Thomas McDonald - WW1 Records

[kylemacca007]

Hi Annie.

If you can check the link in the post above for the Sheffield indexes forum I've posted there.

[Rosinish]

I looked at the link but far too long to look for names of children which would be best on here to save time/effort.

Annie

[kylemacca007]

Thomas Married Emily Crawford on 25th December 1912 below is a list of the children they had together...

Violet Mary McDonald
B 1913– D 1972

Thomas H McDonald
B 1914– D 1914

Thomas D McDonald
B 1917– D 1917

William Henry McDonald
B 1919– D 1987

Alice McDonald
B 1921– D 1956

Irene Fay McDonald
B 1924– D 2005

Frederick C McDonald
B 1926– D 1936

Florence M McDonald
B 1928–

Alan McDonald
B 1931– D 2000

[Rosinish]

Can you please provide the name of his father as per marriage & names of wife's parents to see if there's possibly a naming pattern in place for at least a mother if he was born illegitimate?

Annie

[kylemacca007]

Emily Crawford-
Mother Elizabeth Jane Cave.
Father Charles Henry Crawford. (Deceased)

Thomas McDonald
Father James McDonald (Deceased) (Boot maker)

[MaxD]

I've scoured the military records for him and regrettably there are none I can find that give his date/place of birth.  It has to be said that an attestation form did ask for the place of birth but not for the date, it asked only for the age of the man.

(The "discharge" book is a hospital record from  December 1917 which may be related to the undated fragment of a sick list.  It puts his years of service as 9 which would mean 1908 enlistment but such records are often, understandably, in error.)

He may well have been in the barracks in Sheffield in 1911, Hillsborough Barracks had an RFA Brigade there at the time.  That would have a place of birth and an age.

MaxD

[kylemacca007]

Hi Max.

Thank you.

At the time of marriage he was residing at the barracks (assumed Hillsborough) and Emily lived at Dutton Road (About half a mile away) They married at St Johns Baptist church, which is positioned right in the middle. I have searched each page on the 1911 census for Hillsborough barracks but his name doesn't appear.

How else could i get information regarding his residence at the barracks?

Thanks

[MaxD]

If you have looked at the Hillsborough census for 1911 and he isn't there then you've done all you can regarding his residence there.  If the joining in Dec 1910 is right, then a possibility is that on 2 April 1911 (census date) he may have been stationed elsewhere (needle/haystack) and went to Hillsborough for the first time after that date.

MaxD

[kylemacca007]

I don't have much military knowledge but Dave T on Sheffield indexes has been trying to help me out with this and here's what he posted on the forum if this helps anyone...

Combining information from Medal Cards, CWGC, Military Papers (FindMyPast) and the 1911 census we have found detailed info on two wen who signed up for the RFA in November/December 1910
RFA 63464 (just 6 numbers before your Thomas) was Sidney George Sains who died in WW1. His medal card shows he arrived in France on the same day as Thomas (16.8.14). From his number we can say he signed up within 5 days before Thomas, and most probably in the same place. Sidney was born in Burnham on Crouch, Essex and in the 1911 census was an RFA Gunner in Devon, so he had been posted quite quickly after signing up.
RFA 63502 was Thomas Robert Andrews and importantly his military papers survived. He signed up in LONDON on 29 Dec 1910 (so 28 days and 32 numbers later than your Thomas) and was posted only 2 days later as a Driver to the military establishment at Seaforth (Merseyside).He was born in Fulham and was discharged on 28th March 1911.He can be found at his home in Fulham on the 1911 census.
From this we can interpolate that Thomas McDonald signed up in London on
1.12.10 and was probably very quickly posted somewhere (Hillsborough?),