Advice please- buying military medals & military uniform identification

[Jebber]

Two chevrons points down on upper arm a Corporal, a single chevron for  a Lance Corporal. So the photo was taken earlier, unless of course he misbehaved and was demoted, but that would have been noted in his records.

[Ayashi]

Aha, thank you!

He certainly looks older than 22 though...

The interesting thing about the lc is that it is noted in the box labelled "promotions and reductions", but obviously added later on because it is written squidged in above his Corporal entry at the top of the space. It isn't mentioned at all in his service rank/company/conduct box, which only notes him as a Private until he becomes a Corporal.

My aunt is going to send the photo to my great uncle, although how long that will take and if he'll have any idea I don't know.

[Ruskie]

A guess at his age: early 30s (looking at his face and ignoring the receding hairline)
Height: I think he is a short man. 5’ 3” ish. (Determined due to his head being proportionately large for his body.)

I can understand your determination to solve this mystery Ayashi. It’s intriguing. 

[T1]

The interesting thing about the lc is that it is noted in the box labelled "promotions and reductions", but obviously added later on because it is written squidged in above his Corporal entry at the top of the space. It isn't mentioned at all in his service rank/company/conduct box, which only notes him as a Private until he becomes a Corporal.

This may be because lance corporal was not a full rank but an 'acting' position, at least that was the case in the army at the time, so probably the same in the RMLI.  The full 'rank' of a lance corporal was private.

Well, it seems like if the photo is your man, it must have been taken around 1885.  So the question is could he be an old-looking 22 or 23 year old.  Personally, if you look past his hair at his face I would say yes it's possible.

[Ayashi]

Thank you both.

According to his file, Theophilus was 5' 8, but then again his date of birth doesn't match his birth certificate and he manages to have blue eyes in 1882 and hazel eyes in 1890. 

[Sandblown]

Long Shot: If the height of the table and chair in the Photograph, can be estimated, then it might be possible to determine the height of the male subject.

[Ayashi]

Hmm... (Suddenly I feel all CSI! I bet the cast of the shows could tell you what he had for breakfast...)

The top photo in Cathy's link ( https://www.soldiersofthequeen.com/Canada-DukeofWellingtonsAlbumGroup.html ) is the same set-up, although the chap there is sitting down and it doesn't mention his height. Even if we knew how tall he was, I'm not sure how easily we'd be able to determine the height of the chair. I'll see if I can find out...

[Sandblown]

I had a quick look, on various Online Sites, that were selling Antique Victorian Chairs, and the seat heights varied from an average of 18" to 24" (As His height was 5’8", I'll stick to Imperial Measure). I'll leave it to You, to appraise the CSI 

ADD: The Chair Back's, seem to average around 30" to 32" in height, measured from ground, and some Chair Seat heights can be as low as 16".

[Ayashi]

Thank you Sandblown.

The world's worst detective has determined thus:

Comparing the height of the seat (which appears to be approx 1.5ft as predicted, although two different chairs), the height of the chair back (which I'd noted as approx 3ft before I saw your edit) and, assuming it is the same room as it appears to be, the height of the floor to the wall pattern and approx height of the table I think we work out at 5'8 - 5'9 approximately even after the most imprecise measuring tactic possible.

Comparing with John NURSE (5ft 6 1/2 aged 18) was going to be even more impractical, especially given that he's sitting down. I charitably added a smidgen to make him 5'7 and loosely plotted his height, which took several attempts but my final one did work out Theo as 5ft 8. I think that one could really be up for interpretation though, I'd get different results from different attempts until the end of time.

All in all though, I'm fairly confident that our photo guy is not a short fella at least. Maybe I should go to his grave and tell him Ruskie says he has a big head