UPDATED George William Crossan

[Mark Abbott]

I am reseaching a George William Crossan, who was born in Birmingham in 1872. His father, also George was born in Scotland in 1837 and his mother Elizabeth in Birmingham in 1841.

I have his soldiers papers from FMP and the Militia ones confirm his address in 1890 as 19 Bartholomew Street, Leicester where his parents and siblings resided in 1891.

Unfortunately I cannot locate him!

This is where my lack of FH knowledge causes a problem! If anyone can find him I would be grateful.

I have all other relevant census entries.

His story is really interesting an I will post once my research is complete.

Best wishes to all

Mark

[MaryA]

We'll look forward to hearing the story afterwards. Meantime it's the 1891 census you are looking for, for him? What year did he enlist and where please? and do you have his Regiment and Number?

[Daisycakes]

Hi ...Long Shot... but there is a George Crosman on 1891 census ((transcribed by anc...... as Crossman)) Hes 22 and in Aldershot with The Battalion of the Cameroons Scotish Rifles... Given that his father was Scottish maybe worth a try...Are you certain he was born Birmingham?

Ann

[MaryA]

Yes his birth in the indexes is
George William Crossan Apr-May-Jun 1872 Birmingham Warwickshire

Signed up 8 April, 1890 into the Leicestershire Regiment at 17 years and 11 months.

Only one year later, would he still be training? or would his Regiment have been posted somewhere?

[MaryA]

Hmmm now what does this mean? On the last page of his papers

Statement of the Services of No. 3697 George Wm Crossan
Leicestershire Corps, Battalion 3, Attested, Rank - Private, Period of Service in each Rank 8 April 1890 to 2 May 1891, Details of Service - Present 1890
Discharged by Purchase 2nd May 1891.

[Mark Abbott]

Mary and Ann

Thank you.

George enlisted in the Militia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militia_(United_Kingdom)
on 8 April 1890 and bought himself out one year later. I know from his regular army service papers that he enlisted in the East Lancashire Regiment at Bury on 6th October 1890. He served in the UK until 27.1.1893 when he was posted to Gibralter. Further postings to India and South Africa followed. He was discharged from the army aged 36years 3 months on the 16 February 1909.

He MUST therefore be recorded on the 1891 census (as we know he was serving in the UK with the East Lancs.) but where and under what name?

Mark

Confusingly, his service papers show him as born in Stockport but this is deffinately incorrect.

[simone]

Do you have access to Ancestry?

If you go to the 1891 census, put name George in, put realtionship as military and birmingham as place of birth and approx yr birth 1872, you get all the military entries, i.e crew. private, soldier, .. Can't spot him straight off ... but you may recognise something I don't

Simone x

[MaryA]

Would any military diaries list where training took place?

[Hilary]

Maybe his father forgot to record him on the census form or maybe the enumerator missed him off when he copied the form.

Or maybe whoever filled the form in at the barracks did the same thing!

[Mark Abbott]

Simone

Thank you

I have Ancestry but can't put "military" into the relationship box; what am I doing wrong?

Mark

[MaryA]

It would be "soldier" rather than military I think, however, there are mistakes, I have scrolled down some of the soldiers listed at Aldershot and found that the Enumerator wrote "Son" against pages and pages of them instead of Soldier so of course Ancestry has transcribed them as such - correctly as they see it .... unfortunately. So it's not an exact science.

[simone]

Hi

If you go into the England 1891 census there is a dropdown box which says Relationship to Head of Household,if you click on the side of it, it will open up and you can choose Military...
this gives you other positions as well as soldiers.. such as Officer, Gunner, Private

Simone x

[MaryA]

You can also scroll through the images themselves, which I tried to do for some of Aldershot, do you know of any other places they would have been based at that time?

[simone]

I'm afraid I'm rubbish at all this Military stuff, Battalions etc but could he have been in Ireland at time of the census

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Lanca ... battalions

Simone x

[Mark Abbott]

Just to keep you all up to date with this one.

George William Crossan served with the army until 1909. I thought he may have been recalled to serve in WW1 however, there is no record of him, nor any information regarding his death.

Whilst researching someone else on the CWGC site, I searched againt George's name and to my suprise, he is recorded as a "Civilian, formely 3027 Sjt East Lancashire Regiment" ; buried in Berlin South West Cemetery having died on 15 May 1917.

My curiosity arroused, I put his name into TNA search engine and found he was a spy........

To be continued !

[MaryA]

Oh ho!!! we await more news!

[Mark Abbott]

I have managed to trace one of George's distant relatives who lives in Canada. Heather has supplied me with three photographs of George Crossan.

The first being him as a Corporal in the East Lancashire Regiment (the crossed swords indicating a Physical Training Instructor) wearing the Indian General Service medal 1895 that I now have in my possession



More to follow!

[MaryA]

Well done Mark!