Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

WW1 deserters listed in (London) Police Gazette

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • WW1 deserters listed in (London) Police Gazette

    I can't believe I've never heard of this before, especially since I once paid a professional researcher who supposedly specialised in military research including WW1, but according to YFT magazine, the Police Gazette (London) published a weekly list of deserters and absentees from the forces and the British Library has copies.

    Has anybody ever looked at these or paid somebody to do it? I've posted a query about it on the Great War Forum but no replies yet. I would just love to know how feasible it would be either to go (where exactly?) to look it up or if I would be able to find a researcher to do it and approx how much they would charge.
    KiteRunner

    Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
    (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

  • #2
    You might try looking here:

    Gazette Website

    I'm having a go now (Advanced search criteria: WW1 + the word Deserters), but it's taking a long time to bring up the result(s).

    Christine
    Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

    Comment


    • #3
      Adding the name "Bennett" to the word "deserters" got an immediate nil result, so I suspect that there must be a lot of results to bring up for the word without a limiting name.

      Christine

      ...wrong, again! - Just 17 and none of the excerpts suggest that opening the image will bring up a list. But I use a Mac, and the images tend actually to download each time, instead of opening in a new page, so I don't really want to clutter up the disk with unwanted images on the off-chance.
      Last edited by Christine in Herts; 26-05-08, 18:41.
      Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

      Comment


      • #4
        HI Kite

        Have you seen this web site


        Family History Research and British Military History, 1801-1945: The British Library Newspaper Library in particular the paragraph headed by the heading Police Gazette under the main heading of Other Useful Sources

        This does at least to tell you who to try and contact.
        WendyP

        Comment


        • #5
          British library newspaper collection is due to be transferred up to Boston Spa, Yorkshire in the future.

          I think they are going to have some things at the BL in St Pancras but not sure.
          ~ with love from Little Nell~
          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

          Comment


          • #6
            Isn't Boston Spa in Lincolnshire?
            My ggg grandfather was listed as a deserter in the Police gazette in the 1830s & a kind lady from this site, looked it up at TNA for me & it gave a description of him.
            Lynn

            Comment


            • #7
              Boston is in Lincolnshire.

              Boston Spa is in West Yorkshire, near Wetherby. Apparently chosen because it was the centre of the country, for postal reasons. (Don't ask). The British Library Inter-Library Loan Scheme is based there.
              ~ with love from Little Nell~
              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

              Comment


              • #8
                Tut tut, everyone knows that Notts is the centre of the country! :D
                Lynn

                Comment


                • #9
                  I've looked at Police Gazette at Kew, which do list deserters and provide a description, but they were for much earlier. WW1 copies would, I assume be at Colindale - British Newspaper Library, but I suppose you'd need an idea of date of desertion, otherwise it would be a lengthy and consequently expensive, search! Also there must have been so many deserters at that time that I wonder whether thy would all be listed.
                  The National Archives, Kew – Research Service Offered
                  Contact me via PM on Family Tree Forum or via my personal website - www.militaryandfamilyresearch.co.uk

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    have you tried local papers?

                    When I researched gt grandad at Colindale I spent ages trying to find a death notice for him during WW1. The Barnet Press published a weekly list of local men, or those with local connections, who had deserted. I don't think there was a description though but I wasn't paying that much attention as gt grandad wasn't a deserter.

                    Never did find a death notice as it (later) turned out his mother refused to believe he'd died and thought he was in hiding from his wife!
                    Zoe in London

                    Cio che Dio vuole, io voglio ~ What God wills, I will

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Christine, it's the Police Gazette, not the London Gazette. Apparently also known as the "Hue and Cry".

                      Wendy, thanks. So it looks as though it is still held at Colindale. But yes, it could take a long time to look through them all. I'm surprised that no company has done a deserters' index yet!

                      Zoe, he joined the army in 1908 from Islington, but at some point in WW1 he was living in Belfast and I don't know if that was before or after he deserted, so I'm not sure what local papers it would be in.
                      KiteRunner

                      Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                      (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Family Historyonline had a desrters index on, which was how I found out about my ggg grandfather, but as I said, that was much earlier.
                        Lynn

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          If you do a google search "Shot at Dawn" there are numerous stories and names of soldiers who suffered this fate.

                          I was up at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire last week, and there is a Shot At Dawn memorial, I didn't investigate to see if it included names though.

                          All the World War 1 deserters were officially pardoned a couple of years ago.

                          Alan

                          Whoever said "seek and ye shall find" was NOT a genealogist

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Sorry - I spotted "Gazette" and didn't see any further!

                            Christine
                            Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

                            Comment

                            Working...
                            X