Elkins Family: Harry Elkins

[kermie62]

I am doing some research for a friend who discovered a few years ago that her father was not her father and only had a few clues about her real Dad. I was lucky enought to be able to help her and find that her father was killed in Papua in WWII and his father and mothers names. Unfortunately I hit a bit of a brick but had some luck and discovered via trove that he had a half brother on his mothers side who was also in the army. The details I have found on his war service record is as follows

Name: Harry Lawrence Elkins
Born: 31st March 1906
Place: Margate England
Mother: Elizabeth in this record but in other records: Emily

(National Australian Archive)

I cant find any record in Freebmd for a Harry Elkins born in 1906 on the free BMD.

I also cant find any record of him in the census data.

Unfortunately Harry was captured in Singapore when it fell and he died on the Burma Railway. There is a site called the War graves photographic project that gives his father but I dont know where they got this information.

Can anyone help me find any records for Harry in England

Thankyou

[Thomasin]

Have you seen the website called Beacon Western Australia? Under Beacon War Memorial this has a piece on Harry, with the name of his widow.

[Thomasin]

Could this be Harry in 1911? RG14PN2881 RD30 SD2 ED25 SN9999

Emily ELKIN wife 27 b. Romford, Essex (married 5 years, 3 children, 2 living)
Harry ELKIN son 5 b. Margate, Kent
Edward ELKIN son 1 b. Woolwich, Kent

Cambridge Cottages, New Road, Woolwich

[Thomasin]

It looks as if Harry Elkins (senior) married Emily Roeper in the last quarter of 1906 in the Dover district.

I can see a registration for Edward Charles, but as you say, nothing for Harry.

[Thomasin]

Cambridge Cottages was a military establishment, and I wouldn't mind betting that this is Harry senior in 1911, based in the Canterbury Barracks:

Lance Corporal Henry Francis Charles Elkins b. Umballa, India. Age 27, says he is single (??), and in the 9th Lancers.

RG14PN4345 RD58 SD1 ED29 SN9999 (copyright TNA).

[kermie62]

Thanks for all the help Guys/Gals. It looks like you got him. I will be able to pass onto my friend and tell her what her grandmothers name was and she can start researching the line

Sometimes when you do family history, you come across things that bring history back to hit you between the eyes.

I found the reference in Trove, a site with old Australian newspapers onliner and it was a memorial page in 1945. The page is full of memorials to people who died as POW's, not then but in the preceeding years. Just pages and pages of sons lost to families and the families grief. Obviously, it was at this time, word had come back from overseas of who had died and so there was the wave of grief in the papers. I find it very moving and rather eerie

[Thomasin]

It can be very moving. One of my relatives by marriage died as a POW while being transported to work on the railroad in Sumatra. He went down on one of the Japanese 'hell ships' which was torpedoed by an English submarine. His wife only learned of his death after the war, but she and the family never knew the details. I was able to do some delving quite recently and discovered what had happened.

By the way, I'm a Gal!

[Kerrywood]

It looks as if Harry Elkins (senior) married Emily Roeper in the last quarter of 1906 in the Dover district.

I can see a registration for Edward Charles, but as you say, nothing for Harry.

Picking up on Thomasin's excellent research, perhaps this is the birth index record?

Births
Jun Qtr 1906
ROEPER Henry Lawrence
Thanet 2a 1057

If so, that might explain why he was a half-brother.

[kermie62]

Thanks Thomasin. I thought the Gals part of "Thanks for all the help Guys/Gals." covered ya. Thanks Kerrywood as well, the ever reliable and font of knowledge.

The half brother came about because Emily Roeper was widowed at a date to be determined and married again to a Sameul Veal and had a child George. The actual newspaper article was

The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954) Wednesday 19 September 1945
ELKINS-VEAL.-A tribute to the mem- ory of Pte H. Elkins. died whilst POW in Japanese hands, August 12. 1943: also his Brother. Pte G. Veal. killed in action Lae, September 14. 1942: devoted sons of our dear friend. Mrs E. Veal. Inserted by Mr and Mrs Austin and family (Greenmount)

Harry must have been born before they were married