04 May 2015

George Meadus Robbins

Some searches are more difficult than most due to the lack of any records. However, it is usually only one thread of information that we need to unravel the whole story.
I recently received the WWI trio awarded to 12866 George Meadus Robbins, Royal Marine Artillery, from Ron B of Guildford West NSW. There is no record of George being in Australia so how his medals ended up here is a mystery. There is also very little information in the UK records other than a couple of census entries where he is referred to as George M.
The only time I came across his full name is on one Ancestry family tree. I was soon in touch with the owner who very generously helped me out.
The following information is what we put together.
George was:
born on 26 Dec 1890 in Lewisham, Kent
living in Lewisham in the 1891 census
living in Kidbrooke in the 1901 census
enlisted in the Royal Marine Artillery on 23 Feb 1912
It is possible he died in 1955 in Portsmouth.
George had four siblings.
William Frank Robbins, born 1883 in Chichester, married in 1910 to Ellen Rapley. They had two children - Violet May Robbins, born 1911 in Chertsey; and William J Robbins, born 1919 in Chertsey.
Keturah Ellen Grath Robbins, born 1885 in Chichester.
Henry James Robbins, born 1887 in Chichester, for marriage see above.
Frederick John Robbins, born 1889 in Chichester.
Henry appears to have served in the Canadian Army during WWI.  He married Lilian Allen in Deptford, London on 10 Dec 1917 - so he must have been granted leave. His occupation on marriage is give as CFA which which confirms the service during WWI.
Keturah was known as Ellen or Helen and we think she was married to a W Evans.
None of this information led either Andrew or I to locate any descendents in this generation. Andrew then provided the following. George's mother was Keturah Jane Meadus and her brother named James Meadus. His great grand son is Mark (born in Portsmouth, England) and his son is Adam.
Based on all this research I've been in contact with Adam and I'll be sending the medals to him shortly.
This return could not have been done with out Andrew's considerable help.
The returned medals tally is now 1674.

2 comments:

  1. Ahhhh didn't know you did British ones ... I have bypassed cheap ones on Ebay ... I wont anymore :)
    Job well done as always.

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  2. That's brilliant. Having just clarified my grandfathers medals and worked out how he got them I have a massive respect for what you are doing. It must bring people a great deal of peace.

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