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Independent Islands => Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey, Sark => Topic started by: ainslie on Saturday 20 May 17 09:46 BST (UK)

Title: Guernsey mystery child - WW1
Post by: ainslie on Saturday 20 May 17 09:46 BST (UK)

In March 1916 Dorothy Blanche de Saumarez Dobree (born in Guernsey in 1886) married an officer of the Royal Fusiliers (attached to the Royal Flying Crps) 2nd Lieut Frederic St.J.F.N. Echlin.  The marriage was in Dorset.
In the September of that year Echlin, a pilot, was shot down and died of wounds.  He was buried at Bapaume but later reinterred and transferred to Achiet-le-Grand, where his headstone includes the words,
'In ever loving memory
from his wife and child'.
The War Graves Commission records the widow's address as The Anchorage, Doyle Road, Guernsey.

I have been unable to find a birth registered in the England & Wales records and ask for any suggestions about tracing it in Guernsey.  The fate of the widow would would also be interesting.
I am a distant cousin of Echlin.

Ainslie

Title: Re: Guernsey mystery child - WW1
Post by: MaxD on Saturday 20 May 17 10:10 BST (UK)

She appears in the Jersey census of 1901 age 15 as born in St Helier Jersey rather than Guernsey.  She was still there in 1911.

maxD

Title: Re: Guernsey mystery child - WW1
Post by: ainslie on Saturday 20 May 17 10:16 BST (UK)

Thanks.  It is the birth of the child I am mainly interested in, but all info welcome.
A

Title: Re: Guernsey mystery child - WW1
Post by: amondg on Saturday 20 May 17 10:38 BST (UK)

Dorothy Blanche de Saumarez Echlin died 18 May 1974 of 63 Bury Road Gosport Hampshire, she left a will probated London July 1974.
If the child survived hopefully they are the beneficiary

Added on his war medal card his wife is listed at The Deanery, Guernsey C. I.

Title: Re: Guernsey mystery child - WW1
Post by: ainslie on Sunday 21 May 17 10:32 BST (UK)

Thank you for the extra information.  The will might hold a clue, as you say.

Ainslie