I received a WWI pair recently from Rod P of Cairns which set off a fascinating bit of research.
695 Albert Budd Carter was a 40 year old furnace man from South Shields, England. In 1915 he was living in Melbourne with his wife Jane. When he enlisted he was allocated to 57th Battalion, AIF. The battalion was involved in the Battle of Mont St Quentin in August 1918 and then further fighting around Bellicourt in late August. It was here, on 29 August 1918, that Albert was killed in action, just six weeks before Armistice Day.
Other than a couple of electoral roll entries up until 1919 there was very little details about Jane. By 1923 all mention of her had disappeared from the records.
From the Commonwealth War Graves entry we had Albert's parent's name, James and Hannah, and where they were from in England. To help out, Bill enlisted assistance from the Australian Surname Group. Within a couple of hours we had the names of Albert's siblings and clues from immigration records about Albert. He was a seafarer and hence his occupant as a furnace man. A few other clues led me to locate several siblings who emigrated to Queensland and then to NSW. After following a few promising leads around the Sydney suburbs I ran in to dead ends. It is then I went back to Albert's eldest bother, Walter James Carter.
Walter married Louisa Bricknell in Queensland and they had four children. One was named Charles Edward after another of Albert's siblings. Charles married Ivy and their son is Graham Carter. I found Graham in the electoral rolls in 1977. A quick check of the White Pages had a G Carter at the same address so I took a punt and rang the number. To my relief I found the right family.
This research was a little difficult but thanks to all the individual pieces of information I received I was able to put together the solution is a little over 24 hours. Thank you to all those who assisted and to Rod who sent me these medals along with the O'Rourke medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1514.
Graham has had Albert's medals mounted and framed. He has kindly provided my some photos and permission to publish them.
Thank you so much Glyn and team for your efforts which has led to a home for the medals.
ReplyDeleteGreat story ... well done Bill and his team :)
ReplyDeleteRemembrance Day this year had special significance for me with the knowledge of my Great-Uncle's service and sacrifice. Thank you again Glyn and team for tracing his medals.
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