Military Chat

My relative went AWOL from the 2nd Batt. West Yorkshire Regt aged 19.

He enlisted on 19th June 1885 and went AWOL 21st June 1886 taking all his kit.

I would like to know his punishment if he was caught ?

Did the Army go to any great effort to hunt down deserters as it wasn't war time?

Whether he lived in fear of being recognised ....

Many thanks

Elizabeth

Several sites if you google

NOT a very friendly reply.....WHY bother !

Apologies to everyone else if I have inadvertantly placed a message in the incorrect place.

I could tell you about AWOL 1960s/70s but that's not what you want.

We are amateurs that help each other on here. There maybe no one on here who's looked into this so unable to help you. If you put into Google

British army AWOL the date and punishment

there's lots of sites come up.

That's what Glitter Baby means. There's lots to read about it to help you but you'll have to look for yourself as you know what you are after.

Hope this helps :-)

Thank you.

I had already Googled AWOL in the 1870's. and tried the Yorkshire Regt web site and the Nat. Archives to no avail.

All I could find was current AWOL & subsequent punishments.

I may have misjudged Glitter baby but read the Researching bit and felt a little put off.

Yes I agree, we are amatures BUT i just wondered if anyone else had encountered this issue.

Bye :-)

I know my ancestor unilaterally parted company with the military in the 1870s ... I have been unable to find a record for him in the military records at findmypast (not sure whether 'deserters' are not included in the records)

he did live in fear of being recognised ... changed his name and had nightmares the rest of his life

it actually was fairly common for someone who had left the military under a cloud to rejoin, possibly under a false name, because it could be hard to get employment with the bad military record

I have another ancestor who was discharged at a young age for bad behaviour and his records are at findmypast, showing the offence and punishment ... he did sign right back up under a false name, and the military never put 2 and 2 together, he has two completely separate records

if in fact the army did get hold of your man again, if he turned himself in or was found, there might more likely be a record of him and it would show his punishment

have you tried findmypast?

http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-united-kingdom-records-in-military-armed-forces-and-conflict

presumably you have him in the 1891 census and he is not in the military, and is still going by his own name ...

Hello Elizabeth, a possible source may be the newspaper archives. Could be worth putting his name in just to see if anything does turn up.

Hi Everyone,

Yes I do have the Military record for him from FMP with the AWOL info. but no mention of Punishment just a list of the kit he took.

He came to S.Wales under a new identity and never re enlisted 'til WW1 when he was a Merchant Seaman.

After 20 years his physique would have changed considerably and made him unrecognisable.

I 'm assuming he was extremely fearful of being caught as his Regt was in Yorkshire......he put quite a distance between his dual lives.

In the mid 1900's following his father's death there was some sort of a confession. Some sunsequent children were given the birth surname as a middle name & others used a dual surname on marr. with one son losing the false name completely in 1911.

Sorry to be vague but we have a family member retired from the Army who is having great difficulty with this scenario...understandably. I am treading carefully.

Thank you for your help.....I can assume he would have been haunted by the prospect of bringing shame on his birth family and risking the destruction of his own family. As you say a Nightmare, forever looking behind.....

Many thanks to everyone. I will try the Newspapers just in case there was a "Warning " to potental deserters........I'm assuming is was quite common especially if employment was difficult. My man, thankfully, made a successful life for himself and his family.

Kind regards

:-)

It was a very common occurrence for men to desert - it was a hard life, after all. I know notices were published in the Police Gazette, but I think this was too early for the period your man deserted. If not caught reasonably quickly, i can't imagine anyone would be hunting for him for life. Nothing to be terribly ashamed of, i think

Another helpful comment......thank you annielaurie :-)

I agree and was also going to say - nothing to be ashamed of, and of course if he had not lived his life as he did, his descendants would not be here to try to learn about it!

enrolling in the military could have been a way out of poverty for some, and turned out to be worse than what they were escaping, although perhaps more so in an earlier part of the century

I agree nobody would be hunting for him for life ... but I know in my ancestor's case, he still lived with the fear of it happening all his life ... in his case he had been in the army for several years overseas, and whatever he saw in that time could have been a contributing factor of course ... post-traumatic stress didn't just start last century

Lovely helpful comments from everyone.

I don't think it ruined my relatives life probably gave him the confidence to become the man he was.
In fact when he was in the Merchant Navy in WW1 he enrolled with his NEW names but he used his orig. christian name as a "nick name" with his mates.

I'm very happy with all your comments.
As someone said to me there was no CRIME WATCH in the 1880's so as time went on his chances of capture were lessened.

TTFN :-) :-)