TOPIC:

Can anyone help me? My great grandfather was David Andrew Pledge, born in Portsmouth on 18th December 1857. He is said to have served in the Boer War but I can't find any trace of him in the PRO records for the Army or Navy for that war. He was a gambler and my aunt has a crib board he won off "R. Watson, HMS Revenge". I can't find my ancestor in the Boer War records plus HMS Revenge doesn't seem to have participated in the Boer War. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Good morning, welcome here,
We get this "said to have served" quite a lot on here, so can you tell us where that actually comes from and if/why you beleive it, was he said to have served in the army or the navy?
You mentioned records at Kew, what have you actually looked at whilst there?
From a naval point of view, the only Pledge, it's not a common name either, that jumps out at me is Wilfrid Pledge, a seaman from Portsmouth who served on board HMS Terrible during the Anglo Boer War, a family member perhaps?
Is there any reason in particular that makes you think he served on Revenge, other than the crib board you mention?
If so, the smart thing to do would be to check her handsome Muster Book, having first indentified the correct Revenge, there was more than one, in ADM41,115,119.
With the Royal Navy, both officers and ratings often served from a very young age by today standards in the nineteenth century, so I think I would, if I was you, have a careful look at the Continous Service Engagement Books in ADM139, the Service Registers in ADM188, the Service Certificates in ADM29 and ADM73 and because of the date he was born, it might be worth checking the Log books in ADM53 too.
When and only when, you have done all of that, if you have drawn a blank, you can forget about the Royal Navy and move on.
Anyway I wish you bon chance,
Kind regards Frank Kelley

denisedriver wrote: Can anyone help me? My great grandfather was David Andrew Pledge, born in Portsmouth on 18th December 1857. He is said to have served in the Boer War but I can't find any trace of him in the PRO records for the Army or Navy for that war. He was a gambler and my aunt has a crib board he won off "R. Watson, HMS Revenge". I can't find my ancestor in the Boer War records plus HMS Revenge doesn't seem to have participated in the Boer War. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That's really good advice Frank. Many thanks.

The tradition of reusing the names for ships makes the researchers life a lot harder. I can see the tradition argument but I am also empathise with the plight of people trying to know on which ship their ancestors served.

LOL David,
About a dozen, I reckon, plus today's too, a Resolution Class Submarine, though, there would be really only two possibles here!
Regards Frank

djb wrote: That's really good advice Frank. Many thanks.

The tradition of reusing the names for ships makes the researchers life a lot harder. I can see the tradition argument but I am also empathise with the plight of people trying to know on which ship their ancestors served.

Frank, thank you very much for responding to my message. I have already searched ADM 139 and 188 but unfortunately did not find my ancestor. Do you know if ADM 41, 115, 119, 29, 73 and 53 can be accessed online? I know very little about my ancestor other than that he had 5 children, all out of wedlock, and died in a "lunatic asylum" in Portsmouth according to his death certificate. Having said that I am fairly certain that he served on HMS Revenge at some time because my grandmother who was one of his 5 children told my aunt "he won the crib board whilst gambling on the ship" and I have been able to verify everything else that she told her children about her family. As you have indepth knowledge of the naval records, would you be able to recommend a professional researcher to search the above records for me? Thanks again for your assistance.

Sadly naval records are really fragmentary and because of there sheer size and content, I've often thought that there really is a lifetimes worth of material to look at, so you need to dig in for a relentless search, if you use a researcher it could get very very expensive too.
However, that said, they are in a very complete state bacause they did not suffer the attentions of the Luftwaffe, although, the Muster and Pay books from ships before 1685 were destoryed by a fire on HMS Eagle, they were being stored on board, but, this is not an issue here, of course, all a long time ago.
Can you clarify your first point, are you saying that you have actually done a manual search in ADM139 and ADM188?
I can well remember the state of play with ADM188 which was only partial in it's on line pretty awful pdf form sometime ago.
Records are being placed on line by Kew, so it is worth talking to them, from memory, only certain Muster's have been digitised for special key dates in history, I cannot see ADM73 being made available either, from memory, it was in well over four hundred volumes.
I really cannot recomend one researcher above another, as a medal collector, I always prefer to just do it myself as it remains just so interesting.

denisedriver wrote: Frank, thank you very much for responding to my message. I have already searched ADM 139 and 188 but unfortunately did not find my ancestor. Do you know if ADM 41, 115, 119, 29, 73 and 53 can be accessed online? I know very little about my ancestor other than that he had 5 children, all out of wedlock, and died in a "lunatic asylum" in Portsmouth according to his death certificate. Having said that I am fairly certain that he served on HMS Revenge at some time because my grandmother who was one of his 5 children told my aunt "he won the crib board whilst gambling on the ship" and I have been able to verify everything else that she told her children about her family. As you have indepth knowledge of the naval records, would you be able to recommend a professional researcher to search the above records for me? Thanks again for your assistance.