Mystery Medic - the trail begins

We all have them – photos of people of whose identity is a mystery. But this is a particularly interesting one.

Who is our mystery medic?

As you can probably tell from the image, it's a studio photograph, and is a good size at 8" x 6". We found it in a photo album of random, but precious, family photographs put together by my husband's mum.

This photo belonged to his grandmother, Caroline Matilda Saunders (nee Long) and has "Mrs Saunders" written on the back in a hand my husband doesn't recognise. Sadly though, it doesn't have the name of the sitter.

A browse online revealed that the gentleman's cap badge is that of the Royal Army Medical Corps,
an organisation formed in 1898.

An #AncestryHour friend identified the "pips" on his shoulder as those of a lieutenant.

I've also been told that most of the officers in the R.A.M.C. would have been doctors.
So, who is he?

The fact that Caroline was given an "official" photograph, and that she kept it amongst her most treasured possessions, suggests that he was significant to her. He would be a contemporary of her own daughter – so, a nephew, perhaps? The logical initial trail to follow, then, would be to identify all her nephews and establish whether any of them were in the R.A.M.C. or, indeed, if any were doctors. As it's a branch of the family I've not researched in any great depth, it could be a long job, particularly as Caroline had eight brothers and sisters.

But then, of course, he could be someone from the her husband's side of the family, Alfred Joseph Saunders, whose picture you can see below, left. Any family resemblance, do you think? Something about the nose, perhaps? (Sadly, Alfred died in 1929. I wrote about his sad story in my post, Tantalising Clues.)

Alfred also came from a large family. He was the youngest of eight, with five brothers and two sisters.


Perhaps, I wondered, our man was killed during WW2 and this was the reason for Caroline to have received his photograph?

So, on a whim, I went on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and put the name Saunders into the search engine, along with a reference to the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Up popped an Albert Henry Saunders, a lieutenant, serving in the R.A.M.C. who died in Italy in 1944. Could this be him?

But Saunders is too common a surname for such a scatter-gun approach. Besides, as Caroline had both sisters and sister-in-laws, the surname may not be Saunders at all. Time to get back to my systematic trawl and try and establish some more tangible links.

Surely someone as distinguished as this officer must turn up somewhere!

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The Army Medical Corps has a museum in Aldershot. More about it, including advice on researching individuals, can be found on their website, www.ams-museum.org.uk

If you have medics in the family, whether nurses or doctors, military or civilian, Michelle Higg's book, Tracing Your Medical Ancestors, is an informative resource on the history of medicine practitioners as well as where to find their records.

Ancestry.co.uk have just added to their website, a database of Nursing records, covering a period from 1891-1968. These include nurses registered with the Royal College of Nursing.

Anniversary favourites

This month is the second anniversary of my Family History Secrets blog so I thought I'd celebrate by choosing three of my favourite posts from the last two years.



The first of my choices concerns my husband's grandfather, Alfred Joseph Saunders. Alfred died before my husband was born, at the relatively young age of 45. Compiling the post was like putting together a jigsaw without the box lid and I can recall the shock I felt when all the pieces were in place and the emotional story hit home.

Many of jigsaw pieces were in the form of postcards Alfred had written to his daughter during  and just after World War I and reading them brought a lump to my throat.

Read Alfred's poignant story HERE.







My second choice is the post entitled The Mystery of 138 photographs.

I love old photographs and this bundle was intriguing. I found them in a bulging leatherette pouch and at first glance I didn't think I knew anything about any of them.

When I wrote the post, for instance, I had no idea of the identity of the lady who appeared in several of the pictures but with a little detective work and while on the search for another elusive ancestor, I discovered who she was.

You can read the original post by clicking on the title above and find out who Nellie was by clicking HERE.

And finally, after watching BBC's Countryfile programme the other week about the Welsh sea-side town of Llandudno, I was reminded of another post I'd written about my grandmother, Winifred Griffiths.

Wyn was a professional singer and often performed in Llandudno's famous Happy Valley on the Great Orme during the 1930s.



Read more about her singing career from being discovered as a teenager, touring with a well known opera company and her time in Llandudno, on my post Strictly Music Hall.


I look forward to many more years of sharing the secrets I uncover about my family history and hope that you enjoy reading about them too.

Tantalizing clues...

My husband never met his grandfather, Alfred Joseph Saunders, as he died many years before he was born. All he knew about him was that was born in Fulham, and had been a joiner.

The other day we came across a set of postcards which Alfred had sent to his young daughter while he was in France during WWI. The postcards, 17 in total, generally depicted children, often holding flowers and expressing sentiments such as Anniversaire or Bonne Fete. 

One read: "My darling little girl, I hope you are keeping well also that you will have a happy Xmas. I suppose you will have all your little friends into tea. With love and kisses, from Dada xxxxxxxx"

All the cards expressed similar messages of affection, from a loving father to his daughter and only child.

On closer inspection, some of the cards had an address - Hut Q, RAF Vendome, France. His service number was also recorded on a few.

Vendome was the site of the Royal Naval Air Training Establishment (RNATE) formed in April 1916. Two years later in 1918, the service was merged with the Royal Flying Corps. (RFC) and became the RAF.

A brief check on the forces war records database listed a A.J. Saunders as an engineer. As a joiner, his skills may have been used in the maintenance of the wooden bi-planes of those early days. No doubt I shall find out more as I research our WWI ancestors, as is my intention during this centenary year of 2014.

But for now, our intrigue was piqued by two other postcards in the pile. These were dated August 1929 and were posted in the UK, from Patching in West Sussex. One showed the Music Pavilion, Worthing, the other was of Patching Pond showing the pub, The Horse and Groom.

The Horse and Groom Inn, Patching Pond,
now renamed The Worlds End

So why was Alfred doing in Patching?

One of the messages read: I arrived all right, Bus into Patching (8.30) You can get a bus to anywhere from Patching. Love Dad. Added almost as an afterthought at the top of the postcard were the words Keeping fine.

But was he? And did his trip have anything to do with what happened three weeks later? Did he visit the south coast for health reasons?

Sadly, on 29th August 1929, Alfred Joseph Saunders died of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) aged only 45. No doubt leaving behind a very broken-hearted daughter.