Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I am trying to find a death in 1918, possibly in Russia. Do any of the commercial sites list overseas BMD? The name I am after is Riddle, reputed to have died on 19 March 1918, but not found in England/Wales or in war deaths.
Any help would be most welcome.
Daggers

Googled, although it hasn't got me very far except to the British Embassy Moscow site. Obviously the information given is for nowadays but if you contacted them would they be willing to advise you?

Thank you, Mary. I shall try that, but in the meantime found I had some credits left with the FMP site, which I had forgotten. This gave me a look at several pages of overseas deaths, but with no success.
D

Any luck D with Mormons site?

Tina

Tina
I found only a member-submitted entry for this chap's birth and christening, in Russia, in 1892.
Closer family have him down as killed in March 1918 but have assumed that he was in the War, but I and others have failed to find any trace of him in war files, and I have lately found Russian links, though he was probably educated in UK.
On we go!
D

For his death to be recorded in the GRO Consular Death Indices someone would have had to go to the British Consul wherever it happened in Russia. I think this would have been very difficult in 1918. If he died in Russia I would suggest it's more likely he was just buried there and possibly his family were notified at sometime in the future.

If he had relatives in the UK it might be worth checking loal papers of the time to see if his death is reported. Another possibility is that his death could be recordwed on a relative's gravestone. I have come across this a few times with people who died elsewhere but are remembered on the stone but not buried there.

The other question would be what was he doing in Russia at that time? he presumably wasn't in the forces as he would appear in the war dead. Does he appear on the National Archives?
How about shipping lists?

Hilary
Ed Officer

Thanks for these thoughts.
I agree completely about the Russian situation. The wider family had had long links with Russia, and the 1918 'death' was a son of a British Anglican parson who had been in charge of a church, in a town where there were strong Welsh industrial interests until the revolution. The father had died there in 1911. I think the son was born in Russia.
I have just found that some documents, and possibly the registers of that church are in the Glamorgan Record Office [not online], so that will be the next target.
This is all to do with a family I am linked to but with no blood connection, so on behalf of 'that lot', many thanks for all the interest.
D

Is this your man?

I found his name from www.familysearch.org and then googled him and this came up on the Candaian site

In memory of
Private
GALFRID JULIAN RIDDLE
who died on November 6, 1917



Military Service:
Service Number: 850347
Age: 25
Force: Army
Unit: Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment)
Division: "C" Coy. 3rd Bn.
Additional Information:
Eldest son of the Rev. A. J. Riddle and Mary, his wife, of "Arncot," Alexandra Rd., Watford, Herts. Born at Cronstadt, Russia. Educated at Colet Court and St. Paul's School, London.
Commemorated on Page 316 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

There is a digital photo collection relating to GALFRID JULIAN RIDDLE.

Burial Information:
Cemetery:
POELCAPELLE BRITISH CEMETERY
Belgium

Grave Reference: XI. D. 5.

Location:
POELCAPELLE BRITISH CEMETERY is located 10 Km north east of Ieper town centre on the Brugseweg (N313), a road connecting Ieper to Brugge.Two streets connect Ieper town centre onto the Brugseweg; Torhoutstraat leads from the market square onto the Kalfvaartstraat. At the end of Kalfvaartstraat is a large junction on which Brugseweg is the first right hand turning.
The cemetery itself lies 10 Km along the Brugseweg on the right hand side of the road after passing through the village of Poelcapelle.

Information courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.


Hilary
Ed Officer

PS he appears on www.cwgc.org as well

If Galfrid is your man - his Canadian Attestation paper is on Ancestry BUT he says he was born in Baltimore USA!!!!

Hilary
Ed Officer

That is he/him! amazing! My cousin who is the one closest to this quest will be knocked out when I pass that on. I shall look up his Canadian records later, but half time will be ending and Liverpool need to get a goal quickly.
D

Hilary
Very many thanks for digging all that out. I have managed to find Galfrid's army attestation papers, showing his 'wrong' place of birth, and a slightly different date of birth from one found elsewhere. Is this a black sheep, or was Russia a bad place to be naming when enlisting?
I see his full papers are available but will leave that to my cousin who did not know the true spelling of 'Galfrid', nor the Canadian link, and not much about the Russian link either. He also had the date of death wrong, so all this combined to blur the picture, but is now almost full.

Daggers