Hi everyone, I wonder if I could draw on the pool of knowledge here to query the age of a Gunner I`ve been researching in a Royal Artillery H.A.A. Regiment. His name was E. Birchenough no.1499948. Having his wartime address I looked him up in the 1939 register and sure enough there is an Edwin Birchenough shown living at the correct address. However his D.O.B. is given as 7.2.1886, which of course seems totally implausible, or at least that`s what I thought. As you would, I thought he must have had a son with the inital "E" and I was looking at the wrong person but having traced the former`s marriage, checked available birth records and the 1911 census, I just can`t find any record of a son with this initial. In fact, Edwin Birchenough only seems to have had one son who had a totally different name. My problem is, if it`s actually Edwin Birchenough who`s No. 1499948, that would make him 53 at the time of his attestation but that doesn`t seem possible. Unfortunately the attestation doesn`t give his first name either, just the initial "E". As he later went to Burma I`m thinking this can`t be right and there must be a child who went unregistered perhaps but I`d welcome opinions as to if it`s plausible it could be a 53 year old who`s joined up. MTIA John
Might be: UK, British Army Records and Lists, 1882-1962 Name: E. C. Birchenough Military Year: 1943" Regiment: Royal Regiment of Artillery Rank: 2nd Lieutenant Name: E. C. Birchenough Military Year: 1944 Regiment: Royal Regiment of Artillery Rank: 2nd Lieutenant The other aspect of the 1939 Register is that the third name is not shown, stating "This record is officially closed" meaning they have no way of knowing if that person is alive or dead at the time of posting the database. Also I would guess to be your man he would have been born 1918 +/- 5 years and also Edwin is not a common male name for those born in that era - from my experience Its also unknown if the Edwin you mentions son was living at the same address in 1939, he could have moved to anywhere if he was old enough Some examples: England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Name: Edwyn C Birchenough Death Age: 57 Birth Date: abt 1912 Registration Date: Jan 1969 [Feb 1969] [Mar 1969] Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar Registration District: Lewisham Inferred County: Greater London Volume: 5d Page: 298 Name: Eric Birchenough Death Age: 59 Birth Date: 9 Jun 1915 Registration Date: Oct 1974 [Nov 1974] [Dec 1974] Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec Registration District: Weymouth Inferred County: Dorset Volume: 23 Page: 1075 Name: Eric Birchenough Death Age: 79 Birth Date: 14 Oct 1917 Registration Date: Mar 1997 Registration District: Manchester Inferred County: Greater Manchester Register Number: B58B District and Subdistrict: 0061B Entry Number: 9
T.D. Thank you very much for all the time and trouble you`ve taken in looking into this for me, it`s much appreciated. After sleeping on this I had a bit of lateral thinking this morning and wondered if there might be an error in the transcription of his surname in the BMD records, primarily because Birchenough is not that common a name. So, using his mother`s maiden name I did a search using just that and the registration district that his parents and brother were born in (Macclesfield), and sure enough there`s an Erich Birchanough (spelt incorrectly with an "a"), born in 1918 which matches. So basically someone has transcribed his surname incorrectly. That said, the original BMD record is very poor so I`m not surprised. I`m pretty sure this is my man as he never rose above the rank of Gunner. Many thanks again for your help. John
Hi John This one then England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007 Name: Eric Birchanough Registration Date: Jul 1918 [Aug 1918] [Sep 1918] Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep Registration District: Macclesfield Inferred County: Cheshire Mother's Maiden Name: Burgese Volume Number: 8a Page Number: 165 What would be useful is obtaining a copy of huis birth cert as that will provide his exact date of birth which could help narrow down the 1939 Register search, and may also lead you to his death certificate if you are looking to apply for his service records The other confusion that seems to run with this one is that I believe his mothers maiden name is possible revised to Burgess in some records Eric Birchanough Jul 1918 Jul-Aug-Sep Macclesfield Cheshire Ralph Birchanough Jul 1918 Jul-Aug-Sep Sheffield South Yorkshire Margaret M Birchanough Oct 1926 Oct-Nov-Dec Stockport Greater Manchester Dorothy Birchanough Oct 1926 Oct-Nov-Dec Macclesfield Cheshire John Birchanough Oct 1926 Oct-Nov-Dec Barnet Greater London From those above it seems the only one with a mother whose maiden name is Burgese is Eric
Assume this is his parents marriage ??? England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Name: Edwin Birchenough Registration Year: 1909 Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar Registration District: Macclesfield Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District Inferred County: Cheshire Volume: 8a Page: 185 Records on Page: Name Edwin Birchenough Mary Ann Burgess and his brother: Harry Birchenough 1914–1980 BIRTH 2 MAY 1914 • Macclesfield, Cheshire, England DEATH 13 SEPTEMBER1980 • Macclesfield, Cheshire, England
In the 1939 Register Harold is living with seemingly an Aunt 1939 England and Wales Register Name: Harold Birchenough Gender: Male Marital Status: Single Birth Date: 2 May 1914 Residence Date: 1939 Address: 22 Residence Place: Macclesfield, Cheshire, England Occupation: Silk Mill Tackler Line Number: 5 Schedule Number: 126 Sub Schedule Number: 3 Enumeration District: LFJH Borough: Macclesfield Registration district: 444-1 Household Members Age James Birslough 64 Ethel Birchenough 61 Harold Birchenough 25 (Died in Macclesfield 1980) So it could be assumed that the redacted entry shown for Edwin and Mary Ann could probably be Eric. How you remove the redaction I dont know but as his death certificate details are yet to be found its probably highly unlikely they would remove it without actual proof
Hi T.D, Thanks for the additional help. His actual D.O.B. would be nice but my primary aim was to find out his Christian name so fortunately this now seems sorted, plus of course I have a more sensible birth year. I must confess that the path I was originally going down didn`t make any sense with regards to the age and I had a gut feeling he would be in the 1910 - 1921 range. What`s not helped is obviously the incorrect transcribing of names; not only his, but also his mother`s maiden name which should be BURGESS. As far as the 1939 Register, well I have had some success in the past getting redacted names opened up, even without a death certificate, but it`s a bit of a struggle. To say some of these Geneaolgy websites are completely paranoid about data protection and so-on is an understatement. Even when you`re 99% sure of who the person is who`s been blacked out and state they were born well over 100 years ago and provide their name, they still drag their heels. Usually they just deny the request with little explanation as to why. As I say, I have managed it on occassion but I certainly wouldn`t want to go through all the expense of obtaining a death certificate as I`m going through a lot of names at present and it would cost me a fortune. Just a shame that the R.A. attestations don`t always state the christian names in full. Regards, John
Interesting to see he has 2 Army Numbers showing he was initially brought in under the Militia Act which I think only applied to men 20-22 when it started in 1939 so I'd say he must have been born 1917-9 - from the 2 numbers I'd say he joined the Militia July 1939 as 10,284,187 and then moved over to the proper (for want of a better word) Army October 1939 into the RA and got a new Number 1,499,948 .
Indeed. I believe he was from a group of Militia from the north west area who were sent to Orkney in the early stages of the war to bolster the H.A.A. defences there.
