Cecil Alexander Rutherford

[AlbertaHistory]

Hi everyone,

I am a researcher at Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site, the home of Alberta's first premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford. I am interested to see if anyone possibly has ever come across military records pertaining to Rutherford's son, Cecil Alexander Rutherford (b.1890-d.1957).

We presently know little about Cecil's war service due to a lack of available records (and the fact that Cecil rarely wrote letters home during the war). Presently, we believe that Cecil enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) during July or August 1916. He received training as a cadet in Dover, England, before returning home to Edmonton, Alberta. Cecil reportedly returned home to Edmonton as he was having difficulty in attaining a commission and thought it would be easier to get a commission in Edmonton. He was discharged from the RGA in January or February of 1917, having received a commission in heavy artillery on February 12, 1917 with the 78th Overseas Depot Battery stationed in Lethbridge. In March of 1917, Cecil headed to Quebec for his first round of officers training. This information comes from a research document whose source material we no longer have access to.

After receiving training in Quebec Cecil was sent to England for additional training. He went to the Royal Artillery Officers' Cadet College in Trowbridge, England, for three months, starting presumably on July 2, 1917. Cecil was formally transferred from the 78th Overseas Depot Battery to the 248th Siege Battalion, RGA, BEF. He was enlisted as a cadet and received his commission on December 1, 1917. 

(Image 625 from Imperial War Service Gratuities Reference RG9-II-F-10, Volume 231, Library and Archives Canada Canada)

We are not sure the exact date Cecil first saw action, but from letters between Cecil's sister Hazel and her future husband Stanley McCuaig, we know Cecil was gassed in April 1918 and hit by shrapnel in the back of his head in May 1918. We are not sure the location of these incidents.  A letter sent from Stanley to Hazel claim Cecil's unit was the 248th "Superial Liege," but we cannot find any evidence of this unit. Stanley was likely referring to the 248th Siege Battalion, but we are not sure. 

We are curious if anyone knows of any RGA records that cover the period from August 1916 to February 1917 are digitized and publicly accessible. Additionally, we are looking for records covering the 248 Siege Battalion that may shed light on Cecil's time with the unit and where his injuries may have taken place. Given that I am located in Alberta, it is not feasible for me to travel to archives in England or elsewhere. We also believe that his personal records with the RGA and 248 were part of the roughly %60 of records destroyed during the Blitz. 

Any help or direction anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. 

[Matlock1418]

25 minutes ago, AlbertaHistory said:

Cecil Alexander Rutherford (b.1890-d.1957).

We presently know little about Cecil's war service due to a lack of available records

Presumably likely your officer https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1163719 ... papers at The National Archives:

Lieutenant Cecil RUTHERFORD Royal Garrison Artillery.

Reference:	WO 339/109898
Description:	Lieutenant Cecil RUTHERFORD Royal Garrison Artillery.
Date:	[1914-1922]
Held by:	The National Archives, Kew

[AlbertaHistory]

Thank you Matlock. I have come across that record before. We are not sure if that record is 100% him as Cecil and Rutherford were both common names at the time. Perhaps I will have to reach out and pay the fee to see. 

[PRC]

Hi @AlbertaHistory and welcome to the forum

As an officer Cecil would have had to apply for his medals, which means that if he did so his Medal Index Card can be a bit more informative than that of a man in the ranks, who normally had their medals sent out automatically.

In this case Cecil did formally apply, in November 1927. He gave his then contact address as McLeod Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Would seem quite a co-incidence if it's not the same man.

Image courtesy of (a free account on) Ancestry.

It also helpfully tells us he landed in France on the 13th January 1918.

Unfortunately the associated medal rolls for officers tend to be less informative than those for other ranks, and seldom include unit specific details, only regiment \ corps.

The internet Archive, Archive org, has a number of references in newspapers, journals and books for him. Great War related include:-

The Morning Bulletin (Edmonton), 4th August 1917. "Lieut. Cecil Rutherford is now in training at the Royal Officers’ Cadet college in Trowbridge, England, where he will be for the next three months." https://archive.org/details/EDI_1917080401/page/n3/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"+wounded

The Gateway (Edmonton), 10th January 1918. "Cecil Rutherford (Law) has finished his artillery preparation and is now possibly in France with the Imperials." https://archive.org/details/GAT_1918011001/page/4/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

But no obvious reports of a wounding.

As far as the UK Press is concerned the only 2nd Lt \ Lieutenant Cecil Rutherford I could immediately find appears to have been an infantry officer, and associated with the north-east of England.

By the time Cecil would have caught up with 248th Siege Battery in the field, their War Diary was administratively combined into that for the Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) they were part of. According to our parent site, The Long, Long Trail, 248th Siege Battery were part of 17th HAG. (HAG's were also known as RGA Brigades, and the terms are used interchangeably). https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/allocation-of-royal-garrison-artillery-batteries-to-groups-brigades/

War Diaries for units serving in France & Flanders are currently free to download from the UK National Archive. You do need to sign in with your account, but if you don't have one, then even that can be set up as part of placing your first order. Just click on "sign in" on any page of the online catalogue and follow the instructions - no financial details are requested.

Unfortunately finding the war diaries of higher echelon units like Divisions, Corps and HAG's frequently eludes me, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable in that area will be able to assist.

Finally, always nice to have a picture to put a face to a name, although this is from pre-war. On page 74 of "I was there: a century of alumni stories about the University of Alberta 1906 2006" by Ellen Schoeck, published 2006, there is a picture of the Universities first Student Union Council, which looks like it includes father and son.

Image courtesy Archive org. All image rights, if any, remain with the current owner and restrictions on re-use may apply.
https://archive.org/details/iwastherecentury0000scho/page/74/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

Cheers,
Peter

Edited 4 hours ago by PRC
Typos

[AlbertaHistory]

1 hour ago, PRC said:

Hi @AlbertaHistory and welcome to the forum

As an officer Cecil would have had to apply for his medals, which means that if he did so his Medal Index Card can be a bit more informative than that of a man in the ranks, who normally had their medals sent out automatically.

In this case Cecil did formally apply, in November 1927. He gave his then contact address as McLeod Building, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Would seem quite a co-incidence if it's not the same man.

Image courtesy of (a free account on) Ancestry.

It also helpfully tells us he landed in France on the 13th January 1918.

Unfortunately the associated medal rolls for officers tend to be less informative than those for other ranks, and seldom include unit specific details, only regiment \ corps.

The internet Archive, Archive org, has a number of references in newspapers, journals and books for him. Great War related include:-

The Morning Bulletin (Edmonton), 4th August 1917. "Lieut. Cecil Rutherford is now in training at the Royal Officers’ Cadet college in Trowbridge, England, where he will be for the next three months." https://archive.org/details/EDI_1917080401/page/n3/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"+wounded

The Gateway (Edmonton), 10th January 1918. "Cecil Rutherford (Law) has finished his artillery preparation and is now possibly in France with the Imperials." https://archive.org/details/GAT_1918011001/page/4/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

But no obvious reports of a wounding.

As far as the UK Press is concerned the only 2nd Lt \ Lieutenant Cecil Rutherford I could immediately find appears to have been an infantry officer, and associated with the north-east of England.

By the time Cecil would have caught up with 248th Siege Battery in the field, their War Diary was administratively combined into that for the Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) they were part of. According to our parent site, The Long, Long Trail, 248th Siege Battery were part of 17th HAG. (HAG's were also known as RGA Brigades, and the terms are used interchangeably). https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/allocation-of-royal-garrison-artillery-batteries-to-groups-brigades/

War Diaries for units serving in France & Flanders are currently free to download from the UK National Archive. You do need to sign in with your account, but if you don't have one, then even that can be set up as part of placing your first order. Just click on "sign in" on any page of the online catalogue and follow the instructions - no financial details are requested.

Unfortunately finding the war diaries of higher echelon units like Divisions, Corps and HAG's frequently eludes me, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable in that area will be able to assist.

Finally, always nice to have a picture to put a face to a name, although this is from pre-war. On page 74 of "I was there: a century of alumni stories about the University of Alberta 1906 2006" by Ellen Schoeck, published 2006, there is a picture of the Universities first Student Union Council, which looks like it includes father and son.

Image courtesy Archive org. All image rights, if any, remain with the current owner and restrictions on re-use may apply.
https://archive.org/details/iwastherecentury0000scho/page/74/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

Cheers,
Peter

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the information! I will have to spend some time searching through the war diaries to see if I can find anything of note. I have previously found the notations of Cecil in various newspapers. And yes, Ellen Schoeck provides a wonderful portrait of not only Cecil, but also one that includes his father Alexander (other images of Cecil can be found in A Gentleman of Strathcona, available on Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/alexandercameron0000unse/mode/1up). The reports of Cecil's wounding comes from letters sent between his sister and her future husband Stanley. His injuries never appear to have been reported on in Edmonton area newspapers which is rather odd. 

And yes, that is Cecil's medal card! His law office (as part of the Rutherford, Rutherford, and McCuaig firm) was in the McLeod Building in downtown Edmonton. Where did you happen to find this card? I have never seen it before. I am unfortunately unfamiliar with a lot of European and English war archives as my area of focus is Canadian prairie/Rutherford family history. 

This photograph here is of Cecil with his father, Alexander Rutherford. Alexander was appointed the honorary colonel of the 194th Highland Battalion in 1916. From 1916 to 1918 he also served as the Alberta director for the National Service Commission, the body overseeing recruitment during World War I. 

Thank you again for all the information you have shared thus far. 

[PRC]

18 minutes ago, AlbertaHistory said:

And yes, that is Cecil's medal card! His law office (as part of the Rutherford, Rutherford, and McCuaig firm) was in the McLeod Building in downtown Edmonton. Where did you happen to find this card? I have never seen it before.

The only way to see the card in the format I attached is via Ancestry. As a past subscriber to Ancestry.co.uk I still have a log on that I can use for free access, which includes a few free recordsets. The only one of Great War relevance is the Medal Index Cards, (or to be accurate, the Medal Rolls Index Cards). I assume subscription to Ancestry Worldwide would include UK military records but can't vouch for that. Ancestry's parent company also owns the more US orientated Fold3 genealogy website. My Ancestry co uk login also allows access there, but at best all I can see is blurry thumbnails of the documents. I've got good reason to believe they have the Medal Roll Index Cards as well - but don't quote me on that 

The UK National Archive has them, but only makes available the front face, and in black & white - frustrating as different coloured inks were frequently used to denote things. They also come in sheets of six which causes no end of confusion - we have regular queries on the forum from members new to researching, about a mystery member of their family tree who they believe had six or more service numbers with multiple medals who both died and was discharged while serving in every theatre of war imaginable! And of course for officers you don't get to see the all important reverse side.

The likes of FindMyPast has transcriptions of very, very variable quality but no images. Fortunately now Forces War Records has been swallowed up by Ancestry their attempts to transcribe the cards by putting them in context has been quietly allowed to die. Great idea, poor execution.

The Medal Roll Index Cards were a simple aide-memoire for the clerks at the relevant records office to keep track of documentation and correspondence relating to the award and issue of service medals. In many cases they are the only official documentation that has survived, particularly for those who served in the ranks.

23 hours ago, AlbertaHistory said:

We are curious if anyone knows of any RGA records that cover the period from August 1916 to February 1917 are digitized and publicly accessible

His service in the ranks is likely to be amalgamated into his officer file. However if it is not then hopefully it will reference his service number and a check can be made.
Individuals who served with the British Army in the UK only did not qualify for any service medals, so that element of his career would not be mentioned on his medal index card or cause one to be raised.

4 hours ago, AlbertaHistory said:

Perhaps I will have to reach out and pay the fee to see. 

I've never had cause to obtain an officers' file, but consensus on the forum seems to be that the National Archives' own copying service is slow, expensive and low quality. Using the forum search will hopefully bring up examples of the private researchers that members have had successful results with.

1 hour ago, AlbertaHistory said:

This photograph here is of Cecil with his father, Alexander Rutherford. Alexander was appointed the honorary colonel of the 194th Highland Battalion in 1916.

Seems self-evident that this must be on Cecil's return to Canada, hence the rank of Lieutenant, (two pips on his lower arm).

Image courtesy Wikipedia.

23 hours ago, AlbertaHistory said:

He was enlisted as a cadet and received his commission on December 1, 1917. 

Technically speaking he enlisted as a Gunner and was posted as an Officer Cadet - if he flunked the course he remained a Gunner and would have been sent back to the Royal Garrison Artillery to serve in the ranks. He was commissioned on December 2nd 1917. December 1st was the date he was released from his enlistment to take up his commission the next day.

Official notice of his commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant with effect from the 2nd December 1917 appeared on page 12885 of the Supplement to the London Gazette dated 10 December 1917. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30419/supplement/12885/data.pdf

Other than the reference to him being a Lieutenant in the indexing for his officers file, however, I'm struggling to find evidence of a promotion to Lieutenant with the British Army.

2 hours ago, AlbertaHistory said:

This photograph here is of Cecil with his father, Alexander Rutherford. Alexander was appointed the honorary colonel of the 194th Highland Battalion in 1916. From 1916 to 1918 he also served as the Alberta director for the National Service Commission, the body overseeing recruitment during World War I. 

Any idea when the picture was taken - comparing it to the other in those other sources he looks a bit older.

No new IP is claimed for the above, and all image rights, if any, remain with the current owners.

Image sources.

1] Cecil Rutherford c1907 sourced p127 Alexander Cameron Rutherford a gentleman of Strathcona by Douglas R Babcock, courtesy Archive org. https://archive.org/details/alexandercameron0000unse/page/54/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

2] Page 74 of "I was there: a century of alumni stories about the University of Alberta 1906 2006" by Ellen Schoeck, published 2006, the first University Student Union Council, 1908, courtesy Archive org. https://archive.org/details/iwastherecentury0000scho/page/74/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

3] Cecil Rutherford c1920 sourced p127 Alexander Cameron Rutherford a gentleman of Strathcona by Douglas R Babcock, courtesy Archive org https://archive.org/details/alexandercameron0000unse/page/126/mode/2up?q="Cecil+Rutherford"

4] This thread.

Cheers,
Peter