Essex Regiment 1st Battalion - John E Barnes

[Droocoo]

Excellent thank you so much! Actually when I can get to a computer with a larger screen, I will identify him and circle him 

[Matlock1418]

On 29/06/2014 at 15:59, chids said:

my great grandfather John Edwin Barnes

On 17/08/2019 at 15:09, chids said:

One of my “Heroes” and Favourite Ancestors the fourth in my series of blogs about my 8 great-grandparents The Life and Times of John Edwin Barnes

https://chiddicksfamilytree.wordpress.com/2019/08/17/the-life-and-times-of-john-edwin-barnes/

There was naturally an aftermath to his death - some detail is shown on pension index cards now available from WFA/Fold3

Don't know if you have seen this ??

Pte. John Edwin BARNES, 8987, Essex Regt.

Image thanks to WFA/Fold3

I like to offer some interpretation when posting such cards and I think it adds interest - well I hope it does for you [apologies in advance if you already know all this!]

Much is self-explanatory, however ...

His widow, Lizzie BARNES, made a Dependants' claim for a war pension for herself and for a pension allowance for her child under the prevailing 1915 Royal Warrant and later change to the 1917 RW is also reflected on this card.

This pension index card was in the soldier’s name and there was another briefer card in the widow’s name so they could be cross-referenced/accessed.  These came from/lead to a ledger page(s) via the claim case references and then to an awards file. Unfortunately, the ledger is lost [probably destroyed] and the awards file probably deliberately destroyed once its use was passed [as was the common case]

The date of birth, 21.8.89, is his widow’s - required because her pension could be age-related/supplemented if initially she was >35 or later >45 [which she obviously was not]. Such an age banding of pension is believed to address the less likely possibility of re-marriage with increasing age.

The standard pension paid to his widow as a Pension Class V soldier / Private was initially 15/- pw from 15.11.15 [10/- for widow plus 5/- for child per week] and later raised to 18/9 per week from 28.5.17 by the subsequent 1917 RW [13/9- plus 5/- pw] - there usually was an approx. 6 month gap between death and paying of a pension - in the meantime standard Separation Allowances [SA] continued to be paid so, unlike what many observers think when they first see such a card, there was not a complete absence of monies in the intervening period]. 

Separation Allowance - A portion of a soldier's pay which was matched by the government and sent to his dependants to make sure they were not left destitute while he was on active service.  SA were often more generous than pensions and children’s allowances because a wife had to maintain a home in the same level of comfort as before ready for her husband’s return whilst a widow did not have such a need and costs – after all, apparently, she could then cut back and down-size her home!  SA marked on the card was typically for the number of chidren shown - one in this case.

The child's allowance(s) was paid to their mother, typically until they reached 16 when such payments ceased [occasionally up to 21 if they were in some form of further vocational training or sometimes if they had impairment/disability] - then the child would certainly be expected to go out to work to earn their keep. Or paid until the earlier death of a child. 

We can see that his widow remarried [becoming Lizzie ENSUM] at which point her pension ceased and she got a one-off lump-sum re-marriage gratuity - as seen referred to on the card.  The child's allowance would continue to be paid to her once the SA ceased [I am somewhat puzzled by the entry on the card since this remarriage to Labour Corps Pte Frederick Henry ENSUM, of 607 Employment Coy, Eastern Command Depot, Shoreham, took place in 1917, quite some time after the SA from the child's father would normally have ceased - one wonders if ENSUM was perhaps subsequently paying SA for her ??]

N/N is thought to mean 'Noted for Novel' i.e. special treatment/calculation.

50F is Form 50F used to cease the Separation Allowance and start the pension.

DEAD indicates the claim became dead eventually - likely because her child reached 16 in 1927.

There a few other pensions admin. annotations but probably not now of much significance really.

I hope of interest.

M

Addit: There is a MIC for Pte Frederick H ENSUM, 15507, Essex Regt. and 231916, Labour Corps [rather looks like a downgrading of medical category occurred] - transferred to the Army Z Reserve 2-3-19.  There is a further pension index card showing he was seemingly temporarily awarded 7/10 pw from 3.3.19 to 2.3.20 [the quantum shows it was for himself and one child at the man's 20% degree of disability rate]  Living at 30 Cotton St, Poplar. This Z Reserve would not have been incompatible with a pension for a relatively minor condition which had a reasonable expectation of getting better in a short/say in 12 month period (which was a quite common award period) - they could have easily hauled him back and reevaluated if necessary, which fortunately for him and the Nation it wasn't]

Edited 21 July , 2023 by Matlock1418
typo

[chids]

I am completely lost for words! Each time I think I have found everything there is to know about my great-grandfather John Edwin Barnes, I am blown away by something new. Thank you so much for this Matlock, not only for providing the copy of the pension record but for providing such a detailed explanation of the various terms and codes used on the index card. it would have been impossible for me to be able to decipher all of this. The majority of this is new information and it's so helpful to have your detailed explanations and interpretations. 

Fred Ensum and Lizzie went on to have 7 children of their own, including one child born in 1918 which was mostly likely the child mentioned in his pension record.

 

Honestly, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to add all this additional information and I will certainly update his story to reflect all the new information.