4 September 2011

Much confused ...

I've spent the last three hours adding Culpins various to the databases.  Some of the notes have been around for a while so it was good to find the writing was still legible and the ink hadn't faded too much! I'd found some obits online a few months ago and was able to claim a couple of them for the family file so that was good. But one note which has led to much scratching of the head. 

On the "iannounce.co.uk" website, I found Reginald Culpin enlisted in Loughborough and was in the Leicestershire Regiment. At the time of his death he was with the Durham Light Infantry. He was killed in Flanders on 14 July 1918 aged 19 years. He is buried in an unknown grave and commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, Panel 129, and Kegworth Church. And his service details are on Ancestry: Reginald Henry Culpin. Son of Arthur Biddle Culpin and Frances Ellen, nee Heighton. And on the CWGC website: son of Arthur Riddle and Frances Ellen. What's a B or an R between friends? 

But .... and far be it from me to question the authorities here ..... I think he's actually Richard Henry. Born 1899 and the right age. Just to confuse me, he has a brother Reginald Arthur, born 1905. I did wonder if the real Reginald joined up under age but records show him getting married in 1932 and dying, at the right age for his birth, in 1968. So, I think it really was Richard Henry (I'll say his name again) who joined up and gave his life. Wonder why he was registered in the army as Reginald? And how does this error carry on? Surely someone would have corrected it by now? 

Maybe the clouds of confusion will lift if I stop thinking about it .... 

More soon.

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