X00393 What happened to Robert Westwell (b. 1868) after 1891 - Solved!

Tracing the Military Life of Robert Westwell (born 1868)

Every so often, a familiar name in my family tree resurfaces with just enough mystery to pull me back in. One such figure is Robert Westwell, born in 1868 [X00393]. I had written previously about finding him listed as a soldier in the 1891 census, but after that, the trail went cold. With no obvious civilian records to follow, I turned my attention to military sources in hopes of discovering what became of him.

My first promising lead was a medal index entry for an “R. Westwell”, awarded the King’s South Africa Medal for service in the Second Boer War, dated 1 October 1902. This soldier served with the East Lancashire Regiment under regimental number 9502. It was an intriguing match, but the medal card alone did not provide enough detail to confirm whether this was my Robert.

The breakthrough came when I searched deeper into the military collections on Find My Past. There, I found a full service record for a Robert Westwell, also of the East Lancashire Regiment, and crucially bearing the same regimental number, 9502. The question now was whether I could confidently link this soldier to the Robert Westwell from my family.

Several clues aligned neatly including the age shown throughout the military papers, which matched the birth year of 1868. As well his occupation given in 1886 was a warehouseman, the same occupation that Robert Westwell held in the 1881 census.

But the decisive evidence came from the names he listed as his next of kin. His original contacts were:

• Ellen Hill, married sister, living on Riley Street, Blackburn
• Elizabeth Jane, sister
• Martha, sister

These names correspond perfectly with what I already knew about the siblings of my Robert Westwell. With that, I felt confident that the soldier in the records and the man in my family tree were indeed the same person.

As his military career progressed, the next-of-kin information changed. Later entries list a wife named Ellen and a daughter named Rhoda May, both living at 16 Abbott Street in Blackburn. The marriage date is given as 21 May 1894.

Armed with this information, locating the marriage record was straightforward. The certificate confirmed and to further verify the connection, the father is listed as Robert Westwell, and one of the witnesses is listed as Martha Westwell.

From there, the remaining pieces of his life fell into place with much more ease. What began as a missing chapter in the 1890s has now expanded into a fuller picture of a man who served abroad, maintained close ties to his sisters, married, and raised a family back home in Blackburn.

It is always satisfying when a long-standing mystery resolves itself through a combination of persistence, pattern recognition, and a bit of luck. Robert’s story is another reminder of how military records can illuminate the lives of ancestors who might otherwise slip through the cracks of the historical record.

John Robert Westwell Military

I have switched over from working on my Taylor/Rothwell branches to working on my Westwell branches.

One thing that I was pursuing was the discovery that Robert Westwell, born 1868 was a soldier according to the 1891 census:

So, I took advantage of a free trial from Fold3 to look for British military records for a Robert Westwell. While I didn't come across anything definite that would match the Robert Westwell that I am looking for, I did come across a record for a John Robert Westwell.

While it's not the name that I'm looking for, could it be connected to the same Westwell family? Further inspection of the record indicates that John Robert Westwell lived in Blackburn, Lancashire, like the rest of the Westwell family.

Looking further, I see that John Robert Westwell enlisted in 1858 at age 18, and was listed as being 39 years of age in 1879, both facts suggesting a birth year of 1840.

But a name of John Robert Westwell born in 1840 doesn't match with my Westwell family, because there is is a Robert Westwell born in 1838 and a John Westwell born in 1850, so it does not appear that this individual is connected to my family - at least not unless it is much farther back.

X00390 Charles Taylor after 1861 - Part 2

As I continue to try to find out more about Charles Taylor after 1861, I have been checking the hints on Ancestry and there is one death record for a Charles Taylor in 1934 that shows up. A number of other researchers have put his year of death as 1934, likely because of this record. So I decided to go and get it.

The name and age match, but that's about it. The profession is different from any other profession that I've seen in other records and the name of the informant as his son doesn't match any of his sons in other records. The location of the death is Blackburn, but Charles doesn't seem to have much of a connection to Blackburn other than having spent his younger years living there. So, this does not appear to be the right death record.

Unfortunately finding a death record is going to be a challenge. Charles Taylor is a commmon name, and he moved around a lot, so there's not much to go on there. I don't have a year of death either, other than that he appears in the 1911 census, so the death would have been after 1911. The only hope is that a death record would have some clear identifying information on it, such as a profession or an informant name. In this case, however, this would mean buying a large number of death certificates in the hopes of finding a key identifying piece of information in one of them.

Instead, I turned my attention to his wife, Eliza Aylward Taylor. She appears in the 1901 census, but Charles is listed as a widower in the 1911 census, so she must have died between 1901 and 1911. And like Charles Taylor, finding any definite death information for someone with a common name like Eliza Taylor, who moved around a lot with no definite death year is a challenge. But I managed to get lucky.

Find a Grave has a memorial for an Eliza Taylor who died on 3 August 1907 and is buried in Lincolnshire, England. The year of birth is 1859, which matches. But the gravestone says on it "Eliza, the beloved wife of Charles Taylor, R.N. Chief Officer, Royal Coast Guard". So I have at least managed to find her death information.

X00390 Charles Taylor after 1861 - Part 1

I'm trying to sort out the children of John Taylor and Jane Whittle and what happened to the family after 1861 when both John and Jane died. I have been able to piece together most of the family, except for a couple of them: John Taylor (to be discussed later) and Chalres Taylor (X00390)

Charles Taylor was born 13 August 1856 in Blackburn, Lancashire. I have found him in the 1861 census living with the rest of the family and attending school. But beyond that it gets a little sketchy. Both of his parents died in 1861 when he was five years old. As well, Charles Taylor is a very common name, particularly in Blackburn.

I checkd on Ancestry for suggestions. An 1871 census record for Accrington, Lancashire has a Charles Taylor of the right age listed as an orphan, which does fit:

A number of other later census records mention a member of the Navy living in various different locations, but the name, year and location of birth all match. Could it be that Charles Taylor was orphaned at age five and ended up joining the Navy at a young age? It certainly would fit and would explain why he moved around from place to place.

The key clue that I found was in a marriage record between a Charles Taylor and an Eliza Aylward in Portsea, Hampshire in 1877. At first, Portsea did seem out of place, but it does make sense if he was in the Navy and moved around a lot. So, I ordered a copy of it:

The name and age match, and the profession is listed as a seaman, which would coincide with the later records of a Charles Taylor in the Navy born in Blackburn. And, his father is listed as a John Taylor an iron foundry worker, which also matches.

And so, it looks as if I have found the right Charles Taylor and with that I can continue to piece together his life after 1861.

William Bastoph Civil War Stories

I was doing some research on William Bastoph, who was the second husband of Edith Williams.

From some of my initial research, it appeared that William had quite a history to him, having been a civil war veteran. But his background story became potentially more interesting when I found an unsourced story about him in Ancestry that someone had posted.

In the story it mentions that William Bastoph was wounded in battle at one point and left on the battlefield for dead. A friend of his went out after the battle, found Bastoph and rescued him. The article went on to say that after the war he went on to become a civil engineer and built bridges throughout the American West. It also mentioned that he evidently had enlisted in the war because of a fallout with a girlfriend.

So, I decided to look into some of these stories to see if any of them could be backed up with sources. I checked with Newspapers.com and Newspaperarchive.com and found a number of articles that confirmed his civil engineering history

To investigate the Civil War side of things, I found through his service record that he served in the 103rd Regiment

I then managed to find a Battallion history for the 103th Regiment

and sure enough there is a personal account of the Battle of Seven Pines that mentions William Bastoph:

"When we got back to the open space where we had rallied our force we saw a line of soldiers in the woods to the left of that position. They stood, in grim silence, and in good order, and as we had not expected to see an enemy there we thought they were our own men ; but noticing straw hats and gray uniforms among them, we were perplexed with doubts. I stood on a stump to have a better view, and halloed out to them, 'show your colors.'

It was not a discreet thing to do, and I realized that when their guns came to an aim. I dropped quickly behind the stump, and their bullets splashed sand and water in my face. Our doubts were dispelled it was now every man for himself with us. I crawled into a thicket towards the rear, and when I came out at the other side I saw Corp. Bostaph of my company staggering from a wound under his arm. Sergt. Rimer and I took hold of him and helped him along. A man of Co. D, told me that Gillespie had fallen. As we came in view of Couch's line men called to us to hurry back.

Within the lines I met again the colonel of the 96th New York, and he advised our party to seek our Regiments. By this time we had had enough fighting for one day, and so we took his advice and continued our course to the rear. We placed Bostaph in an ambulance. It was five o'clock when we found our regiment, a mile to the rear."

And so I've found some more documentation to back up the story. Plus a whole lot more to research about that battle and his war service. As for the fallout with a girlfriend story, that may take some more research to verify

In Remembrance

Today being the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1, I thought I'd post a remembrance to all of those in my tree who fought in the war

Edwin Ashton	BEF	Survived WW1
Lawrence Ashton	75th Bn CEF	Died September 2, 1918
Charles A. Brown	4th Signal Co. CEF	Survived WW1
Wilfred M. Brown	Can Signal Pool, CEF	Survived WW1
Herbert Hewett Burnet	CEF	Survived WW1
Everett Delahaye	US Military	Survived WW1
Peter Delahaye	US Military	Survived WW1
John C. Douglas	20th Bn CEF	Survived WW1
Stewart Arnold Douglas	CEF	Survived WW1
Thomas W. Douglas	3rd MGC CEF	Survived WW1
Reynold Hardy	CEF	Survived WW1
Duncan Hook	Lancashire Fusiliers, BEF	Died July 8, 1915
Geoffrey Hook	Royal Air Force, BEF	Died April 10, 1918
Harry Theodore Hook	BEF	Survived WW1
Robin Hook	Lancashire Fusiliers, BEF	Died August 7, 1915
Valentine Hook	Royal West Surrey Regiment, BEF	Died May 3, 1917
Howard Radford Letty	CEF	Died October 8, 1916
George Russell Miller	CEF	Survived WW1
James Piggott	CEF	Survived WW1
Christopher Place	King's Royal Rifles, BEF	Died February 19, 1917
Thomas Place	East Lancashire Regiment, BEF	Died August 13, 1915
John Raymond Price	CEF	Survived WW1
Emerson Claude Smith	4th Canadian Mounted Rifles CEF	Died June 7, 1917
George Wilfred "Fred" Smith	15th Bn CEF	Died July 22, 1918
John McLeod Wainwright	CEF	Survived WW1