Robert Deans

WARNING: THIS POST IS A GENEALOGY DETECTIVE STORY, TRYING TO SOLVE ONE MYSTERY AFTER ANOTHER.  YOU ARE VERY WELCOME TO READ, BUT OTHER PROFILES ON THIS WEBSITE MIGHT BE LIGHTER READING.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes Private Robert Deans of the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, was 28 years of age when he was killed on 2nd September 1915.  It says he was the foster-brother of Mrs J. McWilliam of Cliffden Cottage, Bearsden, Glasgow.

From Scotland's People, this is the record of his death:

This agrees with CWGC except that his age is 29, not 28.

We also have a record of a pension for a dead soldier's dependant:

This confirms Mrs Jane McWilliam is his sister but places her at 5 Kirk Place in Bearsden, and does not mention Cliffden Cottage.  However, while searching the 1940 Valuation Roll for another purpose I noted Clifden Cottage was on Kirk Road (in modern terms, approximately opposite the Ashoka).

The 1915 Valuation Roll does not list anyone of this name at 5 Kirk Place, but fortunately the 1920 Valuation Roll is more helpful:

The owner of the flat (presumably Mrs Ellen Russell of Redlands, Bearsden - now 21 Ledcameroch Road, a few doors along from the Glasgow High School building) let it to Thomas McWilliam, chauffeur.

I searched for the McWilliams in the 1921 Census

Thomas and Jane are both aged 50, he is a chauffeur and gardener.  They have four children and they are living at Kirk Road (no house number but only two properties and is listed in between Stewart Terrace and Chartwell Terrace).  It also tells us that Jane was born at Locharbriggs, a village a few miles north of Dumfries.

Thomas and Jane's eldest child was 21 in 1921 and checking her birth I found her mother's maiden name was Deans (i.e. Jane):

Jane and Thomas were married on 14th October 1898 in Kilmarnock and here is the record:

Note Jane was called Jeanie at this point.  She was a dairymaid at Muirend, Symington in Ayrshire.  Her parents were David Deans, a stone mason, and Mary Deans (nee Millar).  Her husband, Thomas, was the son of a ploughman from Westerton, which may explain why they subsequently moved to Bearsden.

So putting this together I was looking for a birth record for Jane or Jeanie Deans, around the years 1870 or 1871 near to Dumfries with a mother Mary nee Millar).  It turned out I had to look more widely, broaden the date range and dropping the forename, searching on female births with the surname Deans in the Dumfries area:

We have another forename, Isabella, and she is about two years younger than she thought!

Next I looked for them in the 1881 and 1891 Census.  The 1881 Census drew a blank, but in 1891 I can find Isabella, working as a servant to a family in Kilmarnock:

To make sense of Robert's age at death (28-29) he would have to have been about 4 or 5 years old by 1891.  And sure enough, elsewhere in Kilmarnock (at 8 Grange Street), we find:

This would be Isabella's widowed mother and her 5-year old son, Robert, born in Symington.  And that's where the trail goes cold: there is no record of Robert Deans born in Symington at that time.  There are other boys of the same name born in Ayrshire but none seem a likely match.  We could assume that the 1891 Census information about Symington is accurate but we would also have to assume his birthname was Robert to narrow it down:

Could he be one of the four 1886 or 1887 births?  In the same period there were no births in Symington with a surname of Deans or Miller.  There is one Millar but he is too old (and called Graham).

But picking up the thread again, in the 1901 Census Robert still lives with his widowed mother, now at 16 Braeside Street in Kilmarnock:

Aged 14, Robert has started work already, as a fine clay worker.  Note that the record now says Robert is Mary's adopted son, in contrast to the 1891 Census.

And finally in 1911, Robert is at a model lodging house (described on the Census return as an 'inmate'!) at 2 Ladeside Street in Kilmarnock:

Thank you to Heather Dunlop of Burns Monument Centre for help with interpreting this record; she notes that a model lodging house offered cheap accommodation to itinerant workers, vagrants etc.  This may means Robert had fallen on hard times.

Possibly as a consequence, he joined the army soon after this and by September 1915 was a private in the 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers (which had its depot in Ayr).  This unit was in the trenches in France, as part of 9th Brigade in the 3rd Division.

Now we come to the final mystery because on the date of Robert's death, when he was killed in action, the battalion war diary says the unit was in billets:

As can be seen they returned to the trenches on the 5th and were in an active battle on the 20th.  Is it possible the date, the 2nd, is wrong?  Checking the CWGC records for allied forces deaths in Belgium on the 2nd September 1915 shows he was the only man in the 1st RSF to die.

Looking at the record of his death at the start of this post, his death is 'out of date order' and the 20th would make more sense.  Not all the dates are in order but these are often men who 'died of wounds' so it may have taken time for news to reach the unit.  The form at the start of the post for the dependant's pension also says the 2nd September was the date of his death, but both forms could be copying from a single source (which could be wrong).

What other explanations could there be?  One possibility is that Robert died of wounds on this day a week or more after having incurred them, but checking the record of his death at the start of this post, he is described as "killed in action" whereas other men are described as "died of wounds".  A second possibility is that "killed in action" could have a very general definition e.g. including died in a road traffic accident while behind the front line, but we also know he is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres for those with no known grave.  It is still feasible he was killed accidentally and buried but the location of his grave was then lost during subsequent fighting over the ground.

So here is the sad story of Robert Deans: an adopted child, living with a widowed mother, working at the age of 14, in an institution at the age of 23, and dead in mysterious circumstances by 20.

Here is the Menin Gate where his name is listed:

Playing The Last Post and the names: