Military Monday - Harold Richardson Remembered

Some time ago I heard about a project to research and preserve the WW1 Roll of Honour at St Stephen's church in Hyson Green, Nottingham. As my Great-great Uncle Harold Richardson is mentioned on it I contacted the church and was invited to the first meeting.

St Stephen's Bobbers Mill Road

I was able to provide some information about Harold and was keen to return a few weeks later to the final presentaion of the project. It was lovely to see so many members of the community of different ages & backgrounds taking an interest in their local history.

Roll of Honour

Harold - top left-hand side

At the time the church was being built in 1901, Harold lived directly opposite at 29 Bobbers Mill Road. It's sad to think that fifteen years later he would be commemorated, along with many others from this area, on the church wall.







Picture Credit: http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/hyson-green-st-stephen/hintro.php

Military Monday - New WWI Wills

A recent BBC website article gave details of a new online service from HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Soldiers' wills proved between 1850 and 1986 are being made available to search and download - the first batch being from between the years 1914 and 1921.

The search is available here.  It costs £6 to download a will, and can take up to 10 days after purchase for the document to be available for download; mine took 2 days.  The site is a work in progress so if you don't find anything after your first search it would be worth checking back every so often for updates.

I ran a couple of searches for the Richardson brothers who died during the First World War, and although I was unsuccessful with William Richardson - I did manage to find his older brother, Harold.



Some of the wills include detailed bequests to family members and others have letters written to loved ones in the event of their deaths.


Harold's will is much more basic, but it confirms his service details and his date and place of death.

Because Harold was already in the army and not with his family in the 1911 census, I wasn't entirely sure I had the right military details for him.

The will confirms that I have, as it leaves his estate to his father, Robert, whose address matches with other sources I have for him.


So another very useful resource.