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With a surname like Smith, I realise this is a long shot, but here goes!
I am looking to discover what happened to my wife's Great Grandfather - MARTIN EDWARD SMITH - born 20 Feb 1889 in Derby to Thomas Joseph Smith and Catherine (Kate) Campbell.
1891 Census - living at #5 Court 4, Wright Street, Derby;
1901 Census - living at 9 Brougham Street, Nottingham;
1911 Census - still living at 9 Brougham Street
Married Eliza Ann Balchin - 7 Aug 1911 @ Nottingham Register Office, using the name EDWARD SMITH, and living at 12 Warren Court, Old Street, Nottingham.
Martin & Eliza had 3 children:
Richard Thomas Smith b. 16 Jan 1912
Elizabeth Ann Smith b. 1913
Mary A R Smith b. 1916
This is where I have hit a brick wall! Martin seems to disappear off the face of the Earth!
Eliza takes another partner - Herbert Radford in approx 1917 - cannot find any Marriage Certificate for this! Goes on to have a further 8 children between 1918 and 1930.
I have checked WW1 records and have found 2 Martin Smiths - one being Martin Edward Smith who served as a Private in the 2nd Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment (#4470). He then went on to serve in the Lincolnshire Regiment (#43267), and then in the Machine Gun Corps (#140868).
The other was a Martin E Smith, who served as a Corporal and Staff Sargeant in the Army Ordnance Corps (later the Royal Army Ordnance Corps) (#01705).
Both appear to have survived WW1, and the latter gentleman ended up in Japan at the time of the 1923 earthquake.
So, I can find no record of Martin Edward Smith's death anywhere, or any divorce papers from Eliza Ann Balchin.
There is a death recorded of a Martin Smith, aged 27 in Chorlton, Lancashire in 1917 (8c 1115), but I believe this to be another Martin Smith , born in Manchester in 1889 (8d 267).
Can anyone help me solve the riddle of our disappearing Great Grandfather please?
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Just to report a bit of progress on this one!
Thanks to some valuable information from a contact on the 'Great War Forum', I have been able to refine my search to Martin Edward Smith who served as a Private in the 2nd Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment (#4470); went on to serve in the Lincolnshire Regiment (#43267), and then in the Machine Gun Corps (#140868).
I now know that he was wounded on the Western Front in March 1916 (reported in the Derby Mercury), and there is a strong possibility that he had also been wounded previously, during his first deployment with the Notts & Derby Regiment in France, during late 1914.
Apparently, he remained in the Army until 1921, and was recorded as living at 10 Finch Street, off Gedling Street, Sneinton in 1928, when he received benefit from the Sherwood Forester's Benevolent Fund.
I believe Finch Street was demolished in the early 1930's, so I'm on his trail from there.
Any further information will be gratefully received!
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