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Deleted by Rob D

Andrew - I have a strong candidate for the owner of your pocket compass.

Alfred Charles Holtby, born 1862 in the village of North Coates, Lincolnshire, the son of a farmer. He can be found on the 1871 & 1881 censuses living in rural Lincolnshire but not on the 1901 & 1911 Censuses. From 1902 he is listed on the register of electrical engineers with a Johannesburg address. He and his wife can be found on the 1921 Census staying at an address in Walton-on-Thames. I think they made a permanent return to the UK in the 1930's and here is a report of his 1950 death:



You implied a desire to return the compass to the family before you put it up for sale. To date I have found no evidence he had any children but he does appear on several Public Family Trees on Ancestry which signifies living relatives although they may be remote. If you electronically shrink your photo you should be able to post it - I could not find it on eBay.

Regards, David,

Rob strongly disagree if you wish…I really don't care….. [rest of the post removed by the moderator]

[post removed by the moderator]

Oh Dear, Oh Dear!!!!!

Andrew I have a lot more info on Alfred Charles Holtby which I was going to offer to send to you but as you are obviously not interested I shall store it in my "Men of Elsewhere" folder for future reference & research - I suspect he was rather an interesting character. Thanks for the snippet of info which indicates why the compass is in the surprisingly unloved possession of your family but it would be nice to have photos of it as well but rather selfishly you do not seem prepared to put the small amount of effort into reformatting it - I am sure other members of the forum would like to view it as well.

Btw Rob D is one of the most respected members of this forum and is the author of an immaculately researched and highly respected book on the ABW. Many of us spent a delightful hour glued to Zoom when he gave a presentation on his book in London. Many of us contributed material to him and it gave me enormous pleasure and pride to see he quoted from both newspaper clippings I sent to him.

Regards, David.

Deleted by Rob D