Non-combatant occupations

Hello Charlotte

without his service records you will be guessing and led up the garden path on false leads


this one falls in age range as i pointed out before you might have to pay for death certs to whittle it down
Deaths Sep 1965 (>99%)
GOTHARD GEORGE H 63 REDBRIDGE 5D 543
have a look at the others I posted


regards
Clive

 

Very helpful, yes thank you. A couple of them I know are cousins - their grandfather was George and all his sons called one of their sons after him

 

Who knows....

But there is one hypothesis based on his previous activities. Here was a man on the margin of society. In and out of the workhouse and jail.

On possibility was that during the war years he was a criminal or had deserted from any unit he ever joined. WW2 was a boom time for London criminals. He seems to have claimed at one point to be a serving soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment, who have no knowledge of his service.

 

He's certainly interesting and it is a possibility - although by 1939 he did have a very steady job and the family lore is that they were quite settled as a married couple at that period. But who knows? I would love to find out.

Re the Glosters - Uncle A - brother of Irene - joined them in 1934. During the war he served in Burma. My first thought was that when she went to register their daughter in 1940, she used her brother's military background to cover up something about George's whereabouts - as you say, something like prison. But I'm not sure. He may have intended to join them and then been declared medically unfit - the family has notoriously bad eyesight. And the Glosters would have represented some sort of family connection - he was an orphan and from all accounts, was close to his wife's family at that time. It's puzzling.

 

Non-combatant occupations - The British Merchant Navy, believe it or not. Even though they lost a greater percentage of their numbers than any of the fighting services. Yes I know that sections of the fighting services lost more, such as Bomber Command.

 

Do you think it would be worthwhile looking into the British Merchant Navy records please?

 

No I doubt it Charlotte, I only posted to add the MN to the list of n/cs. I first found this out in 1964, when my dad took me down to the British Legion to join after my first trip to sea. Non-combatants, Gerald, was the secretary's reply. Which upset me as some of those in the bar were National Service boys, who hadn't been further than Catterick Camp!

 

Thank you and that's a great story.

I think I should take a better look at the Home Defence subject.

 

Charlotte
sorry to be a nag but you are going all over the place with assumptions.
Look at the deaths of GEORGE GOTHARDs as previously suggested otherwise you will not pin him down and just make wrong guesses etc


regards
Clive

 

I don't think you're being a nag at all - being very helpful.

And I have re-checked all the deaths that you found. I can match all of them up and rule each one out with a birth and then a subsequent marriage/on the electoral roll. I do have the certs for a couple because they are related - originally from Huddersfield.

 

Ok
unless he is still alive there must be a registered death for him in the UK unless he moved abroad

 

Exactly right and I have looked as thoroughly as I could in the USA and Canada and Australia and nothing matches. Obviously he could have gone anywhere else and I've tried to chase down deaths of UK citizens abroad with no luck either.

South Africa is another option and I've always found that one difficult to research.

Thanks again.