TOPIC:

. ....An extraordinary story of desertion and romance has just come to light near Stone, Staffordshire. In July last a young man named Elie Robert Lewis Colquhoun was reported as a deserter from the Royal Army Medical Corps, and a full description was published in the "Police Gazette." Nevertheless, he managed to evade capture, and in the very strangest way. It now appears that at the beginning of August he went to Aston, a little village near Stone, where he was on intimate terms with a young woman, who was engaged as a lady's maid to the vicar's wife. This girl secreted the deserter in her bedroom all unknown to the other occupants of the house. For nearly six months everything went on smoothly, but last week a rumour was started in the village that someone was hiding at the vicarage, and it was not long in reaching the ears of the police. The Rev. G. B. Browne, the vicar, was considerably surprised when a policeman called upon him and told him that a deserter was being harboured in the house. The rev. gentleman laughed at the very idea. Somewhat ruffled, the officer produced a warrant to search the house. The vicar said he would be delighted to help him in his search. Nothing happened till the room occupied by the maid was searched. There, crouching under the bed, was the missing soldier. He at once saw that the game was up, and admitted his identity. At Stone Police Court he was remanded to await a military escort.
The Blackburn Times, Saturday 9th February 1901

The blog, Victorian Clerical Errors, gives us the additional information about Elie that "he was returned to his unit and sent out to South Africa, not returning until 1904."
victorianclericalerrors.blogspot.com/2018/ - see the post dated Sptember 6th, 2018.

I got a copy of Elie's death certificate, and from that we know that he died at 6, Leamington Avenue, Didsbury, on the 19th March, 1953, aged 77. I've not been able to find a birth record for him in England, Wales, or Scotland. The death was reported by a son, F. Colquhoun, of 99, Winstanley Road, Sale, Cheshire, and the cause of death was Cerebral Haemorrhage and Cerebral Arteriosclerosis. Elie was a retired vulcaniser at a tyre repairers.

The son may have been Francis Colquhoun, born Prestwich, North Manchester, in 1909, who had a brother named James David Colquhoun, born 1906, also at Prestwich.

Hi Berenice
I found a Elie Colquhoun 1891 census living in West Derby Lancashire .
Father, Robert, Mother Charlotte.
He was aged 15, born 1876. Birth place looks like France. (Occupation, cabinet maker)
Of course it might be a different man?

He joined the RAMC on the 9th May 1900 regimental number 14095 (Occupation Clerk)
Deserted on the 26th July August 1900
He was back in Aldershot for the 1901 census with his regiment.
His medal roll records QSA with Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal and 2 date clasps. Roll dated 29th January 1903 Pretoria.

1907 he is recorded as working for the post office in Manchester.
Will delve a little deeper later, there was a Gideon Robert Ernest Colquhoun in WW1 who served as a Lieutenant in the RAMC......possible relation? Biblical 1st names may be a connection or a coincidence?

Dave........

Colquhoun, Gideon Robert Ernest (1888 - 1951)
Identifier: RCS: E004061
Full Name: Colquhoun, Gideon Robert Ernest
Date of Birth: 7 December 1888
Date of Death: 22 November 1951
Occupation: General surgeon
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 14 May 1914
FRCS 14 June 1923
LRCP 1914
Details:
....Born 7 December 1888, the eldest child of Ernest Colquhoun, actuary, of 16 Westbourne Terrace, London, W, and his wife, née Simkin. He was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered St George's Hospital Medical School in 1911. War broke out in August 1914, three months after he had qualified, and he served through it in the RAMC. He was an assistant surgeon at the 13th General Hospital in France, and a surgeon at the 37th General Hospital at Salonika 1916-17, and officer-in-command of the military hospitals at Richborough and Sandwich, Kent until 1919.
....Returning to St George's in 1920, he became house surgeon, surgical registrar, resident assistant surgeon, and surgeon to the urological department. He was appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1935, and was lecturer on surgery in the medical school. As a young man he had also been house physician at the Children's Hospital, Paddington Green. He practised privately at 44 Brook Street, W, and later at 53 Green Street, W, and lived at 1 Tregunter Road, The Boltons, SW. Colquhoun was twice married. He retired to Woodslee, Sway Road, Lymington, Hampshire, and died in a nursing-home on 22 November 1951, aged 62, survived by his second wife, Gwendoline Parker, whom he had married in 1937, and by the two sons of his first marriage.

Author: Royal College of Surgeons of England
Sources:
The Times 26 November 1951, no memoir
Information from Mrs Gwendoline Colquhoun
Rights: Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date: 6 June 2013

Were Elie and Gideon cousins?

It's possible they may have been distant relations.
However, looking at Gideon's resume , I'd say it's a long shot. More research to be done for sure after the Xmas festivities.....