Calling all amateur detectives... 90 year old mystery. William TAYLOR

[NickT]

Hi,

My Great Uncle, William TAYLOR was born 1888-89 in Ollerton, Knutsford, Cheshire, the son of John and Emily TAYLOR.

During WWI he was enrolled with the Leicestershire Regiment (I have a picture of him in his uniform attached).

Sometime during or shortly after the war my mother told me that he became involved with a married woman in the Altrincham area who fell pregnant.  Owing to the scandal that ensued William disappeared never to be seen again.

According to my mother, Emily made regular visits to Altrincham to see the woman and child until she eventually died but she was distraught that she never heard from her son again... no letters or anything.

I somehow feel compelled to find out what happened to him on her behalf and I am looking for help or advise as to how I should proceed.

Thank you.

Nick

[CatOne]

Could you maybe send for his army papers? They should give next of kin, addresses, date of discharge, etc, it may give some clues..... (when I sent for my husbands grandads papers, we found a first wife that no one had known anything about!)

His exact date of birth should be there as well so you could search the death indexes for any matching William Taylors, although with such a popular name there might be quite a few!

Good Luck
Catherine 
(I wonder if an ad in the local paper might ring bells with anyone, although if he didnt stay in the area, maybe no one locally would recognise him)

[liverpool annie]

Hi Nick !

There's 4 William Taylors in the medal cards - they can be downloaded for 3 pounds 50 - if you download one - you'll probably get them all ... theres 6 to a page !

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0cd/

then check for the service records ! - do you know for sure if he came home ??

Annie 

PS Snap Catherine !! 

[NickT]

Hi again,

Medal Cards - there are 4 on the first page!  Actually several dozen in total and too prohibitive to buy at 3.50 each.  There are also 660 listed on the War Graves site.  This is not going to be my first line of inquiry...

Thanks for your suggestions though and keep them coming.

Nick

[Dave Francis]

Hi Nick

You mentioned Altringham - did you mean he went to live there?  If so, you might track him down through the local Kelly's directories.  (With a name like William Taylor, it's tricky I know.)

Dave

[Wendi]

Medal Cards - there are 4 on the first page!  Actually several dozen in total and too prohibitive to buy at 3.50 each. 

Nick the whole lot were not in The Leicestershire's  only the 4 Annie mentioned, and as she said it's £3.50 for a page of 6 records !!!!  !!!!

If you narrowed him down via the Medal Rolls then you could check the same 4 out on CWGC

Wendi 

[NickT]

Wendi,
Sorry, But you are wrong about this.  I just counted 16 William Taylor's from the Leicestershire Regiment on the first 4 pages of the link provided by Annie.
I also have no evidence that he remained with the Leicesters throughout the war.

Dave,
William simply disappeared and was never heard of again.  There was no suggestion that he died in the war ( but still a possibility) and the woman he is supposed to have had the affair with was said to be from the Altrincham area, possibly Timperley.  My mother told me this many years ago before she died and when I was relatively young and totally disinterested...

Keep those mails coming and thanks to all who have responded.

Nick

[NickT]

Further to the debate on WW1 service records anyone interested in obtaining a WW1 service record may be interested in the following link.  It should also be noted that if you have enough information to hand in order obtain the correct medal card (which usually tells you nothing you didn't already know except the medal type and occasionally the country served in) then you also have enough information to send for a search on the full record.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/foi/pdf/ifa_m3_first_world_war_army_service_otherranks.pdf

I may have to write down all the service numbers of the William TAYLORs who served in The Leicesters and go down to Kew myself to conduct a search on each one in turn.  Seems to be the only remaining option.

Thanks for everyone's help so far.  I've ordered his birth cert to see if there might be a middle name and I am searching for the baptism that I think may have been at Marthall in Cheshire in or around 1889.

Nick