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Hello

About 10 years ago i posted on here about my husbands grandfather having treatment in St Barts in London for a broken arm and during that time he had a guardian by the name of Horace Birch.
Grandfathers name was Harry Carter but sometimes went by the name of William Brewer. Brewer being his stepfather. Harry lived in a small village in Hampshire but was put on a train to London to have treatment on his broken arm.
He was met at the station and taken to the University club and introduced to Horace Birch who told him he would be his guardian whilst in London.
Harry didnt know this gentleman and had never heard of him and had no idea who he was.
Harry went on to join the navy . He was underage but served on various ships until he came out of the navy in 1919.
On his way back home he says he went ot visit is old guardian Mr Horace Birch on 23rd June 1919 and he was at Gresham House, Old Broad Street, London and he was the Chairman of the Bengal Trading Company.
I would like to try and find out more about Horace Birch and see if I can unravel the story of a poor farm boy born in the workhouse in Fulham but brought up in a small village in Hampshire shoud have such a prominent guardian.
Harry also visited his stepfather Edward Brewer who in 1919 was in Royal Hospital Chelsea and died there a year later

Find your original thread, and add to it, or people will be going over old ground
Don't forget to to give FULL date info

Address isn’t the same? Could well have moved by 1919 of course

Was your grandfather illegitimate?

Name: Horace Heathorn Birch
Age in 1911: 54
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1857
Relation to Head: Brother Of Above
Gender: Male
Birth Place: London, United Kingdom
Civil Parish: St Marylebone
Search Photos: Search for 'St Marylebone' in the UK City, Town and Village Photos collection
Country: England
Street Address: Granville House, Granville Place, Portman Square, London W
Marital status: Single
Occupation: Retired Indian Union Service*********
Registration District Number: 7
Sub-registration District: St Mary
ED, institution, or vessel: 11
Piece: 547
Household Members:
Name Age
Claude Churchill Birch 64........Brother
Horace Heathorn Birch 54
Martha Malsom 62......servant
Mary Jane Burton 48.......servant

Name: Horace Heathorn Birch
Registration Year: 1857
Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar
Registration District: Kensington
Parishes for this Registration District: View Ecclesiastical Parishes associated with this Registration District
Inferred County: London
Volume: 1a
Page: 29

Name: Horace H Birch
Age: 4
Estimated Birth Year: 1857
Relation: Son
Father's Name: George R Birch
Mother's Name: Sophia Birch
Gender: Male
Where born: London, Middlesex, England
Civil Parish: Paddington
Ecclesiastical parish: St Saviour
County/Island: Middlesex
Country: England
Street Address:
Occupation:
Condition as to marriage:
View image
Registration District: Kensington
Sub-registration District: St Mary Paddington
ED, institution, or vessel: 24
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Schedule Number: 169
Piece: 6
Folio: 18
Page Number: 39
Household Members:
Name Age
George R Birch 53
Sophia Birch 42
Alphonse L Birch 17
Claude C Birch 15
Emily S Birch 12
Jane E Birch 11
Walter C Birch 9
Laura M Birch 8
Horace H Birch 4
Elizabeth Malings 30
Ann Sowden

Name: Horace Heathorn Birch
Gender: Male
Marriage Date: 21 Feb 1878
Marriage Place: Darjeeling , Bengal, India
Father: George Boyd Birch
Spouse: Grace Louisa Neivel
FHL Film Number: 510855

Sons marriage.......06.11.1913

Name: Horace Birch
Gender: Male
Parish as it Appears: St Mark's, North Audley Street
Child: Alexander Russell Birch
Spouse...Dorothea Julia Bagallay

On the marriage certificate 1913

Alexander is a Merchant (India)

Horace is Secretary of Reform Club

Reform Club on Google.......

Probate......to Alexander Russell Birch £215. 10
Name: Horace Heathorn Birch
Death Date: 29 Dec 1926
Death Place: Sussex, England
Probate Date: 5 Feb 1927
Probate Registry: London, England

Name: Horace H Birch
Death Age: 70
Birth Date: abt 1856
Registration Date: Oct 1926
[Nov 1926]
[Dec 1926]
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration District: Steyning
Inferred County: Sussex
Volume: 2b
Page: 386

Horace Heathorn
Last name Birch
Marriage year 1878
Marriage date 21 Feb 1878
Spouse's first name Grace Louisa
Spouse's last name Neivel
Place Darjeeling
Presidency Bengal
Bride's age 18
Groom's father's first name George Royd
Groom's father's last name Birch
Bride's father's first name Charles
Bride's father's last name Gottleib
Catalogue description Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, : 1713-1948
Archive reference N-1-163
Folio number 185
Entry number -
Record set British India Office Marriages

Thank you Mistycat .

could i ask where you got the info on the marriage certificate .

ErikaH i will put a link to the original post although its quite a long post.

https://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1265321?d=desc

I have come accross this paragraph in Harry's book which gave a little bit more information. I just wondered if i could find anyone who might have Horace in their tree who could shed a bit more light on it.

.Home

The next day I left Fratton station for Itchen Abbas and walked to Graces Farm, Martyr Worthy, there to spend my leave with Aunt Rose (Mrs. F. Philpott).

On 18th June I went to Louth, Lincolnshire. (Harry Carter's half-sister Elsie, lived here) From Itchen Abbas to London I passed the following stations on the London and South-West Railway:— Alresford, Ropley, Medstead, Alton, Bentley, Farnham, Aldershot, North Camp, Brookwood, Woking, Byfleet, Weybridge, Walton, Esher, Surbiton, Maiden, Reynes Park, Clapham Junction, Queens Park Road, Battersea Park, Vauxhall, Waterloo. I had a free pass, but if I had paid the fare would have been five shillings. I put up at the Union Jack Club, 1/- per night, in Waterloo Road. Whilst I was in London I visited my stepfather at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where he was an in pensioner. The grounds were beautiful as they were being prepared. for the Chelsea Flower Show.

On 19th June I left Kings Cross station for Louth where I saw my sister Elsie and gave her a tame pigeon “Jenny” that I had found as a fledgling in Italy. I carried her on our travels on the “Bristol” and she was later wounded in the action off Cattaro.

On 23rd I returned to London and the Union Jack Club. The next day I went and saw my old guardian, Mr. Birch, at Gresham House, Old Broad Street, where he was chairman of the Bengal Trading Company. When I was getting up next day at the Club I was told that a lady wanted to see me. I went down and found my mother there, I had not seen her for over six years. I spent the day with her and later left Waterloo station for Itchen Abbas.



Thank you for your help

original thread 17 Apr 2011 15:09 - 1911 census now need any help at all

Hi Carter

The info is on Ancestry, there is an image of the marriage certificate

I hope this info helps and he is “your Horace”

The passage from the book states The Union Jack Club aka “The Union Club” ??

Gresham House - rebuilt 1920 ??

https://www.archiseek.com/2013/rebuilding-of-gresham-house-old-broad-street-front-e-g/

Mistycat , here is a link to the Union Jack

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Jack_ClubClub

ArgyllGran Thank you for the link

A son for Dorothea and Alexander

Births Dec 1916
Birch George T Baggallay Kensington 1a 128

Name: George Timothy Birch
Age: 0
Birth Date: 2 Oct 1916
Baptism Date: 4 Nov 1916
Baptism Place: St Mark, North Audley Street, London, England
Search Photos: Search for 'St Mark, North Audley Street' in the UK City, Town and Village Photos collection
Parish as it Appears: Saint Mark, North Audley Street
Father: Alexander Rusell Birch
Mother: Dorothea Julia Birch

Address 107 Onslow Square
Alexander a Merchant

Sponsors..The Hon Claude Hope Morley, Earnest Burrell Baggalley, Mrs Lois Heuiques??? , Sybil Burrell

Mistycat

Thank you

Name: George Timothy Birch
Death Age: 59
Birth Date: 2 Oct 1916
Registration Date: Apr 1976
[May 1976]
[Jun 1976]
Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun
Registration District: Cuckfield
Inferred County: West Sussex
Volume: 18
Page: 1816

Address... Drew’s Farm, Plumpton, Sussex

Estate.. £18441

I guess you’ve explored the possibility of Harry Carter, illegitimate son of Elizabeth Carter being Horace’s “secret” son??

Not sure how that would work though, why would he leave them in the workhouse in early life, then help later on.....Hmmmm

???

"....on behalf of Mr Birch, Assistant Superintendant of the Southern Mahratta Railway, Madras, submitted a petition praying for dissolution of the marriage of his client with Mrs. Grace Louisa Birch, on the grounds of her adultery with Mr. Francis Barrow, Barrister-at-Law, residing at No. 7, Lansdowne-row. The suit ...."
29 September 1892 - Madras Weekly Mail - Madras, Tamil Nadu, India

Mr Birch was granted a decree nisi and his children, two boys and a girl, were returned to him.



Alexander Russell
Birch
1885
1885
Darjeeling,St Andrew
Bengal
Horace Heatharn


George Russell
Birch
1881
1881
Gaya,St David
Bengal
Horace Heathora


Stella
Birch
1887
1887
Darjeeling,St Andrew
Bengal
Horace Heathorne



Violet Russel
Birch
1880
1880
Berhampore
Bengal
Horace Heathorne


British India Office Deaths & Burials

First name(s) Violet Russell
Last name Birch
Birth year 1880
Death date 28 Nov 1880, died from dysentry
Death year 1880
Age 3M 18D
Burial date 28 Nov 1880
Place Murshidabad
Presidency Bengal

Mistycat

I think it was Harry's stepfather who arranged for him to go to London. Harry had been in a Royal County hospital in winchester for 3 months for the compound fracture of his arm but it wasn't successful.
When he got home from hospital his mother and 2 sisters had left . There was just his stepfather and a grown up step brother at home.
Before long he was told he had to go to St Barts in London and his stepfather took him to the train . He was then met by Mr Horace Birch and a Mrs Widdows.
He later discovered that Mr Birch was now his legal guardian
He never saw his mother again till 1919 and then never saw her again .
He visited his stepfather in 1919 and that was the last time he saw him as he died in 1920 in Royal Chelsea Pensioners Hospital.

alviegal

Thats interesting reading

Just a thought does anyone know if there is anywhere I could find any documentation of someone becomming a legal guardian ?

looks like grace returned to england

Name: Grace L M Barrow
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Widowed
Birth Date: 2 Jan 1860
Residence Year: 1939
Address: 29
Residence Place: Worthing, Sussex, England
Occupation: Unpaid Domestic Duties
Line Number: 33
Schedule Number: 256
Sub Schedule Number: 1
Enumeration District: EMKO
Borough: Worthing
Registration district: 84/1

Name: Stella Barrow
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Single
Birth Date: 25 Jun 1887
Residence Year: 1939
Address: 29
Residence Place: Worthing, Sussex, England
Occupation: Teacher School
Line Number: 34
Schedule Number: 256
Sub Schedule Number: 2
Enumeration District: EMKO
Borough: Worthing
Registration district: 84/1

Name: Stella Birch
Gender: Female
Birth Date: 25 Jun 1887
Baptism Date: 29 Aug 1887
Baptism Age: 0
Baptism Place: Darjeeling, Bengal, India
Father: Horace Heathorne Birch
Mother: Grace Louisa

Name: Stella Barrow
Death Age: 79
Birth Date: abt 1887
Registration Date: Oct 1966
[Nov 1966]
[Dec 1966]
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration District: Worthing

Name: Garce L M Barrow
Death Age: 85
Birth Date: abt 1860
Registration Date: Apr 1945
[May 1945]
[Jun 1945]
Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun
Registration District: Chichester
Inferred County: Sussex