Royal irish constabulary

[feesca1]

Hi there I wonder if someone could help me would a male who was in the Royal Irish Constabulary be on a irish census for 1911.  As I have tried to trace my great grandfather and can't find him on the census also he was in Tralee in 1922 and before that in Clare but when the R.I.C. demobilized he went back to his home town a few years later.  I have other details for him and was just wondering why I can't find him in a census.

Thanks.

[Oliverd]

He might be on the census but his name is just an initial for name and surname.

I have found this quite a bit where they didn't wish to disclose names.

May mean looking through the whole census of an area for a name.

[feesca1]

ok thankyou will try that.

[Elwyn Soutter]

His occupation will likely be "farmer's son". Don't be put off by that. That's what nearly all RIC officers put.

[feesca1]

Its ok because that was actually he was.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Most of them were, and so I think that's why they used that euphemism. If you know his age, the county he was born in, and look for a grouping of 5 sets of initials (ie a sergeant and 4 constables), you probably have a fair chance of finding him. He won't have served in the county he was born or brought up in.

[feesca1]

I have a copy of his discharge papers and I also know he got married in 1916 and the town was different to his birth I also know that In times a policeman was stationed at least 15 miles from his immediate family.

[km1971]

Initials were used in all institutions - civil as well as military or police. They were supposed to do the same in 1901 but most 'heads' ignored the instruction and squeezed the surname in.

You can do a search using his initials. If you also click on 'more search options' you can often reduce the number of hits to something manageable.

Ken

[feesca1]

I am going to have another look and see if I can find him by trying the initials.  Thanks everyone for your help.