Lieutenant Colonel Hon. Charles Lindsay...Court Martialled

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:10 pm

Hello Mary,

I think that all the references you are seeing in the 19th Century publications prior to 1889 referring to Colonel the Hon. Charles Lindsay and so on are for Colonel Hon. Charles Hugh Lindsay born 11 November 1816, died 25 March 1889, the son of James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford. There’s a short biography in one of the links I posted previously and everything fits to him.

There can’t be too many noble families by the name of Lindsay. All family stories should be tested for validity and it would probably not be too difficult a task and relatively inexpensive by use of census information, especially in that time period, to follow up those families and see who they contain. That’s if you doubt the published biographies.

It can be said that he was written out of family records but you can’t change old volumes of Burkes and birth and census records and if he wasn’t in the families during his younger years before his alleged transgression then he wasn’t part of those families. I’m not saying you should doubt your grandfather’s story just that no family story should be taken for granted unless tested.

I’m wondering how far you’ve been down the usual track of family history research, i.e. death certificates, census returns and the like. Do you have your grandfather’s death certificate and does it show his age and date of death, place of birth and parents names and so on as it usually would in New Zealand. What details do you know of his previous wife and family?

If you believe there is important information on the gravestone why would it not be on the death certificate. Since his was a relatively recent death the chances are there would be records available that would pin-point the grave if you thought there may be important information there.

If you haven’t already done the usual research to the greatest extent possible it may be wiser to put the story to one side for the time being and perhaps concentrate on this because even if you do find military records you will probably have no way of being certain they are his. One small thing I should mention is that the term “sale or commutation” is likely to be just part of the normal retirement process following the abolition of the sale of commissions around 1870 as indicated at the bottom of this London Gazette page.

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPD ... uePage&all

If you need help in tracking down his family don’t hesitate to ask but you may have to provide or obtain some additional information if possible to have much chance of success. That’s unless someone else comes up with some better ideas.

Hope that’s useful and all the best,
Alan.

garibaldired · Post by **garibaldired** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:15 pm

Hi Mary and a warm welcome to Talking Scot

,

I don't know whether this is of any use to you.
I had a gt uncle who was killed by a soldier and the soldier was recommended for court martial. I could find no trace of any court martial at The National Archives so I wrote to

Office of thr Judge Advocate General
81 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1BQ.

They were very helpful.
Best wishes,
Meg

marylindsay · Post by **marylindsay** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:37 pm

Hi Allan, You have given me food for thought! The information on the gravestone would have given me the date of death and from there I could have got his death certificate. I don't believe it is poppy cock as apparently His Sister hs a painting of him in uniform. Maybe the story has been exagerated over the years. Maybe he wasn't using his real name afterall. Never mind thanks for your help. I'll wait on Aunt Doreen to provide something concrete. In the meantime, I will get hold of Father's Death Certificate.
With Thanks
Mary

marylindsay · Post by **marylindsay** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:53 pm

Good Morning Garibaldred! I hope I remembered that correctly. That sounds like a great idea! It wasn't uncommon for Remittance Men to change their names. I have been tying to find the Lists of remittance Men here with no luck. Thank you for the suggestion. I will follow it up. You would think it would be easy to find in a country as small as NZ,but, no we're to young to value our past apparently.
Good luck with your search.
Regards
Mary

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:16 am

Back again Mary,

‘Remittance Men’ is a label generally applied to individuals bribed by wealthy families to stay away from home. I don’t know how their payments were arranged but I imagine they would all have been done privately.

There are several books containing lists of Remittance Men. I don’t know how they are compiled, perhaps from information gleaned from other publications. Probably they represent only a fraction of those that actually were. But then the number of real remittance men, i.e. those fitting the definition, is probably a tiny fraction of popular perception especially because of the frequent use of the term in a derogatory way.

This page mentions a book on New Zealand Remittance men and refers to a list.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/LO ... 0962906784

The link to the list is broken but is available here.
http://pearlspad.net.nz/ColonialOutcasts.htm

Hope this helps,
Alan

marylindsay · Post by **marylindsay** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 3:57 am

Hi Alan,
I am at it again. I visited Pearls Pad in the beginning but couldn't find him there. The payments had to have been paid via some lawyer or Department, as Father said that as soon as his Father died, the payments stopped. I presume that they would watch the Bereavements Notices. I know we used to do that in the Bank when I was working, so we could freeze the accounts. If he had changed his name I guess the cause will be lost. However, we will keep looking until it becomes clear that it is a lost cause. Thanks once again for your help.

Cheers Mary