Lt Colonel R C Coates

[Pilot Pete]

Has anyone researched this man? He was a Major in September 1914, commanding 51st. battery, 39th. Brigade Royal Field Artillery in the battle of the Aisne. My maternal Grandfather was his battery Sgt Major and was KIA on September 26th. Major Coates wrote to my Grandmother from an address on the Isle of Wight a month later. My mother was one year and two days old when her father died. In 1937 she married E G Coates and I am trying to find out if there is a connection.
All information will be most welcome.
Derek

[christanel]

Welcome to British-Genealogy Pilot Pete

To trace the lineage of the E G Coates your mother married you need their marriage certificate which will give father's names and occupations. FreeBMD will have the details. I took a look but there is more than one E G Coates marrying in 1937, you will know which is the correct one. Then you order the cert from GRO Here

R C Coates Medal Card is on ancestry and The National Archives site and he has a distinctive middle name so may be easier to trace back to find his parentage. Reginald Carlyon Coates.

I will take a look

Christina

[christanel]

Reginald Carlyon Coates married Alice Maud Daly 15 June 1903 registration district Farnham Surrey vol 2apage 271. His father George Alexander Augustus Coates who according to the 1881 census was a Rector and born in Wales


His probate record
Reginald Carlyon Coates
Probate Date - 16 Dec 1958
Death Date - 27 Sep 1958 London
Probate granted to Henry Venour Coates retired Commander RN and William Reginald Cox, Major General HM Army.

[Peter Goodey]

In 1937 she married E G Coates and I am trying to find out if there is a connection.

You need to trace the ancestry of E G Coates backwards, obtaining certificates as you go. The marriage certificate will be a good starting point. You'll need full names, not initials. Put R C Coates on the back burner. If there's a connection, it will emerge.

[Pilot Pete]

Following Peter and Christina's good advice, I have been very busily researching both my father's and R C Coates' families. So far it seems there is no connection and it seems that the families are diverging, geographically speaking.
Most of my time has been spent trying to trace my Granddad & Grandmother's families - Ridgley & Trusler. This is going well apart from one thing. I can find no record of my Grandmother receiving a pension following her husband's death (KIA 26/9/1914). Grand father was 20267 Battery Sergeant Major Ernest Alfred James Ridgley, 51st. Battery, 39 Brigade Royal Field Artillery. I've spent several hours browsing through the WW1 pension records on Ancestry without success. He does appear on the register of soldier's effects, Gran got a gratuity of £12 in 1919. Worth around £1000 today I think!
If anyone knows of another source of Army Widow's Pension information, I would be very grateful for their help.
Derek

[Peter Goodey]

I've spent several hours browsing through the WW1 pension records on Ancestry without success

I'm afraid that's not really surprising. What you're looking at there is National Archives series WO364. It's well worth reading the description in the catalogue

...copies of service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks who were discharged from the Army and claimed disability pensions for war service between 1914 and 1920 and did not re-enlist prior to the outbreak of the Second World War...they are unlikely to contain any papers for men who were...killed in action

I think the series you want is PIN 82

https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...tails/r/C11595

or possibly PIN 26

https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...tails/r/C11539

In both these series, only a small sample of records were kept.

[Peter Goodey]

By the way, does anyone know when army widows' pensions came in?

[christanel]

This link may help Peter?

Christina