Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Hi Sue_3, As At Home in NZ has said there is only one James Bainbridge in these records, this one has a father John William Bainbridge of South Shields and a wife Margaret of 11 Price Street, South Shields. He died in 1916 age 31 years which would make his birth year around 1885. He married Margaret Calder Allen in South Shields in Mar qtr. 1906.
You stated that your James Bainbridge was born in Warton in 1878 which could be a James Bainbridge baptised 23 June 1878 in Warton, with a father Jacob and a mother Harriet (mmn Heaps) who were married in 1877 in Lancaster Carnforth. So I cannot see that the one James Bainbridge in the cwgc records is the one you are seeking, of course he could be one of the J Bainbridges. Do you have any more information such as his service number or which unit he served in ?

 

Thank you very much for your help, however this only seems to give 12 results, rather than the 28 I have from my previous search? It's nearly that time again, so I will investigate further over the next couple of days and let you know what I discover.

 

Hi Heather and yes, you are right that my grandmother's elder brother was James the son of Jacob Bainbridge and Harriet nee Heaps. He is my biggest remaining 20th century mystery. He was living with his parents in 1901 and working as a stone mason. I cannot find him in 1911 but his parents said that they had four children still living then and I know who the other three were and where they were (and that all of their other children had already died). I have no other information about James whatsoever and am only going on a family rumour that he may have served and died in WW1. He could equally well have been abducted by aliens, tbh. I went through all of the J Bainbridges that were recorded as having died in WW1 in 2003 and eliminated most of them, but just thought I would have another look to cross check against the 1911 census and other records now available.

 

Ok Sue so just to be clear when you say that in 1911 the parents had four children still living, would that be Winifred, James and two others (maybe Margaret and Jane) ?

 

Yes Heather, that's right.

Margaret Ann (1882-1934) was in Essex visiting the family of the man she was soon to marry (Leonard Cole) - they gave her place of birth as Liverpool but I imagine their knowledge of the geography of Lancashire was a bit lacking. Jane Elizabeth, known as 'Jennie' (1888-1964), had married George Pawsey in 1910 and was in Morecambe - mistranscribed as 'Bawsey' and listed as 'daughter' because the house was actually her parents' usual home. Jacob and Harriet were in Preston, where Jacob was employed at that time, with their youngest daughter Winifred (1897-1950).

The seven children that had died were Isabella (1880-1881), William (1883-1900), Jacob (1885-1885), Harriet (1887-1887), Mary Alice (1890-1890), John (1891-1892) and Gertrude (1893-1893).

My mother said that her mother (Jennie) was one of 13 children. However, only 11 were recorded anywhere - including in their parents own account in the 1911 census - so either the count of 13 was a mistake or the other two were miscarried or stillborn?

So, I believe that James (1878-19??) is the only one unaccounted for in 1911.

 

OK Sue, thanks for that, my word it must have been so hard for Harriet and Jacob to lose all those babies. I did a death search on FreeBMD for James between 1911 and 1978, putting in his birth year and only five James Bainbridge were shown, so if you can work out where James was after 1911 maybe we can eliminate some of these five. I see that Harriet was born in Blackburn which is where my husband is from, I'm from a neighbouring town Darwen. Good luck with your searching.

 

Don't know if everyone is aware that the CWGC website also includes the names of civilians who died in WW2, it gives information about next of kin in some cases, and where lived and where died.

Merchant seamen deaths, from both world wars are also listed, some of these are shown on Ancestry and attributed to CWGC, but when looking for a cousin who died when his ship was torpedoed in WW2 I could only find him on the CWGC website.

To access the non-military records go to the drop down menu 'Served in (army etc.)' on the 'Find war dead' search page. There are also some interesting entries under the 'miscellaneous' selection, entering 'Jones' brought up people from the YMCA, nurses, harbour pilots and a BOAC employee.

 

Thank you so much for this information, I have used the CWGC since 2012 and never noticed these. I think it's because they used to advocate using only one or two fields in order to get the best results therefore I didn't go beyond name and war served in.

Looking at the civilian war dead I used my maternal grandfather's last name and to my surprise I recognised a name. I hastily looked at my tree and found it is a different Alice Maud.

I have seen the civilian war dead books in Ancestry but only because I received a Hint, surprisingly the Hint was correct. The Hints are so often wide of the mark.

 

Yes, it's tragic story but sadly not so unusual at the time. I got all of the death certs in case there was a common cause, but the children all seem to have died of different causes. Perhaps there was an underlying issue though? Possibly weak lungs, as mine nearly carried me off in infancy? Luckily, I was saved by penicillin. I count that, along with being able to get spectacles as a child to correct my multiple sight issues, as one of my greatest blessings.

I have now discovered that James went to Canada in 1906, which would explain why I can't find him in any later UK records. However, I can't find him in any Canadian records either, nor in any USA ones. I noticed that I didn't have his birth certificate, just the baptism, so I've ordered that in case knowing the exact DOB can help to sift anything further out.

I was encouraged to look more closely at migration records after raising the elusive James as a query at last weekend's FHF 'Really Useful FH Show', by the way.

 

The best way to search for CWGC listings at the moment in my biased opinion is via " A Street Near You" mapping project run by my online friend James Morley. Here are all the surname Bainbridge listings for example, and in most cases a link to the IWM Lives of the First World War entry for the soldier. CWGC has acknowledged that they did not test their new format as thoroughly as they should have done prior to launching it.

 

I have found some records for my relative John Winn Blackburn who died 26 March 1918 and has a final resting place in the H.A.C. Cemetery at Ecoust-St. Mein after first being interred in Queant German Cemetery as he was found fatally wounded in a field by German soldiers (as far as I can translate the PoW record that is). I have an idividual grave reference for him (VIII E 1/7) but there is also another reference s/2300/504 and I have no idea what that means or if it is of any significance?

Anyone any ideas?