Where was Harold Duncan Balfour born?
QI’m trying to trace the family history of my grandfather, Harold Duncan Balfour. The earliest record we have found for him is in the 1881 census, when he was two years old, and a boarder in the house of the Birdwood family in South Gloucestershire. Christopher Birdwood, head of the household, was a retired officer of the Bombay Regiment, while his wife, two daughters (Annie and Sophia) and a niece were born in India.
On 1 February 1900, Harold married my grandmother, Ethel Maria Collingwood in Bournemouth. His rank was “Lieutenant, South Staffordshire Regiment”. His father is listed as James Balfour, deceased.
When my father, Harold Ivor Collingwood Balfour, was born on 25 July 1901 they were living in a house in Bournemouth owned by a Colonel Bayly. Harold gives his occupation as “Lieutenant South Staffordshire Militia (Retired)”. With so many military links, was Harold born to a military family, possibly in India? Anthony John Balfour
AYour grandfather appears in the 1891 census as a pupil at a school in Bristol, and in 1901 with his wife and her parents in Hither Green, Kent (now in the London borough of Lewisham). The official London Gazette dated 8 November 1907 states that Second Lieutenant Harold D Balfour had resigned his commission.
In both of those censuses, and in records of trips to the USA in 1908, 1909 and 1910, Harold’s birthplace is given as Edinburgh, Scotland. I looked for his birth using the Scotlands-People website ( scotlandspeople.gov.uk), but could find nothing.
I wondered what Harold’s link to the Birdwood family might be, so I used the records in the ‘British India Office Collection’ at Findmypast ( findmypast. co.uk), and there found information on the marriages of General Birdwood’s two daughters. Annie Travers Birdwood married Colonel Frederic Jolliffe Bayly, while Sophia Josephine Birdwood married Rev Charles Antony Willcocks.
Searching Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk) for records of a Harold Duncan and leaving out the surname produced a Harold Duncan Bayly baptised in the parish of St Marylebone, London, on 12 December 1878 with parents Frederic Jollife and Annie Travers Bayly. Harold’s date of birth is given as 15 November 1878. Frederic and Annie’s marriage did not take place until 29 November 1887.
The reason is that Colonel Bayly was already married. Frederic had married Mary Maskell in Newton Abbot, Devon, in 1849, who didn’t die until November 1885. If you Google “Mary Bayly” and “Bath Archives”, you’ll find information on her burial in Smallcombe Cemetery compiled and published by Bathwick Local History Society.
Since there is no sign of a Harold Duncan Bayly after 1878, it looks very much as if Harold Duncan Balfour is not the son of a James Balfour (deceased), but of Frederic and Annie Bayly. In the 1909 passenger list, his nearest relative or friend in the UK is given as Mrs Bayly, Scarborough Grange, Bournemouth. That would also explain why Harold and Ethel were living in Colonel Bayly’s house in 1901.
You were certainly right that Harold was born into a military family. Not only was his father a colonel but his paternal grandfather was Colonel
Sir Henry Bayly and his maternal grandfather was General Christopher Birdwood, who served in India from 1825 to 1870, again according to the ‘British India Office Collection’. You can find a photograph of him online through a Google search. He was the son of Peter Birdwood, a major in the Plymouth Volunteers and an agent for the East India Company, according to his entry in The Peerage ( thepeerage. com/p14261.htm).
Alan Stewart
QMy grandfather was in the 9th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade during the First World War, and I found this photo among the pictures of him. I have no idea who is depicted, but in his diary from the time he lists “Corporal Janatt – 5th Dorset, Corporal Gurmonk – 2nd Cavalry Division, Private Kerr – c/o DADRT BEF, Sergeant Ladd – 5th Rifle Brigade Minster and Alfonso Henry, Brigadier – 4e Artillery 56th Brig”. Could it be them?
Brenda Berrill
AThis is a casual group photograph of an officer and four other ranks, at least one in the Rifle Brigade, probably from early 1915.
I doubt it includes the individuals mentioned in your grandfather’s diary.
They may be identifiable using the Medal Index Cards (MICs) and medal rolls, available on Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk). MICs can also be downloaded from The National Archives’ site at tinyurl.com/TNAfreeMICs.
There’s no MIC for Corporal Janatt, but there’s one for Corporal Thomas Jarratt, West Riding Regiment and Dorset Regiment, whose medal roll shows him finally serving in the 5th Dorsets as an acting colour sergeant.
Similarly, there’s no MIC for Corporal Gurmonk, but there is one for Corporal Daniel
Gorman. He served in France from 15 June 1915 with the 15th Hussars, which was part oof thehe 2nd Cavalrylry Division.s
For Private Kerr, “DADRT” means deputy assistant director, Rail Transport; “BEF” means the British Expeditionary Force. He’s probably in the Royal Engineers (Railways and Waterways) in France, and his MIC should have “RW” written before his number.
The medal roll for Sergeant Thomas Henry Ladd shows that he served in the 9th Rifle Brigade in France.
Brigadier is a very high rank. The rank was probably bombardier, a Royal Artillery rank. There’s no Bombardier Alfonso Henry, but an MIC for Bombardier Arthur Sydney
Henry shows that he went to France on 11 December 1915; 156 Brigade arrived in France on 12/13 December 1915.
Phil Tomaselli