Murder of Wilts Militia soldier Corfu 1855

[Whitehorse]

The Royal Wilts Militia were on Corfu in 1855 when one of their men by the name of Maslen was stabbed on 3rd September and died on the 5th. There are a couple of press reports of the incident but neither mention his first name. I have emailed twice the Corfu Cemetery attendant but on both occasions the response is ‘awaiting verification.’ I have had no reply.

Has anyone identified this man or has anyone suggestions that might help identify him?
Thank you.

[keith9351]

There was a thread a number of years ago about tracing a person in this Regiment in Corfu that Peter Goodey answered.

https://www.british-genealogy.com/fo...tshire-Militia

Keith

[Whitehorse]

Thanks Keith - I looked through over 1200 Maslen names on FMP (military) but had no luck. Just found out that there are Wilts Militia papers at Wiltshire Archives, Chippenham for that period.

[wimsey]

on FMP if I put in 1855 as a death date, those 1200 entries reduce to 47 and of those there are two with Wiltshire references

George Maslen born 1829
Thomas Maslen born 1823

if I remove 1855 but then insert Wiltshire as location it still reduces the 1200 to 58


I don't suppose it makes any difference to your search but the newspaper articles about his murder call him "of the Grenadier Company" - which I guess means nothing in particular

[helachau]

FMP has the overseas death of (note spelling):-
Original image; Sheet/Page 111, James Maslin, Corfu, 8 32
FMP Transcript; Name - James Maslin, Sex - Male, Death Year - 1818-64, Place - Corfu, Country - Greece, Vessel - Corfu, Type - Armed Forces, Source - Gro Ionian Islands Military Registration Deaths (1818-1864), Archives ref. - DIMN, Vol - 8, Page 32

At a loss to identify year of death?

[Whitehorse]

Thanks wimsey for your interest.
I had already looked at the two names with deaths in 1855 - FMP gives no details of deaths for either.
I assume that ‘guardsman’ is a branch of the Wilts Militia - the other press report is an account of the murder by a member of the WM and he states that the victim was from the WM.

[Whitehorse]

to Wimsey
I should of course have written Grenadier Company and not guardsman

[Whitehorse]

Helachau - this is interesting. Unless I am able to arrange a search of the registers at the British Cemetery identification seems unlikely. Could find no evidence that a vessel Corfu existed at that time. Thanks for your interest.

[helachau]

Are you familiar with the General Register Office (GRO)? A copy of an overseas death cert can be obtained via their "Place an order" process.
There's no Reference No. in this instance or year of death but they offer to search 1 yr either side of any year specified. Hence you'd be taking a chance in asking them to search 1855 for James Maslin and quite possibly not get a result for your money.
I found reference to Vessel "Corfu" odd but since these records also cover "Deaths at Sea" was not surprised.

[Whitehorse]

No - I was not aware that o’seas certificates could be obtained. I started the process but a requirement is date of birth or age which I could not give. There is no provision for + or - for a given age either.
Thanks again.