UK Census for Army Barracks

[AndyJ]

While researching the wherabouts of a family member at the time of the 1891 Census, one particular result on FMP took me to a page of the census return for the Norfolk Regiment, at that time stationed in Norwich. It turned out not to be the person I was searching for, but I was intrigued to see how the rank and file soldiers were recorded in the 'relation to head of household' column (see the picture). While some officers and Senior NCOs appear as Head, the privates appear as 'son'. I can find nothing to indicate whether this was the official procedure or if this was some sort of local initiative. I have never seen anything similar with regard to other institutions such as hospitals, workhouses and boarding schools. My understanding is that these institutional forms are filled out by the head of the establishment (or someone to whom the task has been delegated), and are not the enumerator's version. The front page of this particular record was signed by the Orderly Officer of the day, as being a true record.

Has anyone else come across this phenomenon?
http://img178.imagevenue.com/img.php?im ... 2_88lo.jpg

[Bertieone]

Relationship column normally left blank.

Though some RSM's used to say "I'm your mother now"

[MaryA]

I often imagine the enumerators at the end of a long day with the prospect of an evening re-writing all those pages trying to make sense of them all, probably first puts his feet up with a glass of beer, and I'm not the slightest bit surprised that a few mistakes creep in, particularly when only the top word is written and the rest "dittoed".

Did you check the page before or after to see what they said?

[AndyJ]

Hi Mary,

Yes the other pages were similar, in that they tended to have multiple 'heads' followed by quite a few 'sons'. Early pages included real families who were presumably living in the barracks, so there was the odd wife and daughter, along with at least one niece. I am assuming these were real relationships, which makes the others, such as a colour sergeant appearing as 'head' followed by possibly a platoon's worth of private soldiers as his 'sons', most strange. As Bertie says, in my experience that column usually just shows the Head of the institution with the other entries blank where an institutions census form is used.
Here's a link to the front page http://img146.imagevenue.com/img.php?im ... _111lo.jpg which seems to suggest that the Regiment's Colour Sergeant Orderly Room Clerk (today he would be known as the Chief Clerk) completed the form (probably from his paper records) and it was checked by the district registrar and found correct, so no enumerator involved.

Both the image above and the one linked to in my opening post are Crown Copyright and are used here in accordance with the section 29 fair dealing exception and the Open Government Licence v3