Lest We Forget

It has been almost 100 years since the start of the First World War.  And over 70 years since the start of the Second.  My generation and even my parents’ generation, has never seen a world war that affected every home, every family, every community like these wars did.  No one was left unscathed; everyone knew and loved someone that had fought and died or fought and was wounded.  Everyone sacrificed and went without to support the war effort.  Those generations watched thousands of men return from war scarred for life by the atrocities that they saw and lived through.  But the farther we get away from these wars, the less people seem to take the time to acknowledge and remember the sacrifices these generations made.  I sometimes think this may be because as far they know, no one in their family ever died in a war.  But I bet they’d be surprised if they did a little research.  I know I was.

My reverence for these earlier generations should in no way diminish or dismiss the efforts and sacrifice of anyone serving today.  Is my generation war free now? No, of course not.  Every day, men and women of the armed forces are engaged in dangerous situations all over the globe – most recently Libya and of course Afghanistan.  Just the other day, another Canadian soldier was killed there.  Another family will experience what it’s like to sacrifice a son, brother, father, or husband to war.  It’s not on the massive scale that it was during WWI and WWII but the hurt will be the same for this soldier’s family.

In the past, as November 11^th approached, sure I would wear a poppy. I might think for a second on that ‘day off’ about why I had the day off.  But since doing research on my family history, this day is much more important to me now.  I take the time to attend the services, to acknowledge my ancestors’ participation in these massive global tragedies and to honour the members of other people’s families who are serving today.  Although I don’t have anyone in my family currently serving in the military, I truly appreciate the men and women that do serve and their families that make sacrifices and support them in their duties.  I urge you to do more than just wear a poppy on November 11^th but to really take the time to acknowledge the sacrifice that past generations made for our freedom and the sacrifice that our current generation continues to make.

On November 11th, I will be honouring and remembering these ancestors that fought and/or died in service to their King and country. Men who fought to ensure the freedom that I enjoy today.

Lest We Forget.

My great grand-uncle:

Thomas Alexander Neilson

S/N 3697.  Private, 1/7th battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
154th Brigade 51st Division, British Expeditionary Force

Born 22 Mar 1897 – Stirling, Scotland to John Neilson and Mary Jane Cunningham.

Killed-in-Action on 15 Nov 1916 at age 19 in the capture of Frankfort Trench during the Battle of Ancre (13-18 Nov 1916) in the overarching Battle of the Somme.
Buried Frankfurt Trench British Cemetery, France

Gravestone of Thomas Neilson, Frankfurt Trench Cemetery, France

Thomas Neilson, Frankfurt Trench Cemetery, France (click to enlarge)

Frankfurt Trench Cemetery, France

My great grand-uncle:

Stanley Benjamin Holman

S/N 288614. Private,  78^th Battalion, Winnipeg Grenadiers

Canadian Expeditionary Force

Born 10 Mar 1889 – Winnipeg, MB to BH Holman and Margaret Cunningham.

Killed-in-action at the Second Battle of Passchendaele 30 Oct 1917 – Ypres, Belgium.  Age 28.

Memorialized on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium.  No remains were ever found.

Stanley B. Holman. Name inscription at the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium.

My great-grandfather:

William Cunningham Neilson

Driver, 88th Field Ambulance, 29th Division

Royal Army Service Corps

b. 14 Sep 1886 – Stirling, Scotland

d.  12 Feb 1950 – Victoria, BC

Served for 4 continuous years abroad without leave to see his family.  Was serving in France when he and his wife lost a young son to measles.  Driver for the 88^th Field Ambulance (non-mechanized).  Involved in battles in France – Battle of the Somme, Arras Offensive, 3rd Battle of Ypres, Battles of the Lys, and others.

Survived the war.

My first cousin, 2x removed:

George Gregor McKay, Private

Born 19 Feb 1923 – Winnipeg, Manitoba to John and Agnes McKay.

Killed-in-action in Italy, 02 April 1944.

These are just a few names but I’m sure that there are other members of my extended family that served in WWI and WWII and I will continue to research their histories to uncover their stories.  And every year on November 11th, I will honour and remember their sacrifice.

Christian Blatter: the family years…

In April of 1912, the most famous ship ever built, The Titanic, sank in the cold Atlantic waters taking with it thousands of men, women and children; most of them third class passengers.  My great-grandparents, Christian and Emma Blatter were almost amongst them.

When I last left the story of Christian Blatter, he had arrived in Warner, Alberta with his brother John and his friends Mike and Andrew Mueller.  They bought sections near each other and lived and worked the land together, breaking new fields, building houses and barns, building a new life.  In 1909, they tragically lost Andrew Mueller to a heart attack, leaving just the three men behind.

By the fall of 1911, Christian, now over 30 years old, I suppose felt it was time to find a wife.  There were obviously few single women available in the wilds of the Alberta prairies, so Christian embarked on a return trip to his homeland of Wilderswil near Interlaken in central Switzerland.  My grandmother seems to think that her parents’ marriage was pre-arranged before he had left, but because of their differences in age (10 years), I’m not sure that it’s likely.  Christian had not been home to Switzerland since he left at 20 years old in 1900 and it’s unlikely that he had arranged a marriage to a girl 10 years his junior before he left.  Though I suppose it’s possible that in correspondence with his parents back in Switzerland they arranged to select a suitable mate for him.  At any rate, how he found his wife remains a mystery, but on February 21, 1912 Christian married Emma Zurschmiede, born 26 May 1890 in Krattigen, a small village not far from Wilderswil.  They were married in the city of Interlaken, only a few miles from Wilderswil and immediately made their way back to Canada.

Christian and Emma Blatter marriage (click to enlarge)

Christian and Emma Blatter Marriage Registry (click to enlarge)

My grandmother has often told me that her father was booked to return to North America on the Titanic and that he told her in later life that he cancelled his passage on that ship because he ‘didn’t have a good feeling about it’.  Whether Christian was psychic or just eager to get back to his farm for spring planting, I’ll never know.  He and Emma returned to Canada via the SS Virginian sailing from Liverpool, England to Halifax, Nova Scotia and arriving on the 9th of March, 1912.  Almost a month before the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.  I don’t suppose we’ll ever be able to verify that he was indeed booked on the Titanic, but it makes for a good family story!

After a grueling weeks long trip from central Switzerland, across the whole of Canada via the CPR railway from Halifax and to finally arrive on the Alberta prairie farm, one can only wonder what Emma thought when she arrived.  The landscape would have been so vastly different from the Swiss mountains and valleys she was used to.  Seeing grasslands stretch for miles, as far as the eye could see, would have been a very different experience.

But Emma obviously persevered and made a life in her new country.  Christian and Emma continued to live with Christian’s brother, John, and Mike Mueller.  Later that same year, they would welcome their first child, a son, Edwin Edgar Blatter (I have yet to confirm a birthdate for him beyond 1912).

In 1914, Emma’s younger sister, Rosa and her younger brother Christian (known better as ‘Zuri’), came to visit Christian and Emma in Warner.  It wasn’t long before Rosa fell for the close friend living with her sister and brother-in-law, Mike Mueller.

She and Mike were married on the 14th of March, 1914 and moved to their own farm on Mike’s land, not far from the Blatters.  Mike and Rosa would go on to have ten children and raise them all on the farm, though Rosa would lose Mike to a heart attack in 1945, she would live to 97 years old (d. 1990) and have countless grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Rosa Zurschmiede and Michael Mueller Wedding 1914. Click to enlarge.

Emma and Rosa’s brother Zuri also stayed in Alberta and in 1924 he married another Swiss immigrant, Anna Sterchi.

L-R: Christian Zurschmiede, Emma Zurschmiede, Christian Blatter, Anna Sterchi (1924)

More children were to follow for Christian and Emma.  Myrtle Nellie Blatter (b. 11 Sept 1916) and my grandmother, Florence Mae (b. 20 Nov 1920), more commonly known in her early years as ‘Flossie Mae’.  Amusingly when she got a little older and her father told her she was getting too old to be called Flossie Mae, she promptly dismissed the name Florence and insisted everyone call her Fay.

Edwin Blatter abt 1913

Florence Blatter

Myrtle Blatter

Christian continued to work hard to improve his farm and to improve the corner of Canada he had chosen to make his home.  He was a very involved member of the community and was known as the guy who always embraced new technology.  The Blatter brothers and Mike Mueller were the first people to own a threshing machine in the area. They would move from farm to farm, helping the farmers thresh their crops.

Blatter Threshing Machine

Blatter threshing machine

The children attended the local school, Kessler schoolhouse along with many of the Mueller children.  Emma and her sister Rosa, worked hard on their farms, making a home for their husbands and children. Christian had built his family a lovely farmhouse, one of the first to have an indoor bathroom.  He always wanted the most modern things!  Emma worked hard to keep their home clean.  My grandmother fondly remembers her mother constantly shooing the goat out the door because it kept trying to come in the house.

But the rural Alberta homestead life was difficult and hard work and the harsh prairie winters could be long and brutal. The remoteness of their location to access goods and services was always a problem.  This remoteness would prove fatal for Christian and Emma’s eldest son, Edwin.  In 1923, Edwin was struck with an appendicitis.  Though the local country doctor was called and he attempted surgery right there on the kitchen table, young Edwin died, leaving his mother, father and sisters grieving.

Edwin Blatter

Adding to his pain, Christian’s brother John died of a heart attack at age 47 in 1926. But the final blow was still to come.  Emma, having never really recovered from the shock and loss of losing her son, Edwin, contracted tuberculosis.  She slowly deteriorated and finally succumbed in 1928.

In the course of only five years, Christian had lost his son, his brother and his wife.  He was now a widowed man with two little girls to take care of.  My grandmother described her father has having lost his zest for the farm and prairie life after that. In the fall of 1929, he took his girls on an extended trip to Switzerland to see his homeland.  This was the first time the girls would meet their Swiss relatives.  In the early 1930s he sold the farm and moved to Lethbridge where he could have a house and a housekeeper to take care of his girls.

Taken during their 1929 return to Switzerland

In 1936, he picked up stakes altogether and purchased an orchard in Kelowna, British Columbia.  My grandmother, a girl of 16, was sad to move away from her friends in Lethbridge but has fond memories of her teen years in Kelowna.

Christian would go on to do several things in his later years, he moved to Kamloops and owned an Autocourt – a motorist motel made up of little cabins. And apparently he even at one point ran a ranch not far from Kamloops.

Christian Blatter in later years

Christian would remarry at the age of 64 in 1943 to Myrtle Rogers.  He would stay in the Kamloops area until his death at the age of 93 in January of 1973.  He was buried next to his beloved son, brother and wife in the Warner Cemetery, where his Canadian pioneering had started.  His close friend Mike Mueller and his wife’s sister Rosa, lie only a few feet from him.

Christian Blatter Obituary

The Blatter Family Plot (l-r) Edwin, Emma, Christian, John. Warner Cemetery

Christian Blatter continued…

Now that I’ve spent a significant amount of time researching my family history, I am more convinced than ever that our generation just has it so easy these days!

When I last discussed my great-grandfather, Christian Blatter, he had emigrated from his small town of Wilderswil, Switzerland through Ellis Island in New York, to Wisconsin. He appears on the 1905 Wisconsin State Census living as a farm hand in Alma, Wisconsin. But less than a year after this census was taken, Christian set off to the wilds of the Alberta prairies with his brother John; the Mueller brothers, Mike and Andrew (who we saw on the 1905 census living nearby!); and the Tenney brothers, John, Harry and Lee. The word was that land could be had for very little, so the 3 sets of brothers packed up their worldly belongings and everything they would need to create a new life in Canada and set off with their oxen-towed wagons.

They passed the border at North Portal, Saskatchewan in February of 1906. North Portal is a very small town on the Saskatchewan and North Dakota border that I have in fact visited twice because I have a friend that lives there. So little did I know that I was visiting the first Canadian town that my great-grandfather ever saw!

Christian and his brother John both purchased 2 sections each, adjacent to each other. Christian purchased the NE quarter of Section 35 and NW corner of Section 36 and John purchased the SW corner of Section 36 and the NW corner of Section 25. This created a sort of upside down ‘L’ shape of farmland to work (shown in red). Mike Mueller’s purchase of 4 quarters was not far away as can be seen on the map (in blue). Looking closely you can also see that the Tenney brothers purchased several quarters near the Blatter and Mueller farms. The farms were located not far from a small village of New Dayton, but the main town they associated with was Warner, about 11 km to the southwest.

Click image to enlarge

For the first few years, the 2 sets of brothers  lived and worked the land together.  To arrive in the Alberta prairies with nothing but what could be fit in their wagons and know that everything that was to be there had to be built by them would have been a daunting task. Not to mention the harsh prairie weather that they had to contend with.

But the men worked hard together and throughout the first few years, improvements were made to the lands, as was required by the homestead act.  Homestead records for Christian’s two sections show he broke 5 acres of land in each of the first 2 years they were there and 50 acres in the third year.  He arrived with 2 oxen but by the next year had aquired 4 horses and a cow.  And by 1909 he had built a 12×20 framed house, a chicken house and barn, had dug a well and erected almost 2 miles of fencing.  Since this data is only in reference to his two quarter sections, one can imagine the extent of the work that this team of men did as they also worked on John’s two quarters and the Mueller brothers’ holdings.

Recently, I travelled to Warner, Alberta to see if I could find the old homestead and find out if there was anything left of it.  Using the original homestead map overlaid on a modern map, I found that the township roads easily correlate to the original homestead sections and was able to locate the farm near the intersection of Township Road 60 and Range Road 171.  I was thrilled and suprised to discover that the barn my great grandfather built over 100 years ago still stands.  We were greeted not long after we arrived by a passing gentleman in a truck who stopped to ask if he could assist us – as he mentioned, he didn’t see too many ‘city folk’ around here.  I told him that I was just looking at the farm as this was my great-grandfather’s homestead and when I mentioned my great-grandfather’s name, Blatter, he said, ‘yep, sure this is it, the old Blatter homestead’.  The gentleman in the truck was in fact, the current owner of the land.  Though he didn’t live on it as his house was farther down the road (I’m assuming that they’ve combined lands throughout the years to create a much larger farm).

Click on image to enlarge

He mentioned his hired hand lived on the land now but was away and that we were welcome to walk around the farm as we liked.  I was thrilled with this invitation and thus was able to get up close to the barn and the other buildings; buildings that my great-grandfather and his companions had built by hand over a hundred years ago.  The barn is ‘in rough shape’ as the current owner indicated and will likely have to come down sometime in the near future, so I’m glad that I had the opportunity to see it when I did.  The house shown in the older picture likely taken some time in the 1920s, is gone now and a more modern house (maybe 1980s) stands where it was.  The current owner indicated that the house had been moved elsewhere and extensively renovated a long time ago.

Once Christian had established his farm, I think he felt it was time for him to find a companion other than his brother and the Mueller boys!  The next post will delve into that…

Elisabet and Margrit Blatter – Twins?

I had noted in my previous post about my great-grandfather, Christian Blatter, that he had two sisters named Elisabet and Margrit that MAY have been twins.  I have yet to be able to confirm nor dismiss this idea and so occasionally I go back and look at these images and at the very little information I have, still wondering if they were in fact twins.

While going through old family photographs one day, my grandmother handed me four pictures and said, these are my dad’s twin sisters, Elisabet and Margrit.  Looking at the hair and clothing styles and picture formats, one set seems to have been taken somewhere around the turn of the century, the other about 10 years later, possibly into the early 1910′s.  Three of them were taken in Neuchatel, Switzerland – a town about 100km from Wilderswil. All of the pictures are labelled in my great-grandfather Christian’s handwriting as ‘Margrit’ and ‘Elisbet’.  I would assume that he would have known his own sisters and thus the images are labeled correctly.

The problem is that when researching Christian’s siblings, I was able to easily find birthdates for all of them including his sister Margrit Blatter which was May 26, 1883, but I’ve never been able to find any evidence of Elisabet’s birth.  Margrit’s name has also been referred to in records as Margaretha Blatter.  With Swiss records being scarce, I have yet to establish marriages or death dates for either of them.

Even looking at the pictures, it’s hard to tell if they are indeed two different people, taken a few years apart

Both of the above images were labeled Elisabet – do you think they are the same person?

These images above are both labeled Margrit.   It’s hard to tell if they’re the same person for sure because of the different angle and distance used in the two photographs.

But even if they are, could they be the twin sister of Elisabet above?  And if she is, why can I find a birth entry for Margrit but not for Elisabet?

I would love to know so the search will continue!

Christian Blatter (1879-1973)

Christian Blatter abt 1901

They say that 40% of North Americans are descendants of an immigrant that came to the new world through the famous Ellis Island Immigration Station near Manhattan, New York.  We’ve all seen the movies depicting poor immigrants straining for their first view of the Statue of Liberty, their first glimpse of promise in the new world. I was always under the assumption that all of my family had immigrated straight to Canada from the British Isles and Switzerland.  I had never considered that they may have entered through the U.S.  So until I started researching and asking questions about my great-grandfather Christian Blatter’s early life, I had no idea that his story makes me one of those 40%!

Christian Blatter was born on September 18, 1879  in a village called Wilderswil in central Switzerland.  At the time, Wilderswil was a small village only a mile from Interlaken, nestled between Lake Brienz and Lake Thun and sitting in the shadows of the famous Jungfraujoch mountain range. I had the opportunity to visit the area in September of 2009 and these days, the space between the two towns has filled in with the growing population.

Interlaken taken from the Schynige Platte

Christian was one of 11 children (5 boys and 6 girls), of which 8 lived into adulthood. This brood included a suspected set of twins which remain a frustrating research topic (more on that in another post though!)

• Margaritha Blatter (1870-1879)
• Friedrich Blatter (1871-?)
• Maria Blatter (1874-1936)
• Wilhelm Blatter (1876-1924)
• Johannes Blatter (1878-1926)
• Christian Blatter (1879-1973)
• Gottfried Blatter (1882-1960)
• Elisabet Blatter (1883-?)
• Margaretha Blatter (1883-?)
• Anna Blatter (1885-1885)
• Anna Blatter (1889-1892)

Gottfried Blatter (1850-1943)

Their parents were Gottfried Blatter (1850-1943) and Lucia Balmer (1844-1919).  Gottfried Blatter had been born in Habkern a town about 10km away situated up on the hills surrounding Interlaken.  I have been able to trace this line of Blatters in Habkern back to as early as 1666.

The Village of Habkern

Habkern is a small village made up just a few houses, farm land and many many dairy cows.  It is situated right on a hillside which makes for steep climbs through the village and evidence that we came from a hearty stock of mountain climbers!

At some point in the mid to late 1800s Gottfried moved down to the valley to Wilderswil and this is where he raised his children.

Wilderswil is the starting point for the cogwheel train up to the Schynige Platte, a mountain region that sits directly above Wilderswil that boasts an alpine flower meadow and spectacular views of the nearby Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch mountains.  In his early teenage years, Christian had a job carrying food and supplies up the steep rail line as it was being built.

I asked my grandmother why her father had left Wilderswil, such an amazingly beautiful part of the world.  She said he told her that there was just nothing to do and no prospects for young men in the area at the time.  So in May of 1899, Christian’s older brother, Wilhelm, was the first of the family to leave for the new world (the oldest brother, Friedich Blatter would stay in Switzerland permanently).

When 23 year old Wilhelm arrived at Ellis Island in May of 1899 he had $32 in his pocket, which would be the equivalent today of about $800; not a large sum to create a new life.  He very likely spent the trans-Atlantic journey in crowded, unsanitary and cramped 3rd class quarters with just a suitcase of clothes to accompany him.  He stated on his immigration that his destination was Wabasha, Minnesota to see his uncle, Charles Ebersold.  I have not found a direct relationship to a Charles Ebersold, so it may have been a close family friend rather than an actual relation.

Only a year later, his two younger brothers, 21 year old Christian and 19 year old Gottfried, would venture away from their village together in pursuit of their brother and the new world and all it had to offer.  No doubt Wilhelm had written to them, encouraging them to join him and promising them work and a new future.  Christian and Gottfried arrived at Ellis Island, New York on May 14, 1900 on a ship sailing from La Havre, France called ‘La Gascogne’.

La Gascogne

It was almost a year to the day since their older brother Wilhelm had arrived.  They noted on their immigration interview that they were headed to their brother Wilhelm in Alma, Wisconsin – a town just across the river from Wabasha, Minnesota.

This area sitting on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border had  been settled by a number of Swiss immigrants.  The town of Alma’s main street is now a heritage site as it was constructed into the hillside much like the Swiss were used to in their homeland.  It is likely with their Swiss heritage and a brother (and possibly uncle) that were already there, that Christian and Gottfried had little trouble finding work.

Five years after his arrival, the 1905 census finds Gottfried as a single head of household and working as a cheesemaker;  a skill he may have learned back in the old country.  Christian is found in the entry right next to him but as a resident in the household of Peter Accola and is listed as working for him as a farm labourer.

Wisconsin State Census 1905

And on the same page a few households away from the Blatter brothers, we also find Mike Mueller, a young man that will appear further along as I continue to tell Christian Blatter’s story of coming to the new world and to Canada.

Also important to note is that in July, 1903, another Blatter brother, Johannes (John) joined the three already in Wisconsin.  I’ll address a little more about John in another post too.

Patrick Gallagher (1853-1908) UPDATE

NEW INFORMATION FOUND!

See my original about post Patrick Gallagher here.

Recently while cleaning out my email inbox I came across an email I’d received from the 91st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum in response to an inquiry I’d made about Patrick Gallagher.  At the time (Sept 2009), they didn’t have any further information than I did but suggested that I look at the National Archives’ Chelsea Pension Records.  At the time, the records were not yet scanned and available and thus I put it aside as it would require a trip to London to do more research.  However, looking at the email again a year and a half later, I wandered over to the records again and found that they were now 2/3 scanned and indexed and available.  Within a few minutes, I was able to find a complete military record for Patrick Gallagher and it was a treasure trove of information!

Birth Facts

First and foremost, his place of birth was listed!  Patrick was born in Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland.  Which definitely negates any possible links I had found with Co. Donegal.  His birthdate is estimated as March or April of 1853 – this information taken from the fact that in February of 1879 his age is noted as 25 yrs 10/12 mos.

Click to view close up.

Move from Ireland to Scotland

There were other things I was incorrect about also that I will address.  He attested (joined) to the 58th Battalion, 91st Highlanders in April of 1868 at the age of 15 in Dublin, Ireland.  His first medical exam was done in Dublin in late April and by May 6th, he was in Aberdeen, Scotland for his second medical.  This dismisses the idea that he came to Scotland with his parents as he obviously went to Scotland after joining the military in Ireland.  Keeping in mind that his father was listed as having also been a private in the 91st Highlanders, it’s entirely possible that his parents were never in Scotland (which explains why I couldn’t find them on census records) but rather that his father had also signed up in Ireland.

I suspect that it’s possible his father, James Gallagher, died while in service with the 91st.  Research has shown that if their father had been a well-regarded NCO or enlisted man, children might also be put on the boys’ roll for the regiment, effectively guaranteeing them a job when they reached a suitable age (usually 14 or 15).  This may explain Patrick’s very young age when he joined up.  A death date for James Gallagher has not be found though I know it’s before 1879.  If it was in service with the 91st it’s likely the records do not survive.

Physical Description

Patrick is described on his medical records as being: 4’9″ tall with a freckled complexion, bluish gray eyes and brown hair.  On another medical he’s noted as being 5’1″.  Not a tall man!  But actually not unusual for the time period.

Click to view close up.

 

Moves with the 91st Highlanders

Between 1868 and 1877, Patrick moved around quite a bit with the army including Aldershot in England; Fort George, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh in Scotland; and Newry, Curragh, and Londonderry in Ireland.  In September of 1877 he was sent to Stirling where he remained for the most part until duties took him to South Africa in 1881 for peacekeeping duties following the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.

Service in South Africa

In my last post I questioned how common it was for a soldier’s wife and children to accompany them when posted overseas.  Further research on that topic indicates that it was not highly unusual.  Apparently, depending on the regiment’s rules in terms of which wives were entitled to go, “these wives travelled with the regiment, drew army rations for themselves and their children and were quartered in barracks with their men in a curtained off area.”  It was not unusual that they would serve the other soldiers in their barracks by doing domestic tasks like laundry etc.  So it seems that Agnes and their two eldest children were indeed in South Africa with Patrick while he was stationed there between 1881 and 1885.

The records were also able to provide me with actual birthdates for the two daughters that were born in South Africa.

Mary Gallagher 16 Feb 1883

Agnes Gallagher 5 Nov 1884

Click to view close up.

I am still researching the movements of the 91st Highlanders in South Africa between 1881 and 1885 to find out whether Patrick could have seen any military action while there.  It’s possible if he saw action it could have been one of the contributing factors to his suicide.  From his daughters’ births we know that he was stationed at both Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg while in country.

Medical History

Patrick’s entire military medical history is included in the records.  It doesn’t appear that he was wounded in any battles but rather had an occasional cold or bump on the head.  And amusingly, he found himself with a touch of the clap in June of 1874 – a very common occurrence among young unmarried soldiers of the time.

Click to view close up.

 

Discharge from Army

Patrick was discharged from the military on December 31, 1891 after spending 23 years, 246 days in service with the 91st Highlanders.  There is no specific reason given for his discharge but he qualified to receive a full pension on his retirement from the army.  As mentioned in my previous post, he would go on to do a variety of jobs such as general labourer, officer’s servant, waiter and valet.

Patrick Gallagher 1854-1908

A Tragic End to a Hard Life

Patrick Gallagher was my great-great grandfather on my father’s side of the family. He was born in Ireland in approximately 1854, though I have yet to determine exactly where in Ireland. Some research points towards Letterkenny, County Donegal but there is little to prove this for certain.  However, I do know through his marriage records that his parents were James and Catherine Gallagher (nee Gallagher).

Patrick and his parents emigrated from Ireland to Scotland sometime between 1854 and 1871. In 1871, Patrick is found in Farnborough, Hampshire, England as a drummer with the 91st Argyll Highlanders. The 91st was stationed in southern England in 1871 as they provided the Guard of Honor in nearby Windsor at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter HRH Princess Louise to the Marquess of Lorne. Princess Louise was appointed the Colonel-in-Chief of the 91st Highlanders a year later and it became known as ‘Princess Louise’s Argyllshire Highlanders’.

The 91st was normally stationed at Stirling Castle in Scotland and this is where Patrick spent most of his years. In 1879, the then 25 year old Patrick was stationed at Stirling Castle when he married a 19 year old domestic servant, Agnes Risk. They were married at 33 Baker Street, Stirling on 15 Feb 1879.

A notable point on this image above is that Patrick’s father James is also listed as having been a private in the 91st Highlanders (but is deceased by this date).  I have very little other information about Patrick’s parents besides this fact.

Patrick and Agnes had 12 children together between 1879 and 1900, including 10 girls and 2 boys.

1. Catherine Gallagher b. 19 Jul 1879, Stirling
2. Isabella Gallagher b. 9 Feb 1881, Stirling
3. Mary Gallagher  b. abt 1882, Natal, South Africa
4. Agnes Gallagher b. 5 Nov 1884, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa
5. Jane Gallagher (my great-grandmother) b. 3 Nov 1886, Stirling
6. Margaret Gallagher b. 31 May 1888, Stirling
7. Susan Mary Gallagher b. 7 Apr 1890, Stirling
8. Rose Ellor Gallagher b. 5 Feb 1892, Stirling
9. Christina Gallagher b. 3 Dec 1893, Stirling
10. James Gallagher b. 18 May 1896, Stirling
11. John Gallagher b. 30 Sept 1897, Stirling
12. Louise Gallagher b. 21 May 1900, Stirling

It is interesting to note that two of Patrick and Agnes’s children, Mary and Agnes, were born in South Africa. During this time, the 91st Highlanders (by this time known as The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) was stationed in South Africa and performing peacekeeping duties in the Province of Natal following the Anglo-Zulu War. Though the 91st Highlanders did see action in the Zulu War in 1879, it is unclear whether Patrick himself was involved in the operations.

How, or why, Patrick’s wife (and possibly children) were with him in South Africa in the early 1880′s is an area still to be explored. It certainly seems to be the case that at least Agnes was with him.

By November of 1886, Patrick and Agnes were back in Stirling living in the Military Married Quarters of Stirling Castle.  On a trip to Stirling Castle in September 2009, these buildings were pointed out to me by a guide.  They sit just below the entrance to the castle.

It appears that Patrick left the army sometime in the early 1890s and spent the remainder of his life doing various jobs including general labourer, Officer’s servant, waiter and valet.

He lived for several years at 60 St. Mary’s Wynd, Stirling.  An address which no longer has the original building standing.  However, an image of St. Mary’s Wynd taken around the turn of the century is on display in Stirling.

Patrick lived at St. Mary’s Wynd until his death in 1908.  While researching his death date, I was aided by a distant cousin that I had connected with on Ancestry.ca; we both shared Patrick Gallagher as an ancestor.  Combining our information let me finally find the entry for his death.  It was under the name ‘Gallocher’ – a common Scottish mispelling of Gallagher.  But the entry for the cause of death was certainly unexpected, it read “Decapitation the result of being run over by a train.”  It certainly seemed a dreadful way to go!

So when I was in Stirling, I met up with my 3rd cousin Linda who had driven up from England to meet me (her daughter was the cousin that had helped me find the death record).  We wanted to research what had happened to our Patrick Gallagher and find out how he could have been hit by a train.  We visited the local library to review the newspaper clippings of the day, assuming that such an event would be mentioned in the local paper.  It took us only a few minutes to discover the tragic fate that Patrick himself had chosen.

I can only speculate what it was that finally pushed 54 year old Patrick to this final decision.  Had he seen things or done things in the army that were too much to handle? Did his meager earnings for his large family make him feel hopeless?  Or was he despondent over something completely different?  I guess we’ll never really know.  Patrick left Agnes behind to raise the children that were still at home (the youngest being 8 when he died).  Agnes herself would die from a gastric ulcer only a few years later in 1916.

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Further research to this post was conducted and some facts are corrected or new ones added on this post.