Family tree mystery: Was Charles Patterson a deserter?

For several years I had hoped against hope that I would eventually find the service record for several British family members for the First World War. One in Particular going by the name of Charles Napier Patterson had the family story attached to him about being a deserter and hiding in the attic. I wanted to prove if there was truth to the story even though I had been given several photos. Charles died in 1947 and was unmarried. He did work for the same company that built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Dorman Long and co bridge building. From information in the family file he worked in Alaska and Africa.

The first time I thought I could get help with my research was my first trip to England in 2010 and I took copies of the pictures I have of Charles hoping a military historian at the Imperial War Museum could help. Since I had no real information, I would be happy to have Charles identified. The historians were having an open day in London and was part of the reason for the quick visit. They could not help due to having nothing on the service or the uniform. Another attempt to research, Charles’ service was through a work mate who was a war history buff, who couldn’t find anything. He is a big enough buff that he is a collector of war memorabilia from Australia. Its funny who you can find in a supermarket

By sheer luck and by accident, I found a record for Charles Napier Patterson and that was only because I had listed his mother on the Ancestry search. Her surname is unique as its Tynemouth and not a common name so I know, I have the correct person. He had listed his age as being 25 years when he was actually 30 years in 1915. Occupation was that of a steward and the regiment was the Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry. Charles joined the services on the 22nd of Jan 1915 as a Hussar 2/1. From the 16th of August 1916, Charles was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. The records do say he was part of the M.G.C 2^nd Battalion and served overseas. A search couldn’t really tell me which exact battalion he was part of. More research needs to be done and I will get there eventually. I do have photos of him that tend to answer these questions, but offer no explanations until now.

The problem, I found about the story of desertion was soldiers could be court marshalled and the sentence could be death by execution when you are part of the British Army, except for Australian soldiers that is. The story within the records did not check out with the family story of desertion as Charles was in trouble around a week or so after WW1 had ended. On the 27^th of November 1918, Charles was charged with ‘Trotting and cantering horses on cobbled road contrary to orders’. He was given three days of F.P, which I found out was the shortened version of Field Punishment. There was another punishment in 1916, but much of that was unreadable other than being unsteady while on parade.

I probably should have explained what the Northumberland Hussar’s were at the beginning of the blog, but thought it would be better at the end. According to Wikipedia, which I wanted basic information the group was supposed to be a Territorial Force for home defence, but WW1 changed that idea and were split into three different groups. Charles was part of the 2/1^st Hussars that was formed in October 1914. In 1916 it was split up, although trying to figure everything out is not easy I don’t have enough information as to why he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corp unless it was part of the split in the Hussars. It is still enough of a mystery that I can spend time on research as I now have somewhere to look.

Links

Northumberland Yeomanry

http://www.1914-1918.net/northbld.htm

Wikipedia, Northumberland Hussars

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