irishguards

Born 20th October 1883 London, George Valentine Williams is recorded in the 1891 as living at 4 St Quintin Avenue, Kensington, London [the property still exists], with his parents George W [sic] [b.1840 London], Matilda A [b.1849 ? Ireland] and five sisters; Blanche F [b.1873 Paris, France], Matilda B [b.1878 London], Violet M [b.1880 London], Lynworth [sic] C [b.1882 London] and Mildred A [b.1887 London] along with his mother’s brother and three domestic servants. His father’s occupation is given as “Editor in Chief – unreadable”
A version of his family tree on Ancestry.com gives his father’s name as George Douglas Williams and lists other siblings; Frederick S [b.1882] and Douglas [b.1892]. The name Lynworth is a transcription error, the name being Hyacinth C.
Additional information is his marriage to Alice Crawford, the date is not given.
He died on 20th November 1946.

George V Williams married Alice Crawford in the second quarter of 1916 - Reg District St. George, Hanover Square, London.

Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

The turret is still visible in Streetview. OSI map link.

OSI Map

Now in Technicolor!

"The tower was covered with a thick mantle of ivy, which lvas doing harm, and was removed in 1900, when the portion above the lower window was restored. " From Crofton Memoirs, 1911, which helps verify the post-1900 date.

Death of Sir Hugh Crofton, Bart. On Tuesday morning Sir Hugh Denis Crofton, Bart., J.P., died at The Castle, Mohill, from pneumonia, following an attack of typhoid fever. The deceased baronet was only in his 24th year, and was unmarried. He was a graduate and B.A. of Cambridge University. He was recently appointed to the Commission of the Peace for County Leitrim, where he owned a large property. As a landlord, Sir Hugh Crofton was very popular, and much regret is expressed by all classes in the district at his early demise. He is succeeded in the title by his brother, Sir George Morgan Crofton, of the Irish Guards. (Irish Times, 8 February 1902) Was this chap part of the Crofton family who were related to our photographer Dillons of the Clonbrock Estate?

2nd Lieut. A. R. Boyle is mentioned as being wounded at the crossing of the Canal du Nord on the 27 September 1918; see: Rudyard Kipling, The Irish Guards in the Great War, Vol. 1, The First Battalion (London: Macmillan, 1923; reprinted: Staplehurst: Spellmount, ca. 1996). See: www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/IrishGuard...

If this is the AR Boyle mentioned in Rudyard Kiplings book then he is likely to have a Medal Index Card and indeed there is a MIC for a Second Lieutenant Alexander Robert Boyle, Irish Guards held under reference WO 372/3/21286 discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D1... There doesn’t appear to be another officer who served with that Regiment in the Great War that had that surname and a MIC. As he doesn’t rise above that rank of Second Lieutenant I assume he didn’t return to active service before the war ended. There is no obvious candidate on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site. I couldn’t find an obvious notification of his discharge or resigning his commission in the London Gazette – however nor could I find one for him receiving a commission. The LDS family history web-site has an Alexander Robert Boyle, born Limavady, Drumachose, Londonderry, Ireland on the 25th June 1899 who was a Second Lieutenant in the Irish Guards histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I128678&a... It links him to Oxford University in 1916. His parents were Edward Maurice Fitz-Gerald Boyle, and Ethel Maude Ogilby, His father was a solicitor while his mothers place of birth is shown as The Rectory, Ballysax, Kildare, Ireland so presumably a clergymans daughter. While I struggled to find any record of his Military career in either the London Gazette or its Belfast edition, I did come across this legal Declaration in the Belfast edition dated 4th March 1927 relating to an occupied rental property in the town of Limavady, where one of the joint owners is an Alexander Robert Boyle. www.belfast-gazette.co.uk/issues/297/pages/197 www.belfast-gazette.co.uk/issues/305/pages/371 A further piece of land near the town was sold in 1936 by a Alexander Robert Boyle – at which time his address was given as 10 College Square North, Belfast. The firm of solicitors representing him is Lane & Boyle – I wonder if there is a family connection. www.belfast-gazette.co.uk/issues/797/pages/374

Great to find this picture - he was my grandfather. Sadly he died in 1954, so I never met him. All of the information above is correct as far as I know. He was wounded on 27 September 1918 (as mentioned in Kipling's book on the Irish Guards) and did not go back to the war. My father has a collection of letters he sent home from the front, all heavily redacted by the censor's pencil. In 1920/21 he returned to Balliol College, Oxford, where he began studying in 1917, and completed a degree in modern languages. He subsequently became a school master, teaching at Mostyn House School in the 1920s, and rejoined the army in 1939 or '40 in the Pay Corps in London. He spent the last few years of his life near Limavady near where his descendants still live. Rohan

Rohan Boyle Thank you for adding this information about your grandfather. You may be interested in IWM's Lives of the First World War project, where you could add in these details plus scans of the letters. There is more information at: www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/ Kind regards, IWM FWWC