36 replies to this topic

[Phil Evans]

Raymond Seaton Taylor, Gunner 625918 Honourable Artillery Company was discharged to pension 16/12/18 due to TB aggravated by service. He died 12/4/19, but as I haven’t got his DC yet, I can’t confirm cause of death.

He was a solicitor from the Bromley, Kent area and thanks to Kent Fallen, I have ascertained that his name appears on at least three memorials in the area.

His records survive in both WO 363 and WO 364.

I can’t find him on CWGC and assuming no-one else can, I’ll take it that he is a possible non-comm, subject to info from his DC.

Has IFCP picked him up?

Phil

[John Hartley]

If you contact Terry Denham through the IFCP website, he'll be able to check if we have him already.

My guess is that, as he's a post discharge case, we're unlikely to have come across him. Cause of death will be crucial to link to cause of disharge.

John

[Phil Evans]

Thanks John,

I'll drop Terry a line.

Do you know how the cogs are turning at the MoD and CWGC at the moment?
The last case I submitted was at the beginning of May this year and I haven't heard a dickey-bird so far. That was a post dicharge case with cause of death due to TB.

Phil

[John Hartley]

Seems to have been slower in recent months but has picked up again of late. I have sense post discharge tend to take longer - I guess there needs to be consultations to agree that cause of death is linked. Or similar.

John

[Phil Evans]

I've been in contact with Terry who has confirmed that he is not on the IFCP's books.

I'll order the DC and see how it goes from there.

Phil

[Neil Clark]

Phil,

If you want full size copies of any work on kentfallen, just ask. This man is obviously of interest to us because he's a Kent man. Glad you found the site helpful. We are convinced that there are tens of thousands of similar CIVIC war memorial non-coms waiting to be found throughout the country not just Kent. Most of these forgotten souls will not "flag up" on IFTC's excellent project. I found 13 on ONE single civic tribute (Ashford) which as far as I'm aware is still a record.

Shows how important these civic tributes are and the need to properly protect & maintain them. We often find badly dilapidated village/parish and town civic memorials where the names have been allowed to completely disappear! They are lost forever!!!

Good work finding this chap. Keep looking...
All the very best.
Neil

[Phil Evans]

Neil,

An excellent site that I refer to often.

It was thanks to the excellent quality of the photos that I found his name inscribed on three of the Bromley area memorials: Shortlands, Shortlands (St Mary's) and Bromley.

Lewisham is my usual hunting ground. One success (Lee) and one under consideration (Catford). But as you say, there are many more out there.

Phil

[Phil Evans]

The DC arrived yesterday and as you'll see from the transcript below, it looks like there are good grounds for putting him forward.

Registration District: Bromley
Sub-district: Beckenham in the County of Kent

Date of Death: Twelfth April 1919

Place of Death: Birch Cottage, Shortlands Road, Beckenham UD

Name: Raymond Seaton Taylor

Sex: Male

Age: 35 years

Occupation: Solicitor. Ex-Gunner 625918, Honourable Artillery Company

Cause of Death: (i) Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Certified by C. E. M. Lewis MD Contab

Informant: F. Sherwood Taylor. Brother. In attendance. Birch Cottage, Shortlands Road, Shortlands

Date Registered: Fifteenth April 1919

Registrar: C Ernest Manger  Registrar



Chris, if you're following this thread, I haven't done anything on locating his grave yet. First port of call, I imagine, is one of the Bromley cemeteries. Do you have any contacts there? £36 a search is beyond my budget. I've just given them £60 for my wife's minor traffic violation.

Phil

[chrisharley9]

As I remember Bromley give me the cold shoulder when trying to find the Brookwood lads so sorry mate, but the £36 pound charge applies to me as well.

Chris

[Phil Evans]

Thanks Chris,

It was worth a try.

Being a solicitor and his brother an Oxford graduate, there should be something in the papers when I can get to Bromley Library.

Otherwise I'll be tramping some new cemeteries this winter.

Phil

[Neil Clark]

An unusual case where a local solicitor served in the ranks and not as an officer. I may be wrong but I think I remember reading that members of the HAC were often well educated professionals and that it wasn't unusual to find members of the "gentry" serving in this mob among the ranks.

[chrisharley9]

From the Times of 14th April 1919. Does not really add much info of use

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[Phil Evans]

Neil,

I found him while working on a thread on another forum. He was one of a batch enlisting in December 1915 (to beat conscription?). This lot were generally clerks, civil servants etc.


Chris,

Thanks for the Times entry. I hadn't got round to looking there. I'm trying to talk the wife into going through the local papers at Bromley Library in the hope of an obituary / funeral notice that will pin down which cemetery to start looking in.

Time and energy permitting, I would like to get his submission done in the next couple of weeks.

Phil

[chrisharley9]

Phil

just having some thoughts. As I remember his address was up in Highgate; do we have anything on his NOK. May be worth me checking north of the river

Chris

[Susan F]

Sorry to butt in.

Neil,
Having read this I have made some of my photographs of West Kent name panels available via Flickr. They cover several wars, so perhaps a direct post on GWF is not allowed. The link can be copied from the KentFallen guestbook.
Susan_F.

[chrisharley9]

Well he is not in any of Camden & Islington Council's cemeteries. Have found out that his address is very near Highgate Cemetery so am giving them a try

Chris

[Phil Evans]

Thanks Chris,

I assume you worked on the Lissenden Mansions address on his attestation.

I've scoured through all his service records for addresses this evening. His wife appears to have come from Keynsham, near Bristol. 1911 they are in the St Albans area.

I still think that Bromley is the strongest choice. Seaton Taylor & Co. of Grays Inn Square seems to be a family firm, run by his father, Seaton Frank Taylor. 1901 the family are in Bickley and all the children were born Shortlands, except the youngest, Frank, who was born Bickley.

By the way, his grandfather was "the late Surgeon-General, John Robert Taylor CB FRCS sometime attached to the 58th Regiment"

Let me know how you get on at Highgate. As you say, it's not far away.

Phil

[chrisharley9]

Sorry Phil no trace at Highgate

Chris

[Phil Evans]

Thanks for trying Chris,

It looks like it's my turn to do the leg work now.

Phil

[Phil Evans]

Raymond Seaton Taylor
Extract from the Bromley and District Times.
Published Friday 25th April 1919

Readers will have noticed with very great regret, the announcement in our obituary column last week of the death of Mr Raymond Seaton Taylor, son of Mr and Mrs Seaton Taylor, of Birch Cottage, Shortlands.
Born at Shortlands in 1883, Mr Seaton Taylor was educated at Cheltenham College, afterwards taking up the law as his profession and entering his father’s office as a solicitor. In 1910 he married Miss Nellie Domitt of Keynsham, Wilts.
Early in 1917 he joined the Honourable Artillery Company and in July went to France as a gunner. While with his battery at St Julien near Ypres, he was gassed and later contracted tuberculosis, from which he died on April 12th after an illness of four months.
He leaves a widow and one son.

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[Ed Woods]

Is there a funeral notice in the paper?

[Phil Evans]

Hello Ed,

Unfortunately not. That's what I was hoping for as I still haven't located which cemetery he is buried in. The notice in the previous week's edition was very brief, much the same as the Times announcement that Chris posted.

I didn't have time (wife giving me the hurry up)to go through the other papers they have on microfilm at Bromley Library.

Phil

[Ed Woods]

In case you havn't found this - National Probate Calendar - TAYLOR Raymond Seaton of 5 Grays Inn-square, Middlesex, gunner H.A.C. attached R.H.A. died 12 April 1919 at Birch Cottage Shortlands Kent  Probate London 25 June to Harriet Ellen Taylor widow, Effects £1614 5s 10d.

He was born 11th August 1883 and christened on the 7th October 1883 at Shortlands, Kent son of Seaton Frank Taylor and Helen Sennerth.

[Phil Evans]

Thanks Ed,

No I hadn't got them.

I really should get into the habit of checking all the Historical Records.

Phil

[Phil Evans]

I finally got myself organised and RST's file is now in the hands of the CWGC, ready to go to the MoD.

I still haven't made the second trip to Bromley Library though.

Phil