The Fenian Raids III: But whose Medal??
- Rachel Leah
- May 13, 2019
- 3 min read
As I promised, onto the mystery portion!
A month or so ago my Dad had mentioned a medal that our cousin had come across while working in an antique store in Phoenix. It was one of the previously mentioned General Service Medal, and like every other issued Fenian Raid medal this one contained a first initial, last name, rank and unit.
J. Taylor - 24th Battalion - Private.
This is either very little information, or a lot depending on how you look at it. At least there was a name!
I admit my first instinct and action was to put his name into Ancestry. Which I did, but Taylor is certainly a pretty common last name and yielded nothing I could verify easily. Great tool, but isn’t always the best place to start.
I followed up with what should have been my first move - simple searching “Fenian Raids Medal” and “24th Battalion” on Google. First one brought up the very helpful Library and Archives Canada website.
A side note that The battalion search was less fruitful as it gave me the Victoria Rifles (formed in 1914) which didn’t match the time or area of the conflicts.* If you search Google there are many entries mentioning them at the raids with very little mention of their actual designation during that time period.
Archives Canada houses (besides everything) a list of medal recipients. This particular database includes service medals awarded between the years 1812 and 1969**. You are able to plug in Surnames, Given names, rank and battalion to aid your search of the database.***
Now Taylor is a very English last name and J could be a handful (or two) of names. Searches like this can often slow down or stop the process entirely - often having to wade through many name combinations to find the combo that works for the time period or area you are working in.
In this case the History Gods were very kind and there were very few candidates that matched the name combination along with regiment. In fact only one neatly ticked all of the boxes - Joseph Taylor. Jackpot!
Once I found what appeared to be a slam dunk entry it also cleared up the confusion over the 24th Battalion information. It turns out that there was a 24th Kent Battalion created specifically for the Fenian Raids and would serve near Windsor. They also have no connection to the Kent Regiment that would later be formed in 1902 - Also known as the The Essex and Kent Scottish.
In the process of all this I was sending information to my Dad, and having him “fact check” a bit for me. He is a better wealth of knowledge then I, especially in Military history and it is always a good idea to tap whatever resource you can. He is also far better at reading the handwriting on some of these older documents.****
When you review one of these medal entries you are able to click through to the original record document that has been digitized. As someone who doesn’t live anywhere near Ottawa it is really helpful that they have digitized as much as they have.
Now that I had a name and had a better grasp of his geographical location I turned back to Ancestry for another layer of searching.
The original mystery of who J. Taylor could be was relatively easy but verifying and trying to piece together how a Canadian Service medal ended up so far from home is a little more complicated.
* Technically the Battalion that would become the Victoria Rifles were present during the raids but they were still called the 3rd Battalion - a designation changed numerous times before 1914. Looking up information on a regiment is pretty important!
**You can search the database here: https://bit.ly/2V8L2gp
***The battalion search is very temperamental - which I would find out later on a related search.
**** Seriously, people who complain about the state of today’s penmanship probably don’t spend a lot of time looking at these types of documents.
Other information:
Document outlining the dissolving of the battalion - No date that I can see on the document. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/001060/f2/1880/cgc_p1-2_v015_n040_t000_000_18820401_p00005_z01489.pdf
Library and Archives Canada link to microfilms regarding Military units including the 24th - Original form was disbanded in 1885.
Missed the beginning of this series - catch up here:
Part I - https://bit.ly/2Lgimh0
Part II - https://bit.ly/2VrUmfJ
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