Major Balch

[GreyC]

43 minutes ago, Sinabhfuil said:

Very weird that there's no marriage registration and no birth registration though!

Was there a separate register for military weddings?

GreyC

[Sinabhfuil]

I don't know. It seems highly unlikely. Indeed, wait, no, I've seen plenty of girls marrying British soldiers in my searches through those files. And no birth registration for the kid either! 

It strikes me that truth's loss was Sierra Leone's gain - Balck seems to have been very strong on vaccination, so for him to turn up in the middle of an epidemic was good luck for the people he must have saved from infection.

[sadbrewer]

From Ancestry's medical registers....strange one perhaps...John Albert Balck-Foote was previously known as John Albert Foote, rather than Balch or Balck.

 

[GreyC]

He has authored a memoir which explains a bit with regard to his name change.:

https://www.qarancassociation.org.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=288251

GreyC

[Allan1892]

22 minutes ago, sadbrewer said:

From Ancestry's medical registers....strange one perhaps...John Albert Balck-Foote was previously known as John Albert Foote, rather than Balch or Balck.

Officially changed his name to Balck-Foote in January 1940

(image courtesy of The London Gazette)

[GreyC]

Interesting list. Many try to hide their German or Jewish origin by changing their name in times of war.

GreyC

[GreyC]

I am confused. Same name change in 1923 and 1940?

Best,

GreyC

[TullochArd]

23 minutes ago, GreyC said:

I am confused. Same name change in 1923 and 1940?

Best,

GreyC

Apologies GreyC I deleted that post regarding the 1923 LG Entry for name change regarding CHARLES AUGUSTUS JOHN ALBERT BALCK FOOTE

For completeness here it is again ........"(now or lately called Charles Augustus John Albert Balck), of Roseland, Greenway-lane, in the city of Bath, Esquire, Major Royal Army Medical Corps, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, now quartered at Belfast, has by deed poll, dated the twenty-first day of October, 1923, dtily enrolled in the College of Arms, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, assumed and adopted the name of Balck Foote in lieu of his former surname of Balck, and intends henceforth upon all occasions to sign and subscribe himself and to be called and styled by the surname of Balck Foote in lieu of his former surname of Balck."

Clearly there is an RAMC and a parallel Balck or Foote to Balck-Foote name change between JA Foote (in 1940) and CAJA Balck (in 1923).

I too am confused.

 

Edited Tuesday at 19:01 by TullochArd

[Sinabhfuil]

So in 1923 he started to use his mother's name, Foote, to avoid anti-German prejudice (seems rather late to do that); then in 1940 he reverted back and reclaimed the Balck part, just in time for another wave of anti-German prejudice, and four years before his boy was killed fighting the Nazis? What bitter irony. 

Thanks very much for the QARANC link, which puzzled me at first as I thought it was to do with the Koran; I've emailed in hopes of getting a copy of his memoir, or at least of the 1916 chapter. He seems to have been an unusually honest and decent guy. 

Edited Tuesday at 19:32 by Sinabhfuil

[sadbrewer]

The Officer responsible for the Sheehy Skeffington murder case seems to have been committed to Broadmoor in 1917. He was released in 1918/19 and emigrated to Canada, he died in 1965.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 00:28 by sadbrewer

[Sinabhfuil]

Yes, Bowen-Colthurst spent a couple of years in Broadmoor (with him continuing on half-pay and not dismissed from the British Army) before being "declared sane" and then emigrated to Canada. His house was burned down in April 1920 specifically to prevent him or his returning to Ireland. 

Balck was honest enough to refuse to declare him insane for actions that had been supported by his fellow-officers and done in the sight of 40 soldiers under his command. 

Thanks very much for the image.

Edited yesterday at 06:31 by Sinabhfuil