Mrs W J Partridge - Victoria 1896

[FredP]

Can anyone tell me anything about MRS W J PARTRIDGE who arrived in Victoria (Port B) agrd 39 on board the 'AUSTRAL' in March 1896 (Fiche 605 - p 006)?

In particular, whether she had any connection with WILLIAM JOHN PARTRIDGE, born 9th Septembetr 1844 in LAMBETH, Surrey, who disappears from English records after leaving the Royal Engineers on pension at the beginning of 1886, and is said to have gone to Australia. He could have made a second marriage any time after September 1892.

Any fragment of information would be most welcome. It's been a long search.

Thanks, FredP.

[Geoffers]

His service record should record his intended place of residence on retirement from the army and may indicate that he was going to settle in Australia. Other than that, his pension record should say where the pension was paid.

His service record will show his next-of-kin, and possibly record his marriage and then you would have the forenames which may help to find out what happened to her.

TNA has research guides which may help to explain better than I can:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp
scroll down to 'B' and look under 'British Army'.

If you are in Australia, I appreciate that access to TNA may not be that easy; but these are the sources I'd check first.

Geoffers

[FredP]

Thanks, Geoffers,
No, I am in England. W J P was my grandfather. It was my father who told me he went to Australia, but he was probably only 3 or 4 when he last saw him. I have been through the Army papers at Kew and the discharge papers, and I have his Army Book and his Marraige Cert (1868) and my grandmother's original death certificate, registered by Chatham Union Workhouse in 1892.
He said he was intending to reside in Southampton (where the family lived) when he left on pension in 1886, but by 1891 my father was in lodgings (aged 8) with his eldest brother who was also in the army, in Chatham. My grandmother was working in Chatham at another address.
Any second marriage would have not been recorded in army records - there aren't any anyhow. Pension records after 1883 seem impossible to trace. They could not help me at e="MARGIN: 0px">He said he was intending to reside in Southampton (where the family lived) when he left on pension in 1886, but by 1891 my father was in lodgings (aged 8) with his eldest brother who was also in the army, in Chatham. My grandmother was working in Chatham at another address.
Any second marriage would have not been recorded in army records - there aren't any anyhow. Pension records after 1883 seem impossible to trace. They could not help me at Kew, and the Royal Engineers archives did a search and came up with nothing. Yet he was said to have been alive, by the authorities, in 1920, although they would not divulghe his address. I am currently wading through what are termed 'the unburnt records' on micto-film, but this seems to be confined to officers. So I clutch at any hint of a brakthrough.
FredP.

[nugget]

Hello Fred, not so much to do with Mrs. P. but, Mr W.J."Sailor Bill" Partridge.
There is mention in a book, {"Klondike" The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush. by Pierre Berton, 1st edition, 1958, {an historical account of the Yokon/Klondike Gold Rush} of a WJP having been in Dawson {Canada} around 1898/99.

Quote; p.369/370. " They came from all over the world and from every background and creed. Frank Slavin, the heavyweight champion of the british empire, was part of the throng that surged into Dawson, and so was W.J. "Sailor Bill" Partridge, who had become so rich from Queensland {Aus.} gold that he never wore the same suit twice, even though he changed clothes several times a day."

If W.J. was in Australia pre 1898, it was the Boom days of the gold rush, especially in Queensland, Gold being discovered at Gympie in 1867, The Palmer river and Charters towers in 1872 that lasted till 1905, and beyond. Many People/Prospectors from Victoria {Aus.} rushed to Queensland during the rush. News of the Klondike would have attracted many of those to Dawson which was boasted dozens of hotels and movie theaters{movie's were invented only 3 yrs earlier} and gamblers willing to bet $50,000 on the turn of a card. Such was the life.
sorry for blurting on, but mayb, just mayb.........
the book is stiil in print and is an amazing read of the times....regards...nugget.

[FredP]

Thank you Nugget for this most interesting suggestion. It isn't the sort of information I was expecting, though I had thought he might have tried to seek out a cousin's family that seemed to be prospering in the Geelong area of Victoria at the time. One of their descendents became a 'banker and diamond broker' in Queensland. His own sister back in England virtually described him as a 'scrounger' when making her Will.
FredP.