James Willoughby Drury

[sondaleigh]

Yes according to records I have definitely in England. Thanks for your help but I have been finding the same dead ends. Wondering if he has fudged the truth somewhere. His war records gives the 1874 birth date but NZ marriange cert from 1891 says that he was 25yrs then which of course would make his birth around 1866. Problem is that makes him very old to serve in WW1 tho so not sure which to believe.

[CaroleW]

Have you managed to find his date of emigration or his name on any passenger records

[sondaleigh]

No - I havn't sadly but may have missed it. Not sure if he went straight to NZ or if he came to Aust first. He seemed to move to Qld in the  early 1900s. There is a record of his NZ born surviving children travelling to Uk in 1903. Havn't nailed down parents travelling with them yet. Wondered if that meant they were going back to visit family?

[CaroleW]

I see the 1903 entry

Clarence, Dulcie and Edgar are grouped together but James is on a different page as though he was not with them.  There is also an E Dury - not Drury shown on the same page as James but several passenger names away from him

Destination is just shown as London unfortunately

[jorose]

He also might not have been that sure of his parents' details if one or both died when he was young, and whoever gave the info on his death certificate even less so. In the 1881 census there is a James Drury aged 15 b. Plymouth in London (at the National Children's Home, situated in Bonner Road, Bethnal Green).

He could have either put his age up at marriage (what was the age of his wife at the time?) or down when signing up for WWI.
Also in one point in his WWI records it gives his exact dob as 4th April 1874 - "4th April" is probably correct even if he's fiddled the year.
Do you have his NZ military records from the Boer War?

Can you make up a timeline of what you do know about his movements - when/where he married, when/where his kids were born, death of his first wife, etc.  Then we could have a better idea of what ship lists to look for and when. It looks to me as if in NZ he didn't use the middle name so it might have been something he took up later in life.

I think Sooye must surely be a mistake (either bad handwriting or a phonetic transcription of something). Vickory could be Vickery or Vicary.

[CaroleW]

Re: Drury/Vickery marriage

I have used a wildcard search as follows and no match found

Dru** - Vic**

Dre** - Vic**  in case Drury had been spelt as Drewery

[sondaleigh]

Thanks so much everyone for all your help. I feel like I have just shared my frustration with you all. I had seen the children's home record as well but  wasn't sure with the mismatch in dates. I do have a tree on ancestry.com but have tried to summarise the dates below. He is my mum's grandfather and was estranged from her dad it seems so not much known about him. I can't find how to get access to Boer War records.

1874 Birth 4 April  (possibly not but this is date indicated in ww1 record)
1881 Possible residence in Childrens Home in Bethnal Green (would change birth to1866 cos he is 15yrs)
1891 Marriage 17 May to Kate McGarrie (have purchased copy of NZ marriage cert)
1894 Birth of child in NZ - Norman
1897 Birth of child in NZ - Edgar
1898 birth of child in NZ - Clarence
1902 birth of child in NZ - Dulcie
cont

[sondaleigh]

Within the previous time line he also served in the military for NZ for a substantial number of years. List on his military record but hard to work out commencement date. He did serve in Boer War in 1901.

1903 Travelled to UK with the children on board the Corinthic
1904 Birth of child - Besson in Hobart (source Besson marriage cert)
1910 Death of Kate McGarrie
1911 Remarriage to Cathleen Ruth Menkens (birth of two more children Victor and James)
1915 WW1 service - claims to be 41.5 yrs

after that Qld electoral rolls show residence through to his death in 1948.

Hope this helps - don't have much more

[jorose]

I see Edgar's death in 1910 in Queensland, by which point James was using the middle name Willoughby.
It would be interesting to see if the data he gives on his second marriage certificate matches.

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/9676691?searchTerm=%22James+Drury%22
 - I would guess this is him in 1904 (in Hobart, would fit with Besson's birth, also mentions the trip to England - he went to Bournemouth)
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/35565100?searchTerm=Drury+Hobart
 - 1903, Captain J. Drury of New Zealand appointed bandmaster to the Hobart City Band
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/12280385?searchTerm=%22Captain+J.+Drury%22
 "Captain J. Drury, who in addition to being a cornet soloist of rare skill, possesses a remarkably fine light baritone voice"

http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/19674906?searchTerm=%22Mrs+Drury%22
 - this might be Kate's death mentioned.

http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ shows a James Drury military file 1899-1902

NZ papers past has several hits for a Captain Drury from 1901, including one saying he composed a song (so the music link is there early!). He arrived back on the Damascus from Capetown into Melbourne along with many others, on November 27th 1901, and on the 6th December left Sydney along with others on the Elingamite towards Auckland and other NZ ports; arrived Dec 10th.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NEM19011216.2.8.3&srpos=74&e=01-01-1885-----10--71-byDA---2Captain+Drury--
 - this suggests he was wounded.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19030312.2.59&srpos=16&e=01-01-1885-----10--11-byDA---2James+Drury--
 - which makes this also probably him.

Looking at the WWI records I think it says
8 (months?)  Lieut. Marsden Mounted Rifles
1 1/2 years Capt. 22nd Squadron 7th Contingent
NZ ?? Boer War 1901

http://www.nzmr.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=633 - seems the Marsden Mounted Rifles were created in 1900.
(There are also some papers past entries talking about his movement to the 7th)