I am trying to research the life of my 2 x great grandfather Herbert Mitchell. He was born in Crowhurst Sussex on 02/10/1883. I know he had three children with my 2 x great grandmother Harriett Farmer but they never married. Army records show that he signed up to the Royal Field Artillery on 17/12/15 army number 177366, and was discharged as medically unfit on 18/04/17. At the time of his enlistment he was living a Fenchurch Street in Folkestone with his wife Alice and daughter Grace. The form states they married in Eastbourne in 1911. There is no record of the marriage that I can find and I believe that Alice was Alice Phoebe Coddington born in Sussex in 1880. She married William Prevette in 1897 and they had a daughter Grace in Dec 1906. In the 1911 census Alice is living with her husband and 3 children in Eastbourne. In the 1939 register Alice is still living with Herbert in Folkestone and there is another child Thomas Herbert Prevette born on 05/07/18 that I have assumed is Herbert and Alice's son. Her daughter Grace is living next door with her family. Alice dies on 17/04/42 in Folkestone but Herbert lives on to 1962. Looking at other Prevette family trees there are no mentions of Alice leaving her husband and Thomas is shown as Alice's eldest daughter Catherines son. Herbert's army record also shows that he had previously been discharged from the navy but I cant find any record of this. My question is would the army have carried out any checks on the marriage details when he enlisted and was it common for people to lie on the forms to ensure that in the event of their death a war pension was paid to a person they regarded as their wife although this was not legally the case
