RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: michael4210 on Saturday 29 May 21 06:55 BST (UK)
-
Hello,
I'm looking for records of an ancestor who was serving in the Coldstream Guards in 1862. Apparently he was a Clerk in the Orderly Room at Horse Guards Parade at that time (according to Deceased Estate records). I have searched Find My Past, UK National Archives, Coldstream Guards Museum website and Forces War Records website and have not been able to find any record of him. His name is Adam Dunn born in 1835 in Kent. I am wondering if anyone can offer any advice of where to look next?
Thank you, Michael
-
Hi,
You could contact the Regimental Headquarters.
https://coldstreamguards.org.uk/pages/contact-us
Good luck with your search.
Simon
-
Simon,
Thank you very much for this suggestion. I will try an email as I'll never know unless I ask.
-
according to Deceased Estate records
Can you point us to the Deceased Estate record ? It might help.
-
Hello ShaunJ, sorry it was written in an affidavit to a probate case which is not digitised. The British National Archives were able to send me a copy recently and my ancestor was listed as one the beneficiaries of the Will. The exact wording is "Adam Dunn, Clerk to the Coldstream Guards Orderly Room Horse Guards, London". The affidavit was sworn on 13 January 1862 by one of his first cousins. My assumption from reading about the British Military is that Orderly Room clerks were enlisted soldiers and not civilian employees. I have not been able to locate him in the 1861 census even though I have been able to identify soldiers on the 2nd Battalion of the Coldstream Guards in Barracks in London at that time, which I believe was April 1861. Maybe he was part of another Battalion who were posted elsewhere at that time. I hope this helps. Thank you, Michael.
-
Both battalions of the Coldstream Guards were in London in April 1861. By January 1862 the 2nd Battalion was still in London but 1st Battalion had moved to Dublin.
Your man does not appear in the 1861 British Army "Worldwide Index" which is drawn from regimental muster books and paylists for the second quarter of 1861.
Perhaps some research is required in the muster books and paylists for January 1862.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2461592
-
Thank you Shaun that is great information. Unfortunately I live in Australia and can't visit the Archives. I see that the Archives are very busy dealing with copy requests and limiting the number of applications. I will a while and then see if I can place a specific request for just that item rather than the whole series of records that they seem to hold. The link you gratefully provided appears to cover 'pay lists & extra accounts' for the period 1860 to 1862. In the meantime I will keep on trying to find him, somewhere, in Census records...he is proving very elusive. Thank you.