army Records birth date conflict

[Dave6335]

I have something of a conflict with my great grandfathers age (Thomas Parkinson). On his military service record he joined the army (Proceedings on Attestation) in January 1875 and his age was shown as 18 years and 10 months. That would make his birth in March 1856. But in both the 1901 & 1911Census returns his age is shown as 44 & 54 so his birth year would be 1857.
I can find a birth record on BMD & FindMyPast for March 1856 but nothing for 1857. Before sending for the March 1856 birth cert. I thought I'd ask those with more experience which is likely to be the most accurate date?

David
P.S. There is no trace of a 5 yr old Thomas in the 1861 Census or a 15 yr old in the 1871 Census.

[Shropshire Lass]

Would he have lied about his age when he joined up - added a year for some reason?  If there was no need for him to do that, I would take the date on the attestation papers as most accurate. 

If you tell me his birthplace, I'll have a look in the earlier censuses for you.  Other people have found entries for me that I've missed - a fresh pair of eyes can sometimes spot a missing relative.

[andycand]

But in both the 1901 & 1911Census returns his age is shown as 44 & 54 so his birth year would be 1857.

The 1901 census was conducted on 31st March 1901 and the 1911 census was 2nd April 1911, if his ages on the censuses are accurate then he would have been born between 3rd April 1856 and 31st March 1857.  If his birthday was early April (a few days after the censuses) then the censuses would be accurate and depending upon the exact date he joined the army he would just days short of 18 yrs 10 months.

This assumes that all the information was accurate and as many of us have found out this is often not the case.

Andy

Andy

[Dave6335]

First of all thank you to both of you for taking the time to reply. It is much appreciated.
Shropshire Lass, all I know (from his army papers) is that he was born in Liverpool. His father was also born in Liverpool and his name was Thomas too (didn't make it easy did they!). There is a Thomas on the LDS site that had a son Thomas who was baptised on the 27th July 1856 in Liverpool. The mothers name is shown there as Ellen. I fear I'll never be able to pin this down for certain. I don't have a subscription to any site just credits for FindMyPast but all I've found there is a Thomas born between Jan and March 1856. Although his age is shown on the first page of the attestation as 18yrs & 10 mths on the second page of the same paper it is listed as "apparently 19".

I'm most definitely losing sight of the trees for the wood - or is it the wood for the trees!!!
 

[Shropshire Lass]

It's got to be worth the cost of a certificate.  I can't see any other way you can go forward.