Descendants of William C Raymond

William Chapman Raymond, son of John Raymond (1783-1850) and Elizabeth Chapman (1790-1829), born 1813 ¹ in Christ Church, Southwark, London, England ⁴, baptised 29 Apr 1814 in Christ Church, Southwark ¹². He died aged 60 on 20 Nov 1873 ^{6, 1} at St. John's Wood, reg. Marylebone. He married in Sep. Qtr. 1845 ² reg. Kensington, Eliza North, born St. Johns Wood, Middlesex ⁴.

      William followed in his father's footsteps by serving in 1859 as the master of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. He was recorded in the lightermen apprenticeship binding records as bound to his father as an apprentice lighterman at St. Saviour's on 10 Apr 1828 and as completing the apprenticeship on 14 May 1835. He had apprentices bound to him at St. Saviour's and at Bankside in 1841, 1845, 1864 and at Bermondsey in 1866 ³.
      William and younger brother John were the witnesses to their uncle Mead Raymond's 1840 executed will. At the probate court hearing in Sept. 1843 William gave his occupation as Wharfinger and address as 15 St. Saviour's Church Yard, Southwark - the residence of his father where he was also listed as residing at the 1841 census. The 1851 census had his birth place as Christ Church, Surrey, occupation as wharfinger, address as Sutton Common, Surrey, and in addition to his wife and the first two children the household had two resident female domestic servants.
      In the 1861 census he was listed as a Granary Keeper and Lighterman, aged 47 years, born Southwark, residing 4, Montague Place, Clapham Road, Lambeth, with wife Eliza aged 32 born St Johns Wood, Middlesex, their three children, and the household had three resident female domestic servants. In the 1871 census his address had changed to 149 Clapham Road, Lambeth. His occupation was given as Granary Keeper, the household comprised his three children, daughter-in-law Edith M, grandson Erskine North, and two female servants. The absence of wife Eliza was not because she was deceased as she was the executor to whom her son Dudley's will probate was granted in August 1872 when her residence was given as the same as Dudley's when he died in May that year as St. Leonard's On Sea, near Hastings in Sussex ⁷.
      The 1874 Probate Index listed William's residence when he died in November 1873 as 13, Abbey Rd., St. John's Wood, Middlesex ⁶. St. John's Wood was where his wife was born. His residence there when he died suggests he left Lambeth after the 1871 census. One of his executors was Robert Linton Charrington of Carshalden who the BDM indexes record as dying in 1880 aged 73 years. That William named his second born son Herbert Linton suggests a family relationship. A possible explanation of how Linton came be bestowed on the William's second son may be that his mother-in-law and Robert Charrington's mother-in-law were sisters with the maiden surname of Linton. 1807 born Robert Linton Charrington is a mystery as his name has not been identified in the 1841 to 1871 census of England indexes. The 1851 census listed a Charrington household in Carshalton - a Mary 82, Elizabeth 45 & Bellerth 42, and three servants.

Children of William Chapman Raymond and Eliza North were:
+  1  .  i.     Dudley Raymond
    2.    ii.    Edith Raymond
    3.    iii.   Herbert Linton Raymond

3.   Herbert Linton Raymond, b. June Qtr. 1854 ⁵ Tooting, Surrey, England, reg. Wandsworth (June Qtr. 1854, 1a, p. 428). He married (1) in June Qtr. 1876 (v.1a, p. 1078), reg. Marylebone, Ada Florence Shearman (likely the Ada Florence Raymond whose death at age 44 was registered at Bromley in June Qtr. 1897 (v.2a, p.245). He married (2) in Dec. Qtr. 1897 (v. 1c, p. 504) reg. Bethnal Green, Rose Linda Knowles.

     In the 1871 census he was listed in his father's household with the occupation of Clerk. In the 1881 census he was listed with wife Ada residing in Hammersmith in London but they were not noted in indexes to the 1891 census. He and second wife Rose were listed in the 1901 census indexes in the civil parish of Kidderminster in Worcestershire - he as born 1858 in Tooting, Surrey (1854 was actual birth year) and she as born 1870 in Romsley, Worcester. His occupation was given as hotel keeper.

2.   Edith Raymond, b. June Qtr. 1850 ⁵ Sutton, Surrey, England, reg. Epsom. In the 1851 to 1871 census she was listed in her father's household with in each case her place of birth listed as Sutton, Surrey. She was possibly the Edith Raymond who married in Dec. Qtr. 1874 (V. 2c, p. 249) reg. Winchester, Hampshire, either Edwin Butler or Andrew Michael Creagh.

4 .   Erskine North Raymond, born abt. Sept. 1870 in Hastings, Sussex, England; died 6 Oct 1952 in York, Western Australia, Australia ¹³.

         In the April 1871 England census he was listed with his parents in his grandfather's London household aged 6 months, and in the 1881 census aged 10 with his mother in Kensington. He has not been identified in indexes to the 1891 census and may have left England before then.
         He arrived in New South Wales in Australia sometime before 1900 and served in the Boer War in ‘A’ Squadron of the New South Wales Citizens' Bushmen regiment with the rank of Sergeant. At enlistment his occupation was given as miner.
         The NSW Citizens' Bushmen contingent comprised 30 officers and 495 other ranks and 570 horses. It left Sydney on 28 Feb 1900 and arrived in Cape Town on 2 April. Of those who embarked 30 died or were killed in action and a very high percentage were wounded. ‘A’ Squadron is mostly remembered for its participation as a force of 105 men in the defence of the post at Elands River, that dug into the inhospitable ground and refused to surrender on any terms when under siege by a vastly superior Boer force, holding out against rifle and artillery fire for 12 days from 4 Aug. 1900 until the Boer forces under by General De la Rey withdrew as reinforcements arrived.
         In July before the main attack began clashes with the Boer's became more frequent and in one such action Sgt. Erskine Raymond was wounded. He may have even been the first allied casualty at what became known as the Siege of Elands River, that prior to the WW I trench warfare horrors in France was the military action best known for the heroic performance of Australia's volunteer soldiers and, at which 75 of the 307 Australian participants were either killed or wounded. The July clash in which Erskine was wounded is best described in the words of fellow ‘A’ Squadron soldier Lance-Corporal A. C. Wherratt who that month wrote :- ¹⁸

‘... the bullets came down like hail. There was no cover to take, no horseholders or anything close. Each man had to hold his own horse and blaze away. We got back to about 600 yards, when we took up a position on the open plain. Captain James Thomas who was in command had his horse shot under him. ... I was lying with my horse's reins around my arm and every time I fired he pulled me back, thus offering the Boers good shooting at me. ... Our Sergeant Erskine Raymond got a bullet through the shoulder. He was the only one hit, but it was a miracle there were not more. The Boers cannot shoot long distances but did better at 600 than 300 yards. Lieutenant Zouch got a bullet through his pants. He did not know at the time. The Boers eventually got out of the karaal and cleared out. The Boers had three shot dead and six wounded.’

          Erskine was invalided to Australia on 24 Jan 1901 and later moved to Western Australia. No marriage is indexed in England or in NSW to 1925, SA to 1922 or in WA to 1933. The Western Australia Genealogical Society has compiled an index of passengers arriving by ship in WA from 1898-1926. It lists eleven of the Raymond surname - all arriving prior to 1912 and all of British or English nationality. However as they are listed only as a ‘Mr’ it is not possible to positively identify Erskine. Based on his 1870 birth year a 35 year old of British nationality who arrived at Fremantle from Adelaide on 24 Dec 1905 on the "Tyrian" appears the most likely ¹⁶.
       Enrollement was made compulsory for federal elections in 1925. That year Erskine was listed in the electoral roll for the Swan electorate in the Northam subdivision residing in the small town of Burracoppin situated in the wheat belt on the Great Eastern Highway 290km's east of Perth ¹⁴. His occupation was given as ‘planter ’ indicating he would have been a wheat planting contractor. The following year he was no longer listed in Swan. Likely he left Australia in 1925 or 1926 to reside in Siam (first renamed Thialand in 1939) as a record of his arrival in London from Bangkok on 28 Aug 1927 as a passenger on a steamboat gave Siam as his country of last permanent residence. The record gave his occupation as ‘planter’ and England as the country of intended future permanent residence - permanent being defined as for a year or more ²⁰. He may have remained in England until 1934. In that year his name appeared on the passenger list of a vessel as travelling from Dover to Singapore ¹⁵.
       Whether he remained in South East Asia for some years before returning to Australia is not known. It is possible from Singapore he caught another boat up to Bangkok and remained in Thialand until after the end of WW II. His name was not listed in any Western Australia electorate in the 1947 Commonwealth electoral rolls or in the supplemental rolls for 1948. It was not until 1949, 1950 and 1952 that he was again noted in the rolls when listed in the Canning electorate residing in Faversham House in the town of York - the oldest inland town in WA located in the wheatbelt 97 km's east of Perth with a population at the 2006 census of 3,116. Today (2008) Faversham House is a fully restored heritage listed building operated as a private hotel and function center offering a high standard of accomodation. For the decade from 1948 to 1958 it was an RSL Home for War Veterans ¹⁹. In the electoral roll for 1952 twenty-nine men plus a management couple were listed as residents. Four have been identified from other records as Boer War veterans. Of those with an occupation given twenty-three including Erskine were listed as pensioners. His estate was not probated nor was there an administration grant. Records indexed by the WA Probate Office under the reference number D891/53 may have consituted a Deed of Settlement dated after his death but are lost and no longer available.