I think I need new specs, Al. I thought it was a fold in the cloth - should have downloaded and enlarged. Still, if you read "warrant officer" instead of officer, I was reasonably close...
Good idea to contact Richard. Pity he only rarely visits the Forum these days.
Hi All.
I've been searching Census records and have found that Alfred was a 'Tailors Apprentice' aged 15 in 1891. Does this spoil the drummer boy theory? I've just read the book Old Soldier, very good insight into life of that time.
Norman
So. Assuming that he joined as an 18 year old, his number should be between say 4200 and 4500, which is close to the 4718 Davies on the China MR. Of course Alfred may have joined a bit later. But what I find hard to believe is that Davies 4718 was a Pte in 1900 and a Sgt in 1902. This leads me to the inevitable conclusion that he (Alfred) served with one of the companies not involved in the Relief of Pekin[g].
A, C, E and later H Coys did the fighting. Of the other coys, which arrived later, F Coy providing the actual Legation Guard from March 1901. That would probably put Alfred in F Coy, where he would have the opportunity to meet an eligible girl and organise a wedding too. Unfortunately I do not have an F Coy muster roll so cannot prove the presence of an A Davies with a number in the expected range and a rank high enough (Cpl or better L/Sgt) to make his presence as a Sgt in 1902 believable.
I hate to throw a spanner in the works, but our uncle has a sword which belonged to Alfred and which came, I believe, from the Boer War. I don't think it carries any inscription, but I'll try to get a photo posted so that you can have a look.
I have also instructed the GRO to conduct a search for Alfred's birth certificate, so then we can confirm whether the Alfred you found in the census, Norman is actually our Alfred.
The GRO indexes are quite tricky because you can't tell from them what the father's name was, they only list the births in alphabetical order for each quarter of the year. Since the marriage cert showed his age as 26y 4m on the 7th Oct 1902, I have asked them to search for an Alfred Davies, whose father was Charles, with a birth date in the second and third quarters of 1876. It would have been so much easier if we'd had an exact birth date.
Here's the sword! It has what appears to be a snakeskin handle, and a brass rivet at the top of the blade, which could have the maker's stamp on it, but it is indecipherable.
I would value the comments of all you military historians.
Looking at other pics, it clearly british. I found an officers one from 1892 with a similar hilt, but the basket was different. Let us now how you get on.
Hi, one of the guys from the sword forum reckons that the sword is an 1821 pattern sword that would have been most likely issued to an NCO in the artillery. I'm not really sure where to go with that information :-)
Another thing that I have heard from a few relatives is that Alfred changed the spelling of his surname from Davis to Davies. I don't know how much truth there is to that rumour, but the marriage certificate showed the surname of Alfred and his father Charles both being Davies.
I'll keep you informed of anything else I come up with.
I think the sword may be a red herring. It's very possibly something Alfred has picked up during his service, soldiers are notorious hoarders of bits of kit that are "shiny shiny". If you can kill someone with it, even better :-) Or....He was a Warrant Officer during his India service, its possible the sword was used in conjunction with that.
Yes, I did wonder if he had "liberated" it from somewhere. Think. I'll have to concentrate on the stuff I know for sure.
I still have a couple of elderly relatives to try, so I'll continue the search for photos, silverware, or ideally some confirmation of his service number.
I'll keep you informed of my progress.
Many thanks for your help and advice so far.
B
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