Jean Watson Elliot, A.T.S.

Discussion in 'Non-Commemorated War Dead' started by BereniceUK, Jun 22, 2015.

  1. BereniceUK

    BereniceUK Well-Known Member

    Jean Watson Elliot. Died at the Cottage Hospital on 19th January 1946, aged 29. Daughter of John and Mary Jane Elliot.

    The gravestone is in St Helen's churchyard extension, Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland. The Cottage Hospital referred to may be the one across the border in Coldstream.

    I can't find her on the CWGC database; there's no indication of cause of death, however the village commemorated her by putting her name on its memorial.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    On Cornhill's war memorial.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    deleted, wrong person
     
  3. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    If you can find somebody with a findmypast or British newspaper archive subscription there is 742 word article on page 5 of the Berwick Advertiser dated 11 July 1946. From the scrambled text I could make out the article is entitled Cornhill Welcome Home. It says ...names of the fallen were read out the Rev. F. C. Gunn and a minutes silence was observed. Those who made the supreme sacrifice were John ?onard Collingwood Briggs and William Edward Johnston. Mention was also made of Jean Watson Elliot, who had died since the cessation of hostilities. Capt. Collingwood gave the toast The King and the toast The Forces was proposed by Mr. J. V. Lindsay, lucky to be there. Replying, Major W.A.H. Maxwell, K.O.S.B. wondered how many present.....

    Like is say, the text is scrambled until you subscribe.
     
    BereniceUK likes this.
  4. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  5. BereniceUK

    BereniceUK Well-Known Member

    Leonard
     
  6. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Hi Berenice

    I assume Coldstream is in Scotland ( a guess on my part) and Cornhill is in England, the reason is I have trying to find her death details so that a copy death cert can be obtained, but I cannot find her at all.

    My guess is that she died in Scotland, hence although Ancestry has access to UK & Ireland records they do not cover Scotland from about 1915.

    TD
     
  7. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    Trust you T.D. you know I would just have to look!! Death registered by the father John, a farm servant. Mother Mary Jane Elliot (nee Watson) is deceased. Jean and Johns address is given as The Cottages, Cornhill On Tweed. Jean died at 2am at the Coldstream Cottage Hospital of Septic Pneumonia Cardiac Failure. Her occupation is given as House Keeper. Shed absolutely no light on it whatsoever.

    I note the memorial in the picture above, the ATS is a different type set to the J.W. Elliot. The ATS text must have been added afterwards for some reason?
     
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  8. BereniceUK

    BereniceUK Well-Known Member

    A little late but, yes, they're either side of the River Tweed which at that point is the border. Only about a mile and a half between the two places. My apologies for not including that in my first post.
     
  9. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Assumption
    She was in ATS but not at the time of her death,however stone mason was instructed to add ATS on the memorial to show she had served.

    regards
    Clive
     
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  10. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Amberdog

    The telepathy worked, I was sensing your fingers trembling above the keyboard ready for action, and you just needed that little incentive :P

    TD
     
  11. BereniceUK

    BereniceUK Well-Known Member

    Okay, I'll accept that. Thanks very much, everyone.
     
  12. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Hello Berenice
    Similar issue below

    Doris Witney is on the Lemsford Mermorial Hertfordshire stating she was in the WAAF but she is not on CWGC.Her husband is also on the memorial he is on CWGC.
    TonyM was investigating
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/12838-ats-casualties/page-7


    regards
    Clive
     

    Attached Files:

  13. chrisharley9

    chrisharley9 Senior Member

    The problem with have with these ladies is there is nothing to link death to service. The death cert may give some clues, but at present the service records cannot be obtained.

    Chris
     
  14. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    You raise an interesting point Chris. From an NHS perspective, has any data been collated on the manner in which these ladies met their death? I often think of the forms of cancer my ATS serving aunt died of. MOD couldn't find her record either and we believe she was involved in bomb making according to her daughter. I'm sure I read chemicals handled in WW1 sometimes caused the yellowing of the skin in munition workers and couldn't imagine it was any different in terms of exposure in WW2.

    Tricky, don't know if you will be reading this post but was Jeans birth registered in England? I meant to add the only entry including her middle name was the death entry. Any births around 1917, mothers name Watson?

    I haven't ruled out the possibility she took a middle name later in life, as did one of my relatives. He had no middle name on the birth register in 1903 and no indication of one on the 1911 Census, but by the 1920s he started using a middle name as I discovered from his military record.
     
  15. RemeDesertRat

    RemeDesertRat Very Senior Member

    Yes, working with explosive (cordite?) material turned hair and skin yellow in WWI, but never heard of any other side effects. Possibly it was not reported or illnesses even connected with explosives?

    Yellow hair/skin gave the name Canaries to many who worked in the filling factories:

    http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=201418_174824
     
  16. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Hi amberdog

    As I know from my own family 'Elliot' is a problem name as it can be spelt Elliott, Eliott, Elliot, plus the fact that it is also an Irish/Scottish name common to both, and more specifically the Borders regions (as they were sometimes known as livestock rustlers :( )
    The only 'Watson Elliot' I have come across so far was born in Kircaldy (they still smell of linoleum :lol: ) but there is nothing I can find for a Jean Elliot (spelt several ways) with a mothers maiden name of Watson born 1918 +/- 2 years, therefore my only assumption would that that she was born outside England/Wales/Ireland.

    TD
     
  17. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    I have also been trying to trace records of her parents for which we know:

    Father
    John Elliot - died 1968 (70 years old) so birth 1898 +/- 1 year

    Mother
    Mary Jane (maiden name unknown) died 1945 (59 years old) so birth 1886 +/- 1 year - have also tried checking for a Mary J Watson born 1886ish but cannot fins a connection as yet.

    Nothing is coming up on the results that fits :(

    TD
     

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