Alfred Davies and Elizabeth Rollo

[bkinghorn]

Hi, I'm trying to trace my great grandparents (in particular Alfred Davies).
My great grandmother's name was Elizabeth Rollo, she was born in the North East of Scotland in 1875. In the 1891 census she was living with her mother, Christina and several brothers and sisters at Mill of Auquharney, Hatton, near Peterhead, but by 1902 she had travelled to China, where she nursed prisoners of war during the Boxer Rebellion.
While in China, she met and married Alfred Davies, who was in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. I have a copy of their marriage cert from Oct 1902 in Peking which states his age as 26yrs 4 months and that his father was a gamekeeper called Charles.
Have been in touch with the RWF forum, but without a service number they can do very little and unfortunately there wasn't one on the cert.
After service in China, Alfred was posted to India. Alfred and Elizabeth's three children were born in India: Clarence George (1904), Ian Llewellyn (1905) and Muriel Jean (1907). I don't know when Alfred left the RWF, but I have a photo of him taken in 1910, by which time he was a Sergeant with the Assam Bengal Volunteer Rifles.
Alfred and Elizabeth split up at some point - he fathered another child in the UK in 1918ish I think - Hugh Alexander Davies.
I am unsure of when Alfred returned to the UK for good, as there was no further contact with him, but I do believe he retired to South of England/Wales.
Elizabeth returned to the North East of Scotland, as did her children.
I would be really interested in finding out about Alfred because, other than his name and year of birth, I know very little about him.
Hopefully someone could point me in the right direction.

[km1971]

Hi and Welcome

Have you checked to see if his service record is on Findmypast?

He must have been in the 2nd Battalion RWF as the 1st Bn was in South Africa. Luckily there is only one A Davies on the roll of the 2nd Bn for the 1900 China Medal. He had regimental  number 4718. He was awarded the medal with the clasp for the Relief of Pekin.

Ken

[t mo]

hi and welcome to rootschat .
Ken i,ve looked in FindMyPast service records but can only find 1 for the royal welsh fus but it has no mention of a china posting but it has for india  also the fathers name is francis davies , now is it pos his service time went past the cut off time of 1913 or because he went on to the assam bengal vol rifles he missed out on  a pension , but i,m sure you,ll say he was still entitled to a pension as i believe he would be regardless .
regards
trevor

[bkinghorn]

Please find below one of the responses from the RWF forum, the A Davies 4718 was a Private, whereas our Alfred, according to his marriage cert was a Sergeant.

"QUOTE=Baconwallah;58499]As I said in an earlier post, all I can find is a Pte A Davies 4718 on the 1900 China Medal Roll. That may be your Alfred Davies, but as only half the 2nd Bn received the China Medal he may well have belonged to the other half - which would explain the wrong rank of 4718 Davies. But then again, the number would be about right for a man born in 1876 and joining up when aged 18 or 19.

On the other hand, for a man with seven years service to reach the rank of Sergeant is unusual, although it is not impossible - Sgt Boreham did it in six years. Alfred Davies may have been, like Boreham, a very capable man.

I have checked the Great War Medal Index Cards and the surviving service and pension records on Ancestry, but found no trace of him. He may have served with another regiment, in which case it will be very difficult to find him on Ancestry. He may even have remained in India, at least for the Great War period.

Since many service and pension records were destroyed n the Blitz, the chances of finding him are almost nil. You could give the RWF Museum a try. Brian Owen, the Curator, will do what he can, but I don't think he will come up with any more than this"

[t mo]

as it looks like alls up in the air again see if you can get these 3 service numbers checked out they are for either an a davies or just davies in the royal welsh fus in the boer war 6045  - 2090  -  5309 
regards
trevor

[km1971]

When I googled assam bengal volunteer rifles all I found was Assam-Bengal Railway Volunteer Rifles. You could try fibis.org. This may entail joining in order to obtain online access to more records, or visiting the British Library.

You should find one or more of the Indian births on the regimental BMDs on Findmypast. If you get a hit you can order the certificate from the UK GRO. The birth certificate should give his regimental number.

Is he wearing any medal ribbons in your photograph?

Ken

[t mo]

hi just looked in FindMyPast army births and can,t find any of the children not even close matches show up .

regards
trevor

[bkinghorn]

Trevor,
I have asked the experts at the RWF about the three service numbers, their response is as follows"Davies 2090 had no initial that I know of, could have been A, could have been anything . Davies 5309 was W(illiam?}. Davis 6046 was indeed A Davies but served on the Tugela (as did 5309) and could not well have been in two places at the same time.

Another reason: the drafts from South Africa, available because of the end of hostilities there, only began to join 2 RWF in India, long after the Bn had left China.

Davies 2090 could not have joined later than 1888. He is not on the SA Medal Roll but is in a list of Mentions in Despatches for the Boer War. We know nothing else about him.
W Davies 5309 would have joined c.1897.
A Davies 6046 would have joined 1899.

Service or pension records there are none."


Ken,
A relative in Australia found a record of Clarence's birth in familysearch:

ndia Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 for Clarence Alfred George Davies

Name: Clarence Alfred George Davies
Gender: Male
Baptism/Christening Date: 20 Mar 1904
Baptism/Christening Place: Darjeeling, Bengal, India
Birth Date: 29 Jan 1904
Birthplace:
 
Death Date:
 
Name Note:
 
Race:
 
Father's Name: Alfred Davies
Father's Birthplace:
 
Father's Age:
 
Mother's Name: Elizabeth
Mother's Birthplace:
 
Mother's Age:
 
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C75038-5
System Origin: India-EASy
Source Film Number: 527521
Reference Number:
 
Do you think a certificate would contain any more information?
I'm having problems posting the photo, think it's too big, but yes, he does appear to be wearing a medal.

[bkinghorn]

Ken,
I have managed to get a copy of Clarence George's birth certificate (he was Alfred's eldest son), but unfortunately Alfred was a Sergeant Instructor with the Assam Bengal Railway Volunteer Rifles by then, so no service number.

Alfred married in Peking in Oct 1902 and Clarence George was born in Darjeeling in Jan 1904 so sometime between those two dates Alfred travelled to India, left the RWF and joined the ABVR.
Do you think it would be possible to find passenger lists somewhere?

regards