Change of name at time of enlistment 1st WW - England

[IgorStrav]

I have a relative who was brought up with the name of Marsden, which was the surname of the man his mother had married, after his birth.

I have the details of his enlistment in the army in 1915 when he was 18, and all the details are filled in with the name Marsden, and his next of kin is given as 'father Arthur Marsden'.

However, the child was actually illegitimate as shown by his birth certificate which reflects his mother's name, Cotterill.

The enlistment papers show the name Marsden crossed out, and Cotterill written in.

The man served during the war, achieving the rank of Lance Corporal, and kept the name Cotterill for the rest of his life.

I believe that he was called by the surname Marsden for the whole of his childhood - he had a legitimate brother, and the whole family must have been known by that name.

Why would he have changed his name, or been made to change his name, on enlistment?  Were birth certificates required to be shown?

Any thoughts welcomed.

[spotter2015]

No, birth certificates weren't required in order to enlist,...a recruit merely had to claim to be, and appear to be, 17 to join a Territorial unit, and 18 to join the full Army, but they weren't supposed to serve overseas until they were 19, but of course many men did enlist and serve overseas whilst underage.

Why did he at some point give his birth surname ?, well until adoption was introduced in the late 1920's there was no legal provision for the parent of a second marriage to legally adopt a child of the first marriage, and to legally change the child's surname via adoption, so his birth surname was still his official legal surname, although in Britain a person can use whatever name they wish to, provided that they don't use it for criminal purposes, and provided that they use their legal surname for official purposes such as marriage, although even in that case they can marry under their unofficial surname, provided that they also declare their official surname, in which case they will be listed on the marriage registration as, Smith commonly known as Brown.

However, he was warned in writing on his enlistment papers that he was committing a punishable offence if he gave any false answers on his enlistment form, and perhaps he was concerned that he might be found out, and he wanted to correct his situation.

Perhaps he discussed his true parentage with someone and his superiors heard about it.

Soldiers were encouraged to make a will and perhaps he was concerned that his will might be invalidated if his real name was subsequently discovered.

The automatic beneficiary would have been his step father and perhaps he wanted to make his mother the beneficiary and wanted to ensure that his step father couldn't challenge the will.

Perhaps he had applied for a war disability pension and he had to do that in his birth name because those pensions were administered by the Ministry of pensions and might have been linked to his National Insurance documents which might have been issued in his birth surname, some men did serve under a false name but claimed war pensions in their real name.

When a man claimed a war pension his service records were sent to the Ministry of Pensions and perhaps that was the record that you saw, and if so perhaps his surname was chamged after his service, if that was the case and it happened several years after the war, his medal records would probably still be in his step father's surname.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/medal-index-cards-ww1.htm

Sometimes when a child is raised by a stepfather and their relationship is a good one, the child will continue to use their step surname as an adult, and will even sometimes legally change their birth surname, but if the relationship is a poor one, they may revert to their birth surname as an adult.




Moderator comment: reply re-instated

[IgorStrav]

Many thanks for your thoughtful reply.

The interesting thing is that the man named his son after his stepfather, including the Marsden name as a middle name, and his daughter also had Marsden as a middle name.

So I think the relationship was a good one.

There is other tentative evidence to suggest that his stepfather was in fact his father, born before the marriage.
The name change came at enlistment so there must have been a family discussion at the time. Thank you for your suggestions about why this might have been.

[spotter2015]

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