This is a follow on from the previous Blog.

Earlier today when I was researching this old photo of Jeannie Hutchinson. Mrs Mc Quillan. I was unable to find out what happened to her husband after she died. I had found the couple’s two daughters with their Grandparents but not John their father.

I’m sharing all this wonderful information I’ve been given with you all in the hope that it might help others when they are researching their family history, there are some absolutely amazing people all willing to help you if you need help. I particularly find Military research challenging and would far rather leave it to the experts.

So as I said I would, I asked on the Great War Forum if anyone knew any more about his Military life as he had said on his wife’s death certificate that he was a Corporal no 8712 in the 1st Royal Dragoons.

I had an astonishing amount of information back from Peter and Simon there, so here’s a round-up of what they told me.

Several bits of additional information on the Medal Index Card for 8712 Private J. McQuillan, 1st Royal Dragoons.

He was in France from 8th October 1914 to 17th May 1915. He qualified for the clasp and so within range of the enemy’s guns.
He was in Egypt from 20th September 1917 to 11th November 1918, (and probably beyond!).

Along the way he had transferred to the Mounted Police Corps, (860 Acting Sergeant) and then with the change of name, the Military Mounted Police, (P/15108 Acting Sergeant).

There is an unexplained reference to 27th September 1949 in the remarks section.

The Long, Long Trail has this for the 1st Royal Dragoons – (note not Dragoon Guards as you stated) –

LongLongTrail The Dragoons

1st (Royal) Dragoons
Regimental Depot: Dunbar
August 1914: at Potchefstroom in South Africa.
Recalled to England, arrived on 19 September 1914.
Moved to Ludgershall and was placed under the command of the 6th Cavalry Brigade in the 3rd Cavalry Division.
8 October 1914: landed at Ostende. So deployed overseas with his regiment. No obvious surviving service records.

When did he enlist – well to paraphrase from Paul Nixons’ website:- Army Order 289 of December 1906 changed the numbering as far as the cavalry of the line was concerned. Prior to this Army Order, all cavalry regiments had been numbered individually by regiments. Now, line cavalry and household cavalry were differentiated, and each corps of line cavalry was to use a separate number series extending to 49,999.

What this meant for the (Dragoons) was that from late December 1906 they now shared one number sequence with the 1st,..2nd.. and 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and the 1st (King’s), 2nd (Queen’s Bays), 3rd (Prince of Wales’s), 4th (Royal Irish), 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s), 6th (Carabiniers) and 7th (Princess Royal’s) Dragoon Guards.

The following numbers and joining dates are snapshots taken from my database of this new Corps of Dragoons numbering sequence: D/7785 Albert Henry Long joined the Corps of Dragoons (4th Dragoon Guards) on 11th January 1913. 8620 John Dunnett joined the Corps of Dragoons (2nd Dragoons) on 6th January 1914: Army Service Numbers Blogspot

(The 1st Royal Dragoons never got up to 8712 under the pre-Army Order 289 system, so John could only have been issued with that number in 1914. Whether he was a new recruit who had got in enough training and was over 19, so used to bring the 1st Royal Dragoons up to full campaigning strength when they moved to Flanders or a transfer in from elsewhere for now remains unknown.)

The absence of the girls’ father raises the possibility he might still be serving. A 12-year enlistment in 1914 would leave him liable to serve until 1926, although some of that would have been in the reserves normally. But the standard short enlistment split in 1914 was 7 years in the colours and 5 in the reserves, so depending on how the dates worked out he could still have been serving in the colours under that commitment at the time of the 1921 Census. The Census that year was delayed to June because of the General Strike. John may have been retained or even mobilised during that period and has still not been released.

The War Diary of the 1st Royal Dragoons is currently available free to download from the UK National Archive if you sign in with your account. It can be found in their online catalogue here: National Archives 1st Royal Dragoons Unlikely to mention him by name, but will give some idea of where they were and what they were up to.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website lists 26 deaths of the 1st Royal Dragoons on the 13th of May 1915 – with four of them being officers. Commonwealth War Graves Commission

It looks like the other ranks all appear in the list of the killed of the 1st Royal Dragoons that was dated 21st May 1915 when it was prepared in the UK and printed as part of the Official Casualty List on page 3 of the edition of The Times dated June 7, 1915. On page 4 there was the associated list of the wounded:-

I have also had more information and a few screenshots from my friend Simon of Charnwood Genealogy about John after he read my Blog:

I think he was possibly born in Scotland in 1888 in Linlithgow with his mother’s maiden name WOOD – if it was him I have found a possible death registration for a John W McQuillan in the Jan Qtr of 1959 in Stoke Newington Rd aged 71 so born about 1888.

It is him as I have just found him on the 1921 census as a widower in Surrey working with the police. See screenshots.

His medal index card shows he was in a theatre of war in 1914 and facing the enemy (awarded a clasp to his 14 star). He also earned the BWM (British War Medal) and VM (Victory Medal). It gives service in Egypt from 20/9/17 until 11/11/18.
He then served with the MPC ( Military Police Corps) and MMP (Military Mounted Police) after the 1st RD (Royal Dragoons).

Simon was able to find lots more information once he could confirm John’s birth, which is something I didn’t know.

It’s really good to know what happened to him and I do hope that he was in touch with his daughters throughout his life as it doesn’t look as though he remarried.

I am very very grateful for all the amazing help I have had from everyone involved in these two blogs, I would never have imagined the journey this one photo find could have taken me on, I again have learnt so much.

Till next time then………