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Fred Claxton b Bridlington 1864 – both birth registration and bp register record him as FRED, rather than Frederick or Alfred. He began his working life as an ag lab and in 1881 he was in East Yorkshire employed as an indoor farm servant at Wharram Percy farm.
I haven’t spotted him in 1891 – suspect mis-spelling or mis-transcription of his surname. (Searching with Bridlington as place of birth doesn’t give any clues, but Fred spoke the local dialect; Brid was known as Burlington (or Bollitun to natives!) and in 1881 he was recorded as born Barlington.)
He married in 1896 and in 1901 his wife and daughter were visiting a relative, so away from home. I’m pretty sure Fred was in South Africa when census was taken. I think he went as a civilian and may have had something to do with either building or guarding a railway line. I have a clipping from a newspaper stating that the town council paid for a life insurance policy for him, but maddeningly, I can’t find the rest of my notes for this episode in his life – neither on the computer, nor in my paper files. Nor can I re-find the documents or source materials I must have used.
Please can anyone find anything about Fred’s spell in S Africa during the Boer War? (Fred’s younger brother, Samuel Best Claxton, served in the army for 18 years from 1886 and was in the military mounted police in South Africa during the Boer war.) I know about Fred once he was back in England, until his death in 1937 – it’s the “interesting” Boer war bit that’s missing.
Thanks for reading
I haven’t spotted him in 1891 – suspect mis-spelling or mis-transcription of his surname. (Searching with Bridlington as place of birth doesn’t give any clues, but Fred spoke the local dialect; Brid was known as Burlington (or Bollitun to natives!) and in 1881 he was recorded as born Barlington.)
He married in 1896 and in 1901 his wife and daughter were visiting a relative, so away from home. I’m pretty sure Fred was in South Africa when census was taken. I think he went as a civilian and may have had something to do with either building or guarding a railway line. I have a clipping from a newspaper stating that the town council paid for a life insurance policy for him, but maddeningly, I can’t find the rest of my notes for this episode in his life – neither on the computer, nor in my paper files. Nor can I re-find the documents or source materials I must have used.
Please can anyone find anything about Fred’s spell in S Africa during the Boer War? (Fred’s younger brother, Samuel Best Claxton, served in the army for 18 years from 1886 and was in the military mounted police in South Africa during the Boer war.) I know about Fred once he was back in England, until his death in 1937 – it’s the “interesting” Boer war bit that’s missing.
Thanks for reading
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