General Chat

Some of these are born post 1916 although not unheard of! This is for the marriageArthur Charles Smith 1903 Oct-Nov-Dec Rochford Essex

Births 1866-1920 : smith Records 1 - 5 of 5



Name Mother's Maiden Name District Page Quarter Year View Image Add Comment View Comment
SMITH Arthur Baker Rochford.4a 1386 2 1915
SMITH Aubrey J Baker Rochford.4a 1231 4 1916
SMITH Betty B Baker Rochford.4a 1510 3 1920
SMITH Doris E Baker Rochford.4a 1325 4 1912
SMITH Phyllis A Baker Rochford.4a 1357 1 1915



Records 1 - 5 of 5

And these if he married the Playle woman

Name Mother's Maiden Name District Page Quarter Year View Image Add Comment View Comment
SMITH Edith F E Playle Maldon.4a 982 3 1918
SMITH Ernest W Playle Maldon.4a 1482 3 1912

Some potential possibilities have loads of results I am afraid. You really need the 1911 census results to see if he was married.

Sorry can be of no further use to you. Hope all goes well and that you do indeed find someone out there who is descended from Arthur Charles Smith.

Good luck

Jane

Susan, It's definitley Arthur Charles Smith - so it can't be AF Smith.

Anne, if you are going to the National Records Office and are able to get our man's records and copy them I would be grateful and would certainly cover any costs you have in doing so.

The rest of you, thanks ever so much for generating this information. Although a lot of it doesn't fit now, it may do later.

Try asking on the 1914-18 forums - they're very knowledgeable, and may be able to find something in miitary records for you.

http://www.1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/

Just so you can rule him out, I found Private 12598 Arthur Charles Smith from 77 Mount Pleasant, Halstead, Essex, among the pension records on Ancestry. He was 38 when he joined up in 1914, married, with children Ivy Lily, Hilda Florence (deceased) and Arthur Charles, and was still alive at the end of the war.

You could also try downloading his medal card from the National Archives: they have very little information, but they do give the service number, the places where they served, and (if I remember rightly) the date of death:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/medals.asp

Hi Gyn (and Hi Susan!)
I was very interested to read your posts as my grandfather was a Sgt Major in the 4th Hussars, and my father served in Ireland after the uprising until independance.
xxx Mick

I was a bit horrified to find out that my maternal great-uncle served in Ireland in 1916, because my paternal ancestors were Irish... I hope they didn't end up fighting against one another.

Its possible - but I dont think my father saw much action whilst he was over there. He is one of the soldiers in a famous newsreel showing the British marching out of Dublin Castle - he used to be able to point himself out to me in the movie!

You said I found Heybridge Industrial Estate on Google Earth so I reckoned it must have been swallowed up by Maldon. The girl on the Gazette though had never heard of it and she was with the paper for 40 years (and has just retired).!!!!!!!!
There is no "Maldon Gazette" newspaper, though there IS an Evening Gazette which covers the Maldon area as well as Colchester. The more local Maldon paper is a weekly called the Maldon Standard. I can assure you that reporters on both the Gazette and the Standard know all about Heybridge which is a parish in its own right, population about 8000, next to Maldon, complete with Parish council, Parish church, primary school, shopping centre and industrial estate. Happenings within Heybridge are regularly reported in both papers and businesses, including those on the industrial estate advertise there -indeed I remember seeing the request for help in finding this man.

Did the "of Heybridge" reference come from his service papers" I guess that could just mean he was living here (yes HERE - I live in Heybridge!) when he enlisted. I see that there was a birth of the right name registered in the Maldon district in 1881 but he is probably the one shown as born in Purleigh, living in Mundon (villages a few miles away on the other side of Maldon) on the 1891 census.

OK Glyn - I ll have a look for his service records at National Archives. I just hope they've survived!

Judith. I've now corrected all errors and omissions (to the best of my knowledge) from my original post. So we can gloss over all of that. Except to say that - there is no such paper as the Maldon Standard either. It is the "Maldon and Burnham Standard" (:D) The item appeared on Wednesday 20th June, page 10, and took up over half the page with the headline "Battle To Honour Soldier's Memory".

Thie information we have on him came from his death certificate and MIC (that's "medal index card" for the person who suggested we try and find it). We also have the reference in the 1916 Rebellion Handbook and eyewitness accounts held at Trinity College Dublin although they are to do with his demise rather than where he came from.

It's nice to find someone who finally acknowledges that Heybridge exists. As previously stated, we could not find it on Google Earth and Gill Mariner from the Standard had never heard of it. You must bear in mind that we of the frozen north are trusting people in the affluent south to give us the correct information and can only quote what we have been told.

We know for a fact that he was born in Heybridge, enlisted in Colchester and died in Dublin. The lcoal history society in Maldon has not come up with anything else other than a tree exists in the Avenue of Remembrance with a brass plaque thereon, in memory of AC Smith. No other info has been given.

If you are able and willing to shed any further light on siblings, or any of his (or his family's) descendants. We would be very grateful.

It would be just lovely to find someone who has his picture and perhaps his possesions. Something to let us paint a picture of the man. What was he like, why was he in Dublin when the regiment was in Flanders - had he been wounded? Was he just on a lucky posting?

So many questions to ask. Of course, any living relatives may also wish to join us in Dublin on 17th November.

The Standard posted a follow up on Friday 6th July.

Link here: http://www.maldonandburnhamstandard.co.uk/search/display.var.1527685.0.200_more_needed_for_memorial_to_pt_smith.php

Nudge for evening crew

Keeping everything crossed for you to find someone to claim him as their own.

That's what this site is all about.

xx

Kitty, it looks like (from your PM's) that you have found just that person. An e-mail has been sent and if successful will have me bounding around the room like a kangaroo (as much as a 48 year old kangaroo caqn actually bounce).

I have this feeling we are on the verge of success and if so I will ensure I mention all of this to the Maldon & Burnham Standard and make sure they know the final link came from this site.

It's so wonderful to find such nice people.

Very pleased to help...............pure luck on my part.

I have everything crossed for you now! :))

xx

Yes Glen, the paper used to be the Maldon and Burnham Standard but now has two separate editions the Maldon Standard and the Burnham Standard, I am secretary of the parochial church council for St Andrew's church, Heybridge. On the 20th of this month we have a gift day in church with our parish registers on display so will gladly look to see if there is mention of this man being baptised in the parish church, or of any other Smiths who might be relatives. I see the 1901 census has just 8 people called Smith born in Heybridge so hopefully any of that name I find have a strong chance of being related..

You'll have to forgive me Judith, I was quoting direct from the newspaper itself. I didn't think for one minute they'd get their own title wrong. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b231/GDavies/NewspaperReport.jpg

As it transpires, we now believe he may have married an Emily Mary Youlden. It would likely be their children we are seeking now. Any ideas?

Glyn I wish you all good luck for Private Smith, God rest his soul,


Caz x

Thanks Caz. Very kind of you.