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The earliest point at which we can definitely pin down William Franklin, the father of Florence Blanche Franklin, is the day he enlisted, on 24th July 1863: prior to that his history is smoke, with both too many and too few possibilities. [WF Enlistment]
In the April 1881 census the family is divided, with his wife Caroline Ellen Franklin and four children being at the Grand Shaft Barracks, Hougham, Kent and William himself, a Colour Sergeant in the 31st Regiment of Foot, at the School of Musketry at Hythe, near Elham, Kent. We also see him again in the census of 1911, an army pensioner living in Reading with his wife, mother-in-law and son. [1881 census, Hougham, Kent and Elham, Kent; 1911 census, Reading] Helmdon Primary School, from Google Earth photo\' by olivepip at Pan\'ramio These records all clearly refer to the same man. The 1881 census shows that Caroline Ellen Franklin, an Irishwoman, was the mother of Florence Blanche Franklin; the registry entry for Florence's own marriage shows that her father was a William Franklin; William's army records show both that he was a Colour Sergeant in the 31st Regiment of Foot, that he did attend the School of Musketry in Hythe and that he was married to Caroline Ellen Walsh; and the census of 1911 shows William Franklin living with his Cork-born wife Caroline and her mother Caroline Walsh. All these records agree that he was born in Helmdon, Northamptonshire. [1881 census, Hougham, Kent and Elham, Kent; GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063; WF Record of Service; WF Military History summary as at 1884; 1911 census, Reading] The problems begin when we start looking at the dates. According to his army records [WF Enlistment; WF Medical History form] he was nineteen as at 24th July 1863, giving him a birthdate between 25th July 1843 and 24th July 1844. The census, however, states that he was thirty-nine on 3rd April 1881 and sixty-nine on 2nd April 1911, which ought to mean he was born between 4th April 1841 and 2nd April 1842 [1881 census, Elham, Kent; 1911 census, Reading]. And at the time of his wedding on 9th June 1873, he was said to be twenty-five - giving him a birthdate between 10th June 1847 and 9th June 1848 [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303]. Who to believe? Unfortunately looking for Franklins in Helmdon is like looking for Joneses in Wales. Between 1841 and 1848 there are five plain William Franklins whose birth is registered in Brackley, the nearest town to Helmdon - three in 1843 and two in 1844 - plus a William Joseph Franklin in 1843. There are also four Franklin babies born in 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1846 and just registered as "male" any of whom may, if they lived, have ended up as a William. There is also a William James Franklin, the son of William and Ann Franklin, who was christened on 4th June 1843 in Helmdon and who is probably one of the babies who is registered just as William Franklin at birth. There are no candidates who would match an 1847-48 birthdate and no definite named Williams in 1841-42, so his age as given when he enlisted - nineteen in 1863 - is probably the correct one. In his army records, (written some time after the birth of his son circa 1873-1874, since his son is referred to in the same note) it is said that Colour Sergeant William Franklin's next of kin include his father William and mother Jane in Birmingham, although the place where the surname should be is obscured by brown sticky tape [WF Military History summary as at 1884]. The registry entry for his marriage also states that his father's name was William [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303]. Unfortunately I can't afford to get birth-certificates for all these Franklin births at present, but examination of census data for the Brackley area in 1851 and 1861 does not show the presence of any William Franklin who is the right sort of age and is the son of a William and Jane Franklin. Of course, he could have been born in Helmdon and then his parents have moved away prior to the 1851 census: but we know that there are four plain William Franklins, a William Joseph and a William James all born in the Brackley area in 1843-1844 to account for, and the census shows four William Franklins of the right age; a boy who is called Joseph W Franklin in 1851 and William J Franklin in 1861; and a James Franklin the son of William and Ann who is the right age and may well be the William James, son of William and Ann, who was christened in Helmdon in 1843. That is, all the William Franklins who we know were born in the Brackley area in the right age range appear to be accounted for as at 1851, and none of them has parents called William and Jane. Details and reference numbers of the census findings can be seen on a separate page; but basically we have: William James Franklin the son of William and Ann Franklin, christened in Helmdon in 1843, probably the same boy as James Franklin the son of William and Ann Franklin, born in Helmdon circa 1842-1843 and living in Helmdon in 1851. William Franklin the son of John and Elizabeth Franklin, born circa 1842-1843 in Syresham and living with his parents in Syresham. Joseph W Franklin the son of Sarah Franklin, a widow, born circa 1842-1843 in Westbury and living with his mother first in Westbury and later in Marylebone - he turns up in a later census as William J, and is probably the William Joseph Franklin recorded in the birth registry. This boy could possibly have had a father called William - but he was born in Westbury not Helmdon. William Franklin son of John and Elisabeth Franklin, born circa 1843-1844 in Helmdon and living with his parents first in Sulgrave and later in Helmdon. William Franklin the son of Henry and Sarah Franklin, born circa 1843-1844 in Westbury and living in Westbury. William Franklin the son of James Franklin, a widower, born circa 1844-1845 in Westbury and living in Westbury. Of these, only William James fulfills the twin criteria of having been born in Helmdon and having a father called William Franklin, but he doesn't have a mother called Jane. Possible explanations include but are not limited to: that he said "William and Ann" to the army clerk and the clerk misheard him; that his mother died and his father remarried a Jane; that there were more than six William Franklins born in Brackley in the right time-frame because one of the nameless "male" Franklin babies was later named William, and our boy is a seventh one whose family had moved away from the Brackley area by 1851; or that he wasn't born William Franklin at all but was either illegitimate or originally had a different first name, and took his father's name later on. In addition, no couple called William and Jane Franklin appear in the census for Birmingham. I did find a couple of that name in Leamington Spa, about twenty miles from Birmingham, but if the census is at all accurate they cannot possibly be the right ones, because they have a son called William and he's considerably too old - born circa 1837-1838 - and they would hardly have had two living sons both called William and about six years apart in age. Plus, this too-old son William was born in Leamington. [census Leamington 1861] What else do we know about Colour Sergeant William Franklin? According to the details of his marriage in June 1873 [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303] he was a widower, but his army records [WF Enlistment] show him as single in July 1863. If both pieces of information are correct, he either married and was widowed prior to July 1863, or married and was widowed between July 1863 and June 1873. His army records [WF Military History summary as at 1884] show no wife other than Caroline Ellen Walsh, so if it's correct that he was a widower when he married her, he must have been married and widowed prior to July 1863. In 1861 a William Franklin of the right age and from the Brackley area was the live-in servant of a couple called William and Jane Betts of Sutton Coldfield, on the outskirts of Birmingham. If this is the same William Franklin who became Colour Franklin, one can see that he might for some reason have viewed his former employers as foster parents and given them as his next of kin (the brown tape on his army records could easily conceal the word "Betts"), or that he might absent-mindedly have answered "William and Jane" instead of "William and Ann" when asked the names of his parents. Against this, according to the census the William Franklin who worked for William and Jane Betts was born in Westbury, not Helmdon. But there could be reasons for that - for example, he might have been out when the census form was filled in, and someone else in the house could have filled it in for him and got it slightly wrong. Or he might not, at that point, have even known for sure where he was born: Colour Franklin certainly seemed to be in some confusion as to what year he was born. Can we link the William Franklin in Sutton Coldfield to either the William Franklin born in the Brackley area who we know for sure had a father called William Franklin (William James the son of William and Ann), or the one who might have had a father called William (William Joseph the son of Sarah the widow)? We know that in 1861 William Joseph, born in Westbury, was living with his mother Sarah in Marylebone. In 1871 (i.e. well after "our" William Franklin had joined the army) a William Franklin born circa 1842-1843 in squiggle, Northamptonshire was living in St Pancras and was married to an Eliza from Marylebone. It is difficult to tell whether this is the right William Franklin or not as the census entry is very badly written and future censuses, while possibly referring to the same man, are inconsistent about where he was born and his wife's age. Four of the William Franklins who were born near Brackley in the right period can definitely be tracked forward in the census, quite apart from not having fathers called William. If the William Franklin in St Pancras in 1871, married to Eliza from Marylebone, is indeed the William Joseph Franklin who was in Marylebone in 1861, then only one of the original William Franklins from Brackley is unaccounted for (and might therefore be off in Malta with the army), and that's William James the son of William and Ann. Even if we assume that William James became Colour Franklin, that still leaves it open whether the William in Sutton Coldfield is Colour Franklin (and therefore presumably William James): he could also be the William Franklin who later became a labourer in Passenham. Assuming that Colour Franklin is William James the son of William and Ann, is there any evidence to tie that William to the one in Sutton Coldfield? The parents, William and Ann, are elusive. A couple both aged twenty and with a child Jane aged four months are in Helmdon in 1841. In 1851 we see a couple both aged thirty-one, William being from Claydon in Northamptonshire and Ann from Radstone in Oxfordshire, living on The Green in Helmdon. They have five children - James aged eight; Frederick A, six; Jane, four (which would suggest the first Jane died and they recycled her name, if it's the same couple); Elizabeth, two and Richard, four months. In 1861 there's a William and Ann on The Green in Helmdon who might be them, but if they are their details have drifted considerably. Ann is still forty-one and from Radstone but William is described as forty-seven and from Helmdon, and they have a daughter Elizabeth who is described as fifteen, not twelve, and an eleven-year-old son whose name seems to be Benedict, not Richard. They also have a nine-year-old son Samuel, and daughters Meryl aged seven, Ruth, five and a one-year-old girl called something which looks like Selmuetta. There's no mention of a Benedict Franklin being born or dying, so perhaps this was Richard and they were experimenting with his name. A Richard Franklin, born in Helmdon and of the right age to be the Richard who was four months old in 1851, turns up in Erdington in the Aston area of Birmingham in 1871, two miles from Sutton Coldfield. An Ann Franklin born in Radstone, the right age to be the mother of Richard and (William) James, is living as a pauper in Aston Union Warehouse in Erdington in 1891. This need not signify, because Birmingham was the nearest big city to Helmdon and a lot of people from Helmdon probably ended up there independently, but it does at least raise the possibility that the family moved to the Aston area. A William James Franklin married in Aston in the June quarter of 1860 [Marriages Aston June Quarter 1860 6d 359] to a wife called either Ann Hanson or Catherine Twomlow (both ladies are on the same page) but I do not know if this is the William James from Helmdon. If he is, and if he is the same William Franklin who worked for William and Jane Betts, then either there is an error in the census or his wife died soon after their marriage, for the census of April 1861 says that he is single. A Catherine Franklin did die in the September quarter of 1860 in Brackley [Deaths Brackley September Quarter 1860 3b 7] - but then, Franklin was a hugely common name in Brackley - and there are numerous deaths of Ann Franklins, none in very relevant places. There are also a plain William Franklin married in Aston in the December quarter of 1860 [Marriages Aston December Quarter 1860 6d 406], and two William Franklins married in Birmingham proper in December 1882[Marriages Birmingham December Quarter 1862 6d 52 and 6d 54]. Perhaps Colour Franklin was one of the 1862 ones, and married after the census. The information on the marriages does suggest that William James went to Aston - but if the William James Franklin who married in Aston in 1861 is the one from Helmdon, either his wife died soon after their marriage or he might not have been the one who worked for William and Jane Betts, and possibly not Colour Franklin. Then there's the odd affair of Phebe Needle. Phebe was born circa 1845-1846 and lived with her family in Helmdon. In 1851 her family were next door to the William and Ann Franklin who had the sons (William?) James and Richard, and in 1861 they were next door to the family John and Elisabeth Franklin who had the sons William and John. In each case there is a Franklin brother a year or two older than Phebe, and one a few years younger than her. In the June quarter of 1864, Phebe (or Phoeby) had an illegitimate son, Harry Franklin Needle. Presumably his father was a Franklin - unless Franklin was a name in her family, which we don't know. There were many Franklins in Helmdon but the most obvious candidates for fatherhood would be one of the boys next door. In addition, Phebe's baby Harry was born in the Aston area of Birmingham - the area which includes Erdington and Sutton Coldfield - even though Phebe came from Helmdon, and was back in Helmdon by 1871. Of course, Birmingham was the nearest large city to Helmdon so there may not be anything significant about her going there, but it is at least interesting that she ended up so close to what are possibly the Richard and William James Franklin she had grown up living next door to. Did she go to them already pregnant, appealing for a friend's help? Did she go to them looking for work and become pregnant by one of them? As at 1871 she was back in Helmdon with two more presumably-illegitimate children, since they bore her surname - Edmund, four, born in Brackley and Mary, two, born in Helmdon. Either Phebe had more than one lover she wasn't married to, or the father was not the William Franklin who became Colour Sergeant Franklin - for although he would still have been in either Portsmouth or Plymouth when Edmund was conceived, he was certainly in Malta when Mary was conceived, and we've no reason to think Phebe was ever in Malta. If one of the Franklin boys who went to Birmingham was the father of all three of Phebe's children, and if the William Franklin who was in Sutton Coldfield is the one who became Colour Shirran, then the father of Phebe's children must have been Richard. We know that the William Franklin who was my great great grandfather - whichever William Franklin that was - enlisted at Chatham "for a Bounty of £1.00 and a Free Kit" between 21st and 25th July 1863. Enlistment took that long because there were two rounds of medical examination, enlistment at Chatham and attestation at Rochester to be got through. He was described as nineteen, a labourer born in Helmdon, Northamptonshire, 5'7"or 5'7½", with a 36" chest, blue eyes, light brown hair and a fresh complexion, good muscular development and no injuries, marks or disabilities. His conduct over the years was evidently to prove exemplary, for he received five lots of Good Conduct Pay, eventually taking him up to five pence a day extra money, equivalent probably to a couple of pounds a day in modern currency. He signed up as a Private initially for ten years with the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, formerly a marine unit and still tending to be posted to ports, and known as the Young Buffs because their uniform resembled that of the 3rd Regiment of Foot, the Buffs, and they had once been mistaken for them by George II. The 31st had a long and glorious history, but William happened to join them during a rare quiet patch, and in fact was never to see action. [Roll of Honour] A detailed chronology of his army service is provided separately. His Military History summarises his postings thus: 24th July 1863 - 10th June 1867 Home 11th June 1867 - 15th March 1872 Malta 16th March 1872 - 2nd May 1876 Gibraltar 3rd May 1876 - 25th September 1884 Home 26th September 1884 - 14th October 1884 Home His initial period at "home" consisted of four months in Chatham, ten months in Plymouth, two in Aldershot and then back to Plymouth in December 1864, where he was promoted to Corporal two months later. After fifteen months in Plymouth he went to Portsmouth for four and a half months, and thence to the Curragh of Kildare in Southern Ireland - his first posting overseas, although it still counted as "home". He remained at the Curragh for six months and then spent four and a half months at Templemore in North Tipperary. It may have been during this posting in Ireland that he met his future wife Caroline Ellen Walsh, who was born in County Cork. [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303; 1911 census for Reading]
These records all clearly refer to the same man. The 1881 census shows that Caroline Ellen Franklin, an Irishwoman, was the mother of Florence Blanche Franklin; the registry entry for Florence's own marriage shows that her father was a William Franklin; William's army records show both that he was a Colour Sergeant in the 31st Regiment of Foot, that he did attend the School of Musketry in Hythe and that he was married to Caroline Ellen Walsh; and the census of 1911 shows William Franklin living with his Cork-born wife Caroline and her mother Caroline Walsh. All these records agree that he was born in Helmdon, Northamptonshire. [1881 census, Hougham, Kent and Elham, Kent; GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063; WF Record of Service; WF Military History summary as at 1884; 1911 census, Reading]
The problems begin when we start looking at the dates. According to his army records [WF Enlistment; WF Medical History form] he was nineteen as at 24th July 1863, giving him a birthdate between 25th July 1843 and 24th July 1844. The census, however, states that he was thirty-nine on 3rd April 1881 and sixty-nine on 2nd April 1911, which ought to mean he was born between 4th April 1841 and 2nd April 1842 [1881 census, Elham, Kent; 1911 census, Reading]. And at the time of his wedding on 9th June 1873, he was said to be twenty-five - giving him a birthdate between 10th June 1847 and 9th June 1848 [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303]. Who to believe?
Unfortunately looking for Franklins in Helmdon is like looking for Joneses in Wales. Between 1841 and 1848 there are five plain William Franklins whose birth is registered in Brackley, the nearest town to Helmdon - three in 1843 and two in 1844 - plus a William Joseph Franklin in 1843. There are also four Franklin babies born in 1841, 1842, 1843 and 1846 and just registered as "male" any of whom may, if they lived, have ended up as a William. There is also a William James Franklin, the son of William and Ann Franklin, who was christened on 4th June 1843 in Helmdon and who is probably one of the babies who is registered just as William Franklin at birth.
There are no candidates who would match an 1847-48 birthdate and no definite named Williams in 1841-42, so his age as given when he enlisted - nineteen in 1863 - is probably the correct one.
In his army records, (written some time after the birth of his son circa 1873-1874, since his son is referred to in the same note) it is said that Colour Sergeant William Franklin's next of kin include his father William and mother Jane in Birmingham, although the place where the surname should be is obscured by brown sticky tape [WF Military History summary as at 1884]. The registry entry for his marriage also states that his father's name was William [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303].
Unfortunately I can't afford to get birth-certificates for all these Franklin births at present, but examination of census data for the Brackley area in 1851 and 1861 does not show the presence of any William Franklin who is the right sort of age and is the son of a William and Jane Franklin. Of course, he could have been born in Helmdon and then his parents have moved away prior to the 1851 census: but we know that there are four plain William Franklins, a William Joseph and a William James all born in the Brackley area in 1843-1844 to account for, and the census shows four William Franklins of the right age; a boy who is called Joseph W Franklin in 1851 and William J Franklin in 1861; and a James Franklin the son of William and Ann who is the right age and may well be the William James, son of William and Ann, who was christened in Helmdon in 1843.
That is, all the William Franklins who we know were born in the Brackley area in the right age range appear to be accounted for as at 1851, and none of them has parents called William and Jane. Details and reference numbers of the census findings can be seen on a separate page; but basically we have:
William James Franklin the son of William and Ann Franklin, christened in Helmdon in 1843, probably the same boy as James Franklin the son of William and Ann Franklin, born in Helmdon circa 1842-1843 and living in Helmdon in 1851.
William Franklin the son of John and Elizabeth Franklin, born circa 1842-1843 in Syresham and living with his parents in Syresham.
Joseph W Franklin the son of Sarah Franklin, a widow, born circa 1842-1843 in Westbury and living with his mother first in Westbury and later in Marylebone - he turns up in a later census as William J, and is probably the William Joseph Franklin recorded in the birth registry. This boy could possibly have had a father called William - but he was born in Westbury not Helmdon.
William Franklin son of John and Elisabeth Franklin, born circa 1843-1844 in Helmdon and living with his parents first in Sulgrave and later in Helmdon.
William Franklin the son of Henry and Sarah Franklin, born circa 1843-1844 in Westbury and living in Westbury.
William Franklin the son of James Franklin, a widower, born circa 1844-1845 in Westbury and living in Westbury.
Of these, only William James fulfills the twin criteria of having been born in Helmdon and having a father called William Franklin, but he doesn't have a mother called Jane. Possible explanations include but are not limited to: that he said "William and Ann" to the army clerk and the clerk misheard him; that his mother died and his father remarried a Jane; that there were more than six William Franklins born in Brackley in the right time-frame because one of the nameless "male" Franklin babies was later named William, and our boy is a seventh one whose family had moved away from the Brackley area by 1851; or that he wasn't born William Franklin at all but was either illegitimate or originally had a different first name, and took his father's name later on.
In addition, no couple called William and Jane Franklin appear in the census for Birmingham. I did find a couple of that name in Leamington Spa, about twenty miles from Birmingham, but if the census is at all accurate they cannot possibly be the right ones, because they have a son called William and he's considerably too old - born circa 1837-1838 - and they would hardly have had two living sons both called William and about six years apart in age. Plus, this too-old son William was born in Leamington. [census Leamington 1861]
What else do we know about Colour Sergeant William Franklin? According to the details of his marriage in June 1873 [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303] he was a widower, but his army records [WF Enlistment] show him as single in July 1863. If both pieces of information are correct, he either married and was widowed prior to July 1863, or married and was widowed between July 1863 and June 1873. His army records [WF Military History summary as at 1884] show no wife other than Caroline Ellen Walsh, so if it's correct that he was a widower when he married her, he must have been married and widowed prior to July 1863.
In 1861 a William Franklin of the right age and from the Brackley area was the live-in servant of a couple called William and Jane Betts of Sutton Coldfield, on the outskirts of Birmingham. If this is the same William Franklin who became Colour Franklin, one can see that he might for some reason have viewed his former employers as foster parents and given them as his next of kin (the brown tape on his army records could easily conceal the word "Betts"), or that he might absent-mindedly have answered "William and Jane" instead of "William and Ann" when asked the names of his parents.
Against this, according to the census the William Franklin who worked for William and Jane Betts was born in Westbury, not Helmdon. But there could be reasons for that - for example, he might have been out when the census form was filled in, and someone else in the house could have filled it in for him and got it slightly wrong. Or he might not, at that point, have even known for sure where he was born: Colour Franklin certainly seemed to be in some confusion as to what year he was born.
Can we link the William Franklin in Sutton Coldfield to either the William Franklin born in the Brackley area who we know for sure had a father called William Franklin (William James the son of William and Ann), or the one who might have had a father called William (William Joseph the son of Sarah the widow)?
We know that in 1861 William Joseph, born in Westbury, was living with his mother Sarah in Marylebone. In 1871 (i.e. well after "our" William Franklin had joined the army) a William Franklin born circa 1842-1843 in squiggle, Northamptonshire was living in St Pancras and was married to an Eliza from Marylebone. It is difficult to tell whether this is the right William Franklin or not as the census entry is very badly written and future censuses, while possibly referring to the same man, are inconsistent about where he was born and his wife's age.
Four of the William Franklins who were born near Brackley in the right period can definitely be tracked forward in the census, quite apart from not having fathers called William. If the William Franklin in St Pancras in 1871, married to Eliza from Marylebone, is indeed the William Joseph Franklin who was in Marylebone in 1861, then only one of the original William Franklins from Brackley is unaccounted for (and might therefore be off in Malta with the army), and that's William James the son of William and Ann.
Even if we assume that William James became Colour Franklin, that still leaves it open whether the William in Sutton Coldfield is Colour Franklin (and therefore presumably William James): he could also be the William Franklin who later became a labourer in Passenham. Assuming that Colour Franklin is William James the son of William and Ann, is there any evidence to tie that William to the one in Sutton Coldfield?
The parents, William and Ann, are elusive. A couple both aged twenty and with a child Jane aged four months are in Helmdon in 1841. In 1851 we see a couple both aged thirty-one, William being from Claydon in Northamptonshire and Ann from Radstone in Oxfordshire, living on The Green in Helmdon. They have five children - James aged eight; Frederick A, six; Jane, four (which would suggest the first Jane died and they recycled her name, if it's the same couple); Elizabeth, two and Richard, four months.
In 1861 there's a William and Ann on The Green in Helmdon who might be them, but if they are their details have drifted considerably. Ann is still forty-one and from Radstone but William is described as forty-seven and from Helmdon, and they have a daughter Elizabeth who is described as fifteen, not twelve, and an eleven-year-old son whose name seems to be Benedict, not Richard. They also have a nine-year-old son Samuel, and daughters Meryl aged seven, Ruth, five and a one-year-old girl called something which looks like Selmuetta. There's no mention of a Benedict Franklin being born or dying, so perhaps this was Richard and they were experimenting with his name.
A Richard Franklin, born in Helmdon and of the right age to be the Richard who was four months old in 1851, turns up in Erdington in the Aston area of Birmingham in 1871, two miles from Sutton Coldfield. An Ann Franklin born in Radstone, the right age to be the mother of Richard and (William) James, is living as a pauper in Aston Union Warehouse in Erdington in 1891. This need not signify, because Birmingham was the nearest big city to Helmdon and a lot of people from Helmdon probably ended up there independently, but it does at least raise the possibility that the family moved to the Aston area.
A William James Franklin married in Aston in the June quarter of 1860 [Marriages Aston June Quarter 1860 6d 359] to a wife called either Ann Hanson or Catherine Twomlow (both ladies are on the same page) but I do not know if this is the William James from Helmdon. If he is, and if he is the same William Franklin who worked for William and Jane Betts, then either there is an error in the census or his wife died soon after their marriage, for the census of April 1861 says that he is single. A Catherine Franklin did die in the September quarter of 1860 in Brackley [Deaths Brackley September Quarter 1860 3b 7] - but then, Franklin was a hugely common name in Brackley - and there are numerous deaths of Ann Franklins, none in very relevant places.
There are also a plain William Franklin married in Aston in the December quarter of 1860 [Marriages Aston December Quarter 1860 6d 406], and two William Franklins married in Birmingham proper in December 1882[Marriages Birmingham December Quarter 1862 6d 52 and 6d 54]. Perhaps Colour Franklin was one of the 1862 ones, and married after the census. The information on the marriages does suggest that William James went to Aston - but if the William James Franklin who married in Aston in 1861 is the one from Helmdon, either his wife died soon after their marriage or he might not have been the one who worked for William and Jane Betts, and possibly not Colour Franklin.
Then there's the odd affair of Phebe Needle. Phebe was born circa 1845-1846 and lived with her family in Helmdon. In 1851 her family were next door to the William and Ann Franklin who had the sons (William?) James and Richard, and in 1861 they were next door to the family John and Elisabeth Franklin who had the sons William and John. In each case there is a Franklin brother a year or two older than Phebe, and one a few years younger than her.
In the June quarter of 1864, Phebe (or Phoeby) had an illegitimate son, Harry Franklin Needle. Presumably his father was a Franklin - unless Franklin was a name in her family, which we don't know. There were many Franklins in Helmdon but the most obvious candidates for fatherhood would be one of the boys next door.
In addition, Phebe's baby Harry was born in the Aston area of Birmingham - the area which includes Erdington and Sutton Coldfield - even though Phebe came from Helmdon, and was back in Helmdon by 1871.
Of course, Birmingham was the nearest large city to Helmdon so there may not be anything significant about her going there, but it is at least interesting that she ended up so close to what are possibly the Richard and William James Franklin she had grown up living next door to. Did she go to them already pregnant, appealing for a friend's help? Did she go to them looking for work and become pregnant by one of them?
As at 1871 she was back in Helmdon with two more presumably-illegitimate children, since they bore her surname - Edmund, four, born in Brackley and Mary, two, born in Helmdon. Either Phebe had more than one lover she wasn't married to, or the father was not the William Franklin who became Colour Sergeant Franklin - for although he would still have been in either Portsmouth or Plymouth when Edmund was conceived, he was certainly in Malta when Mary was conceived, and we've no reason to think Phebe was ever in Malta. If one of the Franklin boys who went to Birmingham was the father of all three of Phebe's children, and if the William Franklin who was in Sutton Coldfield is the one who became Colour Shirran, then the father of Phebe's children must have been Richard.
We know that the William Franklin who was my great great grandfather - whichever William Franklin that was - enlisted at Chatham "for a Bounty of £1.00 and a Free Kit" between 21st and 25th July 1863. Enlistment took that long because there were two rounds of medical examination, enlistment at Chatham and attestation at Rochester to be got through. He was described as nineteen, a labourer born in Helmdon, Northamptonshire, 5'7"or 5'7½", with a 36" chest, blue eyes, light brown hair and a fresh complexion, good muscular development and no injuries, marks or disabilities. His conduct over the years was evidently to prove exemplary, for he received five lots of Good Conduct Pay, eventually taking him up to five pence a day extra money, equivalent probably to a couple of pounds a day in modern currency.
He signed up as a Private initially for ten years with the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, formerly a marine unit and still tending to be posted to ports, and known as the Young Buffs because their uniform resembled that of the 3rd Regiment of Foot, the Buffs, and they had once been mistaken for them by George II. The 31st had a long and glorious history, but William happened to join them during a rare quiet patch, and in fact was never to see action. [Roll of Honour]
A detailed chronology of his army service is provided separately. His Military History summarises his postings thus:
24th July 1863 - 10th June 1867 Home 11th June 1867 - 15th March 1872 Malta 16th March 1872 - 2nd May 1876 Gibraltar 3rd May 1876 - 25th September 1884 Home 26th September 1884 - 14th October 1884 Home
His initial period at "home" consisted of four months in Chatham, ten months in Plymouth, two in Aldershot and then back to Plymouth in December 1864, where he was promoted to Corporal two months later. After fifteen months in Plymouth he went to Portsmouth for four and a half months, and thence to the Curragh of Kildare in Southern Ireland - his first posting overseas, although it still counted as "home". He remained at the Curragh for six months and then spent four and a half months at Templemore in North Tipperary. It may have been during this posting in Ireland that he met his future wife Caroline Ellen Walsh, who was born in County Cork. [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303; 1911 census for Reading]
In June 1867 William was sent to Malta, where he remained until March 1872. While on Malta he was promoted to Sergeant, and re-engaged at Valletta to serve for twenty-one years: but he was also hospitalised twice. View of the old town of Mdina, Citta Vecchia or Citta Notabile, showing the Cathedral of St Paul, from Maltese school site In July 1868 he spent fifteen days in hospital with diarrhoea said to have been brought on by "climatic exposure", and was treated with astringents and a tonic. Nine days later he was re-admitted, suffering from anaemia which the doctor described as "probably mental" in origin, although in fact it sounds as though the initial diarrhoea must have been due to some unpleasant infection which left him with post-viral syndrome. A street in Mdina, the old capital of Malta, from -jkb- at Wiki: Mdina This time he was in hospital for almost a month: he was treated with alternating cod liver oil and tonics but after nineteen days he was transferred to a sanitorium at Citta Vecchia, which is an old name for Citta Notabile or Mdina, the old capital of Malta. [The picturesque Mediterranean, its cities, shores, and islands, with illustrations on wood by J. MacWhirter, A.R.A., J. Fulleylove, R.I., J. O'Connor, R.I., W. Simpson, R.I., W.H.J. Boot, S.B.A., C. Wyllie, E.T. Compton and others; Wikipedia: Mdina] Military Hospital at Gibraltar circa 1916, from Lance Corporal George F. Staples, REME\'s well-illustrated page on his service in Gibraltar in the 1950s In March 1872 he was sent to Gibraltar, where he was appointed as Colour Sergeant a year later. Hereafter he would have been known as Colour Franklin or Colour Sergeant Franklin, not Sergeant Franklin. A couple of months after that he was admitted to hospital again for four days, apparently with an inflammation plus what looks like "C & issue" in curly brackets, brought on by a bad reaction to vaccination. An "issue" in a medical sense is either an ooze of some sort of fluid, or an incision or artificial ulcer made in order to drain fluid, such as when lancing a boil. On 9th June 1873, seventeen days after being discharged from hospital, William - who was then aged about thirty - married Caroline Ellen Walsh, an Irish girl aged about seventeen. We know from the census that she was born in County Cork but her mother, also Caroline Walsh, was born in Southsea, Portsmouth and as such was probably English. [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303; 1881 census for Hougham, Kent; 1911 census for Reading] Some time before the following April the couple had a son, listed in the 1881 census as William J. E. Franklin, and in his father's list of next of kin as W. G. Elliott Franklin. Between April 1875 and April 1876 they went on to have a daughter, Florence Blanche Franklin, my great grandmother. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent; WF Military History summary as at 1884] On 27th December 1875 William was again admitted to hospital for five days, this time with something almost illegible which might be "ulcer" and which was treated with cold water. "Circumstances in or by which Disease was induced" is even less legible - it starts with an "h" (probably) and ends with "y" or "ing", and has a letter with a tail in the middle - looks like "hafnary" or "hafway". This may have been a varicose ulcer, as the book The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians by the Use of Nature's Remedies by Dr O Phelps Brown, published in 1878, lists cold water as a treatment for varicose ulcer. Fortune\'s Well, Portland in the 1890s, from Old UK Photos In May 1876 William, and presumably his family, arrived back in Portland, an island off Dorset on the south coast of England: hereafter all his postings would be in Britain. Fourteen and a half months later, in late July 1877, they moved to Aldershot. Some time after they arrived at Aldershot and before April 1878, William and Caroline's second daughter Lillian Edith Franklin was born. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent] At the end of June 1878 they arrived in Fleetwood, where they were to remain for nine months and where William was successfully re-vaccinated. In early April 1879 they returned to Chatham whence William had started out, and their daughter Ethel Maud Franklin, after whom my grandmother was to be named, was born some time in the following twelve months. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent] The School of Musketry at Hythe, 1903, from Hythe Rotary Club of Kent: I know from other photographs that there were at least two of these white buildings either side of the gate, extending out of the picture After nineteen months at Chatham they were sent east to Dover, arriving the day before Hallowe'en 1880. As at 3rd April 1881 Caroline Ellen and the four children were living at the Grand Shaft Barracks, Hougham, Kent, an extremely well-appointed barracks complex on the cliffs above Dover, which is described in more detail in the section on Florence Blanche Franklin. William meanwhile was at the School of Musketry at Hythe, near Elham, Kent, where he would obtain a Hythe Certificate - possibly a 2nd Class one. His army records are laid out in such a way as to make it ambiguous as to whether he had a "Hythe Certificate 2nd Class", or a "Hythe Certificate" plus a "Certificate of Education 2nd Class" - but on the whole I think it's the latter, since he would have needed a 2nd Class Certificate of Education in order to become a Sergeant. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent; 1881 census for Elham, Kent; Certificates of Education in the British Army] On 1st July 1881 the 31st Regiment of Foot became the 1st East Surrey Regiment. On the same day William Franklin was "reopened" as a Colour Sergeant with the new regiment - presumably just a way of saying that his contract had been passed to the new unit. In November of that year he was transferred to the 2nd (South) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, a group which had been formed in 1859 and had its headquarters at Fulham [Gommecourt commemorative web-page]. Presumably this was a direct result of his having completed advanced musketry training at Hythe. He stayed with the (South) Middlesex for six and a half months before being transferred as Colour Sergeant to 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps on 1st June 1882. This seems to be the same outfit as Queen Victoria's Rifles, a famously well-regarded and long-lived volunteer unit of sharpshooters based in a side-street near Berkeley Square. [The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum website] The nomenclature of the Rifle Volunteers is complex and there is some historical confusion about when exactly Queen Victoria's Rifles were given the name 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps, and how they were related to 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers and 2nd (South) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. It is possible that William Franklin was again not actually transferred, but simply stayed with his unit through a name-change. By this point, William was nearly at the end of his service. Two and a quarter years after he joined the 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps, on 25th September 1884, his Record of Service was signed off as accurate by a Staff Paymaster and his Military History shows his period of home service as coming to an end - but then he was immediately taken on again for a further period of home service of nineteen days, marked "continued" on his records. There is no obvious reason for this. He had already served twenty-one years and sixty-four days before the extra nineteen days were added, and the "Amount of services towards limited engagement" column on his Record of Service shows that the full period was counted towards his pay - it wasn't that he had to work extra weeks to make up for the time he had spent off sick. My best guess is that he was asked to stay on for a few weeks because his replacement wasn't quite ready to take over. Colour Franklin was finally discharged on 14th October 1884 in Winchester, the location of the Rifle Depot, home base of the Rifle Corps since 1858 [Wiki: King's Royal Rifle Corps]. At some point on or prior to his discharge William was awarded the Good Conduct Medal. His character and conduct on discharge were said to be "very good" and his habits temperate - unsurprisingly, since by the time of his discharge he was receiving five lots of Good Conduct Pay, At the bottom of his Military History form a hand-written address is given on the line where the printed text begins "Died ..." It's not clear whether this is indeed the address at which he died, added to his record long after he left the army, or whether it's his home address when he was discharged, but I would expect the latter - if it was referring to his death, you'd expect there to be a date. The handwriting says "Address N° 6 Cassidy Road Fulham Rd London SW." and then a couple of letters one of which is partially torn away - possibly "UK". This is an ordinary back street in Fulham now mainly given over to modern blocks of flats. [WF Enlistment; WF Attestation; WF Record of Service; WF Medical History form; WF medical history table; WF Military History summary as at 1884] Of William's life after he left the army I have little evidence. On 10th February 1892 his daughter Florence Blanche married George Shirran, a Sergeant in st Battalion The Black Watch, at the Presbyterian church in Gibraltar: the couple were living in South Barracks, Windmill Hill. [GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063] According to his army records George hadn't been in Britain since August 1884: he had been at Aldershot from February to August 1884 and might conceivably have met the Franklins at that time, but Florence would have been eight or nine at that point, so it's not likely that any sort of understanding was reached in 1884 that they would marry in the future. Since he married her in Gibraltar, he probably met her in Gibraltar - or during his previous posting in Malta - and if Florence was living abroad when she was sixteen, her family were probably there with her. This is born out by the fact that I haven't found William and Caroline Franklin in the 1891 or 1901 UK census. On the registry entry for Florence's marriage, her father's occupation is given as prison warder. There was a prison on Gibraltar, and this may well have been where he was working. [GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063] A few years later, Sergeant Shirran went on to become a Colour Sergeant himself. [GS Statement of Services on discharge in 1905 #2] This could just be coincidence, or it could be an indication that George liked and admired his father-in-law, and was influenced by his career choices - or that he wanted to prove something to him. 4 St George\'s Terrace, Reading: n° 4 is the house on the right with the white fence, from Google Streetview The 1911 census shows that William and Caroline had eleven live-born children, of whom seven were alive as at 2nd April 1911. Probably the youngest of these, or the youngest who was still alive in 1911 at any rate, was Lancelot T or J Franklin, who was born probably some time between April 1897 and April 1898. Lancelot was born in County Cork, so we know that Caroline Ellen was in Cork at that time, possibly visiting relatives - we do not know whether William went with her, and if so whether the couple were living in Cork, or just visiting. [1911 census for Reading] The census of 2nd April 1911 shows William, described as an army pensioner, living with Caroline, their thirteen-year-old son Lancelot and Caroline's mother Caroline Walsh, a widow and old-age pensioner aged eighty-five. Their address is 4 St George's Terrace, Reading. The fact that he and Caroline had so many children, continuing until William was in his mid fifties, and that they had his mother-in-law living with them in what was a pretty small house, suggests that he was probably affectionate and easy-going - which may have made him a blessing as a prison warder. If indeed it was his own mother who ended up in the Aston workhouse, that casts an interesting light on his willingness to have his ageing mother-in-law live with him. [1911 census for Reading]
In July 1868 he spent fifteen days in hospital with diarrhoea said to have been brought on by "climatic exposure", and was treated with astringents and a tonic. Nine days later he was re-admitted, suffering from anaemia which the doctor described as "probably mental" in origin, although in fact it sounds as though the initial diarrhoea must have been due to some unpleasant infection which left him with post-viral syndrome. A street in Mdina, the old capital of Malta, from -jkb- at Wiki: Mdina This time he was in hospital for almost a month: he was treated with alternating cod liver oil and tonics but after nineteen days he was transferred to a sanitorium at Citta Vecchia, which is an old name for Citta Notabile or Mdina, the old capital of Malta. [The picturesque Mediterranean, its cities, shores, and islands, with illustrations on wood by J. MacWhirter, A.R.A., J. Fulleylove, R.I., J. O'Connor, R.I., W. Simpson, R.I., W.H.J. Boot, S.B.A., C. Wyllie, E.T. Compton and others; Wikipedia: Mdina] Military Hospital at Gibraltar circa 1916, from Lance Corporal George F. Staples, REME\'s well-illustrated page on his service in Gibraltar in the 1950s In March 1872 he was sent to Gibraltar, where he was appointed as Colour Sergeant a year later. Hereafter he would have been known as Colour Franklin or Colour Sergeant Franklin, not Sergeant Franklin. A couple of months after that he was admitted to hospital again for four days, apparently with an inflammation plus what looks like "C & issue" in curly brackets, brought on by a bad reaction to vaccination. An "issue" in a medical sense is either an ooze of some sort of fluid, or an incision or artificial ulcer made in order to drain fluid, such as when lancing a boil. On 9th June 1873, seventeen days after being discharged from hospital, William - who was then aged about thirty - married Caroline Ellen Walsh, an Irish girl aged about seventeen. We know from the census that she was born in County Cork but her mother, also Caroline Walsh, was born in Southsea, Portsmouth and as such was probably English. [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303; 1881 census for Hougham, Kent; 1911 census for Reading] Some time before the following April the couple had a son, listed in the 1881 census as William J. E. Franklin, and in his father's list of next of kin as W. G. Elliott Franklin. Between April 1875 and April 1876 they went on to have a daughter, Florence Blanche Franklin, my great grandmother. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent; WF Military History summary as at 1884] On 27th December 1875 William was again admitted to hospital for five days, this time with something almost illegible which might be "ulcer" and which was treated with cold water. "Circumstances in or by which Disease was induced" is even less legible - it starts with an "h" (probably) and ends with "y" or "ing", and has a letter with a tail in the middle - looks like "hafnary" or "hafway". This may have been a varicose ulcer, as the book The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians by the Use of Nature's Remedies by Dr O Phelps Brown, published in 1878, lists cold water as a treatment for varicose ulcer.
In March 1872 he was sent to Gibraltar, where he was appointed as Colour Sergeant a year later. Hereafter he would have been known as Colour Franklin or Colour Sergeant Franklin, not Sergeant Franklin. A couple of months after that he was admitted to hospital again for four days, apparently with an inflammation plus what looks like "C & issue" in curly brackets, brought on by a bad reaction to vaccination. An "issue" in a medical sense is either an ooze of some sort of fluid, or an incision or artificial ulcer made in order to drain fluid, such as when lancing a boil.
On 9th June 1873, seventeen days after being discharged from hospital, William - who was then aged about thirty - married Caroline Ellen Walsh, an Irish girl aged about seventeen. We know from the census that she was born in County Cork but her mother, also Caroline Walsh, was born in Southsea, Portsmouth and as such was probably English. [Gibraltar Chaplain's Returns 1873-74 page 303; 1881 census for Hougham, Kent; 1911 census for Reading]
Some time before the following April the couple had a son, listed in the 1881 census as William J. E. Franklin, and in his father's list of next of kin as W. G. Elliott Franklin. Between April 1875 and April 1876 they went on to have a daughter, Florence Blanche Franklin, my great grandmother. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent; WF Military History summary as at 1884]
On 27th December 1875 William was again admitted to hospital for five days, this time with something almost illegible which might be "ulcer" and which was treated with cold water. "Circumstances in or by which Disease was induced" is even less legible - it starts with an "h" (probably) and ends with "y" or "ing", and has a letter with a tail in the middle - looks like "hafnary" or "hafway". This may have been a varicose ulcer, as the book The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians by the Use of Nature's Remedies by Dr O Phelps Brown, published in 1878, lists cold water as a treatment for varicose ulcer.
In May 1876 William, and presumably his family, arrived back in Portland, an island off Dorset on the south coast of England: hereafter all his postings would be in Britain. Fourteen and a half months later, in late July 1877, they moved to Aldershot. Some time after they arrived at Aldershot and before April 1878, William and Caroline's second daughter Lillian Edith Franklin was born. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent]
At the end of June 1878 they arrived in Fleetwood, where they were to remain for nine months and where William was successfully re-vaccinated. In early April 1879 they returned to Chatham whence William had started out, and their daughter Ethel Maud Franklin, after whom my grandmother was to be named, was born some time in the following twelve months. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent]
After nineteen months at Chatham they were sent east to Dover, arriving the day before Hallowe'en 1880. As at 3rd April 1881 Caroline Ellen and the four children were living at the Grand Shaft Barracks, Hougham, Kent, an extremely well-appointed barracks complex on the cliffs above Dover, which is described in more detail in the section on Florence Blanche Franklin. William meanwhile was at the School of Musketry at Hythe, near Elham, Kent, where he would obtain a Hythe Certificate - possibly a 2nd Class one. His army records are laid out in such a way as to make it ambiguous as to whether he had a "Hythe Certificate 2nd Class", or a "Hythe Certificate" plus a "Certificate of Education 2nd Class" - but on the whole I think it's the latter, since he would have needed a 2nd Class Certificate of Education in order to become a Sergeant. [1881 census for Hougham, Kent; 1881 census for Elham, Kent; Certificates of Education in the British Army]
On 1st July 1881 the 31st Regiment of Foot became the 1st East Surrey Regiment. On the same day William Franklin was "reopened" as a Colour Sergeant with the new regiment - presumably just a way of saying that his contract had been passed to the new unit.
In November of that year he was transferred to the 2nd (South) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, a group which had been formed in 1859 and had its headquarters at Fulham [Gommecourt commemorative web-page]. Presumably this was a direct result of his having completed advanced musketry training at Hythe. He stayed with the (South) Middlesex for six and a half months before being transferred as Colour Sergeant to 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps on 1st June 1882. This seems to be the same outfit as Queen Victoria's Rifles, a famously well-regarded and long-lived volunteer unit of sharpshooters based in a side-street near Berkeley Square. [The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum website] The nomenclature of the Rifle Volunteers is complex and there is some historical confusion about when exactly Queen Victoria's Rifles were given the name 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps, and how they were related to 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers and 2nd (South) Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. It is possible that William Franklin was again not actually transferred, but simply stayed with his unit through a name-change.
By this point, William was nearly at the end of his service. Two and a quarter years after he joined the 1st Volunteer Battalion The King's Royal Rifle Corps, on 25th September 1884, his Record of Service was signed off as accurate by a Staff Paymaster and his Military History shows his period of home service as coming to an end - but then he was immediately taken on again for a further period of home service of nineteen days, marked "continued" on his records.
There is no obvious reason for this. He had already served twenty-one years and sixty-four days before the extra nineteen days were added, and the "Amount of services towards limited engagement" column on his Record of Service shows that the full period was counted towards his pay - it wasn't that he had to work extra weeks to make up for the time he had spent off sick. My best guess is that he was asked to stay on for a few weeks because his replacement wasn't quite ready to take over.
Colour Franklin was finally discharged on 14th October 1884 in Winchester, the location of the Rifle Depot, home base of the Rifle Corps since 1858 [Wiki: King's Royal Rifle Corps]. At some point on or prior to his discharge William was awarded the Good Conduct Medal. His character and conduct on discharge were said to be "very good" and his habits temperate - unsurprisingly, since by the time of his discharge he was receiving five lots of Good Conduct Pay,
At the bottom of his Military History form a hand-written address is given on the line where the printed text begins "Died ..." It's not clear whether this is indeed the address at which he died, added to his record long after he left the army, or whether it's his home address when he was discharged, but I would expect the latter - if it was referring to his death, you'd expect there to be a date. The handwriting says "Address N° 6 Cassidy Road Fulham Rd London SW." and then a couple of letters one of which is partially torn away - possibly "UK". This is an ordinary back street in Fulham now mainly given over to modern blocks of flats.
[WF Enlistment; WF Attestation; WF Record of Service; WF Medical History form; WF medical history table; WF Military History summary as at 1884]
Of William's life after he left the army I have little evidence. On 10th February 1892 his daughter Florence Blanche married George Shirran, a Sergeant in st Battalion The Black Watch, at the Presbyterian church in Gibraltar: the couple were living in South Barracks, Windmill Hill. [GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063]
According to his army records George hadn't been in Britain since August 1884: he had been at Aldershot from February to August 1884 and might conceivably have met the Franklins at that time, but Florence would have been eight or nine at that point, so it's not likely that any sort of understanding was reached in 1884 that they would marry in the future. Since he married her in Gibraltar, he probably met her in Gibraltar - or during his previous posting in Malta - and if Florence was living abroad when she was sixteen, her family were probably there with her. This is born out by the fact that I haven't found William and Caroline Franklin in the 1891 or 1901 UK census.
On the registry entry for Florence's marriage, her father's occupation is given as prison warder. There was a prison on Gibraltar, and this may well have been where he was working. [GROS Statutory Marriages 055/AF 0063]
A few years later, Sergeant Shirran went on to become a Colour Sergeant himself. [GS Statement of Services on discharge in 1905 #2] This could just be coincidence, or it could be an indication that George liked and admired his father-in-law, and was influenced by his career choices - or that he wanted to prove something to him.
The 1911 census shows that William and Caroline had eleven live-born children, of whom seven were alive as at 2nd April 1911. Probably the youngest of these, or the youngest who was still alive in 1911 at any rate, was Lancelot T or J Franklin, who was born probably some time between April 1897 and April 1898. Lancelot was born in County Cork, so we know that Caroline Ellen was in Cork at that time, possibly visiting relatives - we do not know whether William went with her, and if so whether the couple were living in Cork, or just visiting. [1911 census for Reading]
The census of 2nd April 1911 shows William, described as an army pensioner, living with Caroline, their thirteen-year-old son Lancelot and Caroline's mother Caroline Walsh, a widow and old-age pensioner aged eighty-five. Their address is 4 St George's Terrace, Reading. The fact that he and Caroline had so many children, continuing until William was in his mid fifties, and that they had his mother-in-law living with them in what was a pretty small house, suggests that he was probably affectionate and easy-going - which may have made him a blessing as a prison warder. If indeed it was his own mother who ended up in the Aston workhouse, that casts an interesting light on his willingness to have his ageing mother-in-law live with him. [1911 census for Reading]
