Morrison Family.....

AnnieMack · Post by **AnnieMack** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:01 pm

I have posted a photograph of Robert & Susan Morrison (nee Canning) with their children:

http://www.talkingscot.com/gallery/disp ... =53&pos=25

I need help with oldest son John as I can find no trace of him other than this pic and his birth certificate. I feel he has been killed in the war but don't know how to start a query with Kew as I don't know regiment or anything else. I have posted another pic previously but the more I look at it, the more I feel they are not the same people.

http://www.talkingscot.com/gallery/disp ... =53&pos=27

I am going round in circles here!

Hope soembody can help before I wear a hole in the floor

Annie x

Muriel · Post by **Muriel** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:19 pm

Annie, If you think he might have been killed in WW1, try the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. It's www.cwgc.org. You just need to put in the surname & initial, which war & which service - in your case army - & it'll come up with all the casualties with that name. You can then scroll down & look for any of the right age. Thereafter it's a bit hit & miss; when people were killed their families were given the opportunity to give their details so that the record will then say "son of" or "husband of". Quite a lot of people didn't reply - too traumatised probably - but some did & then you can be sure. It would certainly narrow down you search because I can't see anything on the uniform that would give much of a clue.

Muriel

AnnieMack · Post by **AnnieMack** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:08 pm

Have tried that Muriel but there are just too many as John Morrison is a common name

He just doesn't want to be found.

Annie

Muriel · Post by **Muriel** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:10 pm

What IS it with these rellies that they vanish into the wide, blue yonder with nary a clue - do you think they had any idea what trouble they were going to cause & did it out of sheer badness

Mluriel

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:29 am

Annie

About the only hope that I can see is that an expert with a magnifying glass might be able to make out the cap and/or collar badges (the mounted photo). It may or may not be possible to scan at a sufficiently high dpi. It could be worth a letter to the Army Museum, but don't send the original photo, - instead get a professional photographer to take a photo of the original photo.

(Incidentally, what's going on in the background?, - doesn't look like a theatre of war. Could this be someone at home before leaving for South Africa as part of the Imperial Yeomanry?)

I'm tempted to see the bonnet as being a diced Glengarry, - see the ribbons down the back which tend to confirm that the headdress is a glengarry.

As far as I know the glengarry has only ever been worn by Scottish regiments (since 1851, apart from The Black Watch who stuck to their Kilmarnock/Tam o' Shanter blue bonnet until the late 1950s.)

My initial suspicion was the Royal Artillery but now I've got myself totally confused..............

It would be possible at NRH to look through all the Minor Records entries for a John Morrison between 1914 and 1918, but there's no guarantee that these will contain a link that proves that any entry is your man.

Similarly, only a proportion of the CWGC site entries have next-of-kin information, and some don't even have an age.

David

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:31 am

In the first photo with the family is it possible he is in the provost corps, as he has some sort of armband on his left upper sleeve. At a guess with a sepia print, and judging by it shade it appears it could be red? I may be wrong but I dont think lettered MP armbands came in until much later.