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Our military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Gillian Edgell in Norfolk:
‘Ref: Edwin John Mandeville, born 13 March 1857 at 101 Kent Street (now Tabard Street) Southwark. Parents Hannah and Alfred Mandeville.
I’m wondering if you can help me find or give advice on where I can find any further information on whereabouts of my great great uncle, Edwin John Mandeville, after he left the army in 1895.
On the 1881 census he is listed under the name of Edwin J Manderville , visitor, and his occupation was carpenter. His address was 53 Royal Navy, Salmons Lane, Limehouse. He was staying with his sister, my great grandmother Amelia, and family. I have been searching for years now, trying to find out what happened to him next, but I couldn’t find any further record of him.
You can imagine how thrilled I was when I recently searched for his name in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 and I found a match straight away:
Edwin John Mandeville, age of attestation: 24 years 7 months (I don’t know why he lied about his age, unless you needed to be under 25 to join?)
The attestation date was 3 March 1883, attestation corps: South Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Volunteers), attestation soldier number: 873.
I have looked at the original records - there are nine images. He was discharged after 12 years of service; he was found unfit for further service and his next of kin was given as his older sister Hannah Turner, 25 Arthur Street, Oxford Street, London.
Unfortunately I have not been able to find any further record of him again. I have looked everywhere and found nothing.
I would be very grateful for any input you can give me. Is there, for example, any way of finding out the address where his pension was sent to or when it was stopped paying out? Is there any reason why he would have joint a Northern Regiment, when he lived in London? Any help would be appreciated just so I can finally finish my family tree.’
Paul says:
‘Unfortunately there are no details of the pension award that survive in his papers, but it would have been sent to whatever address he gave to the Pension Board. He was probably awarded a conditional pension of £X in respect of a degree of disablement which was either attributable to, or aggravated by, army service.
This degree of disablement would have been expressed as a percentage, e.g., 20% degree of disablement etc. In all probability, after his first pension award, he would have been called before various subsequent medical boards which would either have continued to make conditional awards or ultimately stopped them.
Interestingly, before he signed up as a career soldier with the South Lancs, he had served with the East Surrey militia and, therefore, it would be worth checking our militia records (WO96) when these go online in 2011.
As for why he joined the South Lancs Regt, he may have been approached by a recruiting sergeant for that regiment and decided to join. Despite the fact that Cardwell’s reforms of 1881 attempted to align the British line infantry along territorial or regional lines, regiments recruited not only in their own counties but also much further afield.
I have a minor study of this for the Border regiment on my Army Service Numbers blog and there’s also related information here.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
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From Gillian Edgell in Norfolk:
‘Ref: Edwin John Mandeville, born 13 March 1857 at 101 Kent Street (now Tabard Street) Southwark. Parents Hannah and Alfred Mandeville.
I’m wondering if you can help me find or give advice on where I can find any further information on whereabouts of my great great uncle, Edwin John Mandeville, after he left the army in 1895.
On the 1881 census he is listed under the name of Edwin J Manderville , visitor, and his occupation was carpenter. His address was 53 Royal Navy, Salmons Lane, Limehouse. He was staying with his sister, my great grandmother Amelia, and family. I have been searching for years now, trying to find out what happened to him next, but I couldn’t find any further record of him.
You can imagine how thrilled I was when I recently searched for his name in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 and I found a match straight away:
Edwin John Mandeville, age of attestation: 24 years 7 months (I don’t know why he lied about his age, unless you needed to be under 25 to join?)
The attestation date was 3 March 1883, attestation corps: South Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Volunteers), attestation soldier number: 873.
I have looked at the original records - there are nine images. He was discharged after 12 years of service; he was found unfit for further service and his next of kin was given as his older sister Hannah Turner, 25 Arthur Street, Oxford Street, London.
Unfortunately I have not been able to find any further record of him again. I have looked everywhere and found nothing.
I would be very grateful for any input you can give me. Is there, for example, any way of finding out the address where his pension was sent to or when it was stopped paying out? Is there any reason why he would have joint a Northern Regiment, when he lived in London? Any help would be appreciated just so I can finally finish my family tree.’
Paul says:
‘Unfortunately there are no details of the pension award that survive in his papers, but it would have been sent to whatever address he gave to the Pension Board. He was probably awarded a conditional pension of £X in respect of a degree of disablement which was either attributable to, or aggravated by, army service.
This degree of disablement would have been expressed as a percentage, e.g., 20% degree of disablement etc. In all probability, after his first pension award, he would have been called before various subsequent medical boards which would either have continued to make conditional awards or ultimately stopped them.
Interestingly, before he signed up as a career soldier with the South Lancs, he had served with the East Surrey militia and, therefore, it would be worth checking our militia records (WO96) when these go online in 2011.
As for why he joined the South Lancs Regt, he may have been approached by a recruiting sergeant for that regiment and decided to join. Despite the fact that Cardwell’s reforms of 1881 attempted to align the British line infantry along territorial or regional lines, regiments recruited not only in their own counties but also much further afield.
I have a minor study of this for the Border regiment on my Army Service Numbers blog and there’s also related information here.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
More...
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