Pensioner at age 32?

[taniav]

Can anyone help? William Donovan born 19 Oct 1894 in Poplar, London is recorded on his marraige cert in 1919 as a farm labourer from Thannington and then on his son's birth cert in 1927 it says he is a tractor driver - army pensioner, but he would have only been about 32
How is this possible if he wasn't serving in 1919 he missed the war?

[Sue Mackay]

It is only today that we associate the word pensioner almost entirely with old age. Many ex servicemen were given 'pensions' when they left the army or navy, perhaps because they had been wounded or because they were no longer needed during peacetime. I recently transcribed thousands of letters written to the Colonial Office in 1819 from people who wanted to be considered for the 1820 Settler scheme to the Cape of Good Hope. Hundreds of them were young 'pensioners' who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars and then been laid off with a pension of between 6d and a shillling a day.

[Sue Mackay]

William Donovan born 19 Oct 1894 in Poplar, London

Was he the son of Daniel and Ellen Donovan of 13 Perth Street, Stepney? If so his military attestation papers are on Ancestry.

[Geoffers]

Can anyone help? William Donovan born 19 Oct 1894 in Poplar, London is recorded on his marraige cert in 1919 as a farm labourer from Thannington and then on his son's birth cert in 1927 it says he is a tractor driver - army pensioner, but he would have only been about 32

Perhaps he had an ill-health pension? Perhaps this TNA file relates to him?

[Sue Mackay]

Was he the son of Daniel and Ellen Donovan of 13 Perth Street, Stepney? If so his military attestation papers are on Ancestry.

Have noticed you have another thread about Daniel, so presume this might be your man? This is what the papers say:

No.32233 Rifle Depot
William DONOVAN
13 Perth Street, Stepney
aged 21 years and 1 month
unmarried
Attestation Paper signed 11 Dec 1915

Height 5 foot 5 and a quarter inches
Chest measurement 34 inches
Distinctive Marks: "I love Annie Coughlin" & clasped hands [arms?]

Next of Kin: Daniel and Ellen Donovan
Father and Mother
13 Perth Street, Stepney.

Posted originally to Rifle Depot, Winchester

Discharged no longer physically fit for War Service 30:8:17

Adm. to Pension 24 Oct 1917
Rifleman William DONOVAN
Kings Royal Rifle Corps 5th Btn
Date of Discharge 30:8:17
Age on commencement of pension: 22 Born Nov 1894
13 Perth Street, Stepney, London
Character: Good
Cause of Discharge: Physically unfit. Contusion Right ankle joint.
Injury sustained Sheerness 6:12:16. Result of ordinary military service. Accident when at Bayonet Practice.

Award: £82:10:0

Former trade: Carman

Several more pages of medical reports etc which you might like to read if this is your man

[birdlip]

Height 5 foot 5 and a quarter inches
Chest measurement 34 inches
Distinctive Marks: "I love Annie Coughlin" & clasped hands [arms?]

Isn't that wonderful? I wish he was one of mine!

[Thomasin]

Next search: who was Annie Coughlin?!

[taniav]

Was he the son of Daniel and Ellen Donovan of 13 Perth Street, Stepney? If so his military attestation papers are on Ancestry.

His birth cert shows his father as Daniel but his mother as Mary Sullivan although her mother was called Ellen? so poss not

[taniav]

Next search: who was Annie Coughlin?!

Not sure certainly not his wife she was Lilian Maud Beatrice Baker but they didn't get married until 1919 so it is possible that Annie was a former sweetheart especially as he was unmarried.

[birdlip]

I bet that tattoo went down really well with his new wife!