Bedfordshire Regiment

[Ranolki]

Can anyone please point me to any records for this regiment in WWl?  All I have found is a medal record and I'm not sure yet that I have the right person.  I know some records were accidentally destroyed so I'm assuming these may have been some?

I am looking at Anthony Maydwell, number 9869 who served in the second battalion.  This may or not be the person I'm looking for, the record just shows A Maydwell, but the name is unusual so may well be him. His given name at birth was Anthony Atkinson Whitfield. Maydwell was a false name his mother adopted in Australia.  I know that he definitely used that name later in life but he had been using Whitfield prior to going to Australia in 1909 and actually used Anthony I'Anson when he travelled there on the Runic.  Unfortunately the whole family had a history of adopting names! He had been living in Australia but didn't sign up with the AIF and I believe he came back to the UK sometime between 1913/1914, returning to Australia after the war.

[KGarrad]

About two-thirds of the WW1 Service Records were destroyed by a WW2 bombing raid, and subsequent water damage by Fire Brigade etc.

Hardly "accidentally destroyed"?

[AllanUK]

Maydwell with the service number of 9869 is not your man, this man's name is Arthur Robert Maydwell

(snippet image of his entry in the medal rolls courtesy of Ancestry)

[Ranolki]

Thanks for that, AllanUK.  I was hopeful I'd found him but that definitely says I haven't!  He's a very elusive chappie one way and the other.  Back to the drawing board...

[ALAMO2008]

He was born 9 June 1887 as Anthony Atkinson Whitfield to unmarried Christina Whitfield and Registered
September Quarter 1887 Auckland Co Durham Vol 10a page 171
His Mother married Police Constable William L'Anson 24 June 1889 in Stockton on Tees
They had a Daughter Irene 1889 and a Son William C
Their 1891 Census in Stockton on Tees does not include Anthony
But the 1901 Census in Wednesbury Staffordshire shows 13 year old Anthony under his Step Father's Surname L'Anson as his Son with his Siblings
His Step Father and his Mother Divorced about 1907 and she went to Australia probably with Anthony
The 1914 Voters for Victoria Australia has Anthony Atkinson Maydwell
There is no Evidence he came back to UK and went back to Australia
There are Voters Lists in Subsequent Years in Victoria until he Death in Victoria 12 December 1956
 as Anthony S L'Anson

[Ranolki]

Thanks for that.  Anthony is an enigma all round!  He went to Birmingham University at 16 and didn't go with the rest of his family to New Zealand in 1905, although he arrived alone in Melbourne in 1909 and was with them when they moved to Sealake in Victoria soon afterwards. He seems to have been very much a loner and moved around quite a lot.  As you say, he appears in various electoral rolls after around 1917 and worked as a labourer and farmer.  He finally died alone in his hut in Rosewhite.  His younger brother William (by then known as Ian Christian Maydwell) was his executor.

I have nothing now to say he served in the Forces either via the AIF or in the British Army.  His age was right to sign up and his two younger brothers did so.  His birth surname was Whitfield (his mother's maiden name) and as far as I can tell William I'Anson wasn't his father although he seems to have supported him throughout once he appeared on the scene. He did use the I'Anson surname sometimes and also his mother's later adopted surname of Maydwell so I have to check various options, especially as I'Anson is often wrongly written as Janson and other variants!  I think he was probably quite secretive and eccentric so I may never be able to find more...