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A little family history:
My great, great grandfather, HAMMOND COLLETT, was born at Wilby in Suffolk in 1839, to poverty stricken parents, but whose ancestors had been extremely wealthy. In 1851, he was in Hoxne workhouse with his father and three siblings, whilst his mother and two sisters were still outside. In 1861 he was a carter (man working with horses) and in 1863 witnessed his sister's marriage, where we find that he and she could both write - possibly a throw back to the family's former educated days? Around 1864 he moved to Brentford, where he became a maltman (there were many breweries on the banks of the Thames in this vicinity at that time) and in 1865 married MARY BRADFORD. She was still alive in 1881, but not found on the 1891 census. Mary was born in Kingston in 1840, and went to school with three of her sisters at Kingston school. (My cousin Michael has a sampler wrought by her when 14 and three others made by her sisters). Her father was a maltster.
They had four daughters and the following four sons:
HAMMOND 1868 - >1916
ALFRED L. 1871/2 - ?
ROBERT 1875 - 1954
JOHN 1880 - ?
In 1891, Alfred was a bargeman's mate (many barges at Brentford at that time) and Robert was a labourer.
Owing to errors in the army records, both Hammond and Robert are shown as having the same army number (4998), and this error is repeated on a couple of {medals} which a cousin now has. However, we have established the following with certainty: both were in the 2nd battalion Middlesex regiment during the second Boer War, Hammond moving to the Queens Mounted Infantry and Robert to the Mounted Infantry of the Middlesex regiment, with whom he served at Klemsdorp in 1901. Prior to that, one or both of them were entitled to medals for the campaigns at Utrecht in 1901, Cape Colony, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Orange Free State and Transvaal.
In WWI, Hammond served as a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery, being awarded the Victory, British War and 1915 Star medals. He also received the Silver War badge, which was awarded to personnel invalided out with health or injury problems resulting from battle. We also have an (unsubstantiated) note that he received the Military medal on 21.9.1916. we have no trace of him after this date.
Robert also served in WWI, but we have no details.
Michael found two JOHN COLLETTs in the Middlesex regiment, but could tie down neither to "our" John. However, one of them was put on a charge for being found asleep at his post, so we can guess which is ours.
For most of his life, Robert was a labourer, working for the Port of London Authority at Kew, but as the PLA do not keep old personnel records, Michael could find nothing further, nor could he find any more about the other three brothers. Both Alfred and Robert moved to Kew, Robert around 1906, and lived in the same street (Cambridge Cottages) for the rest of their lives, Robert at 15 and Alfred number 21.

Yvonne Collett has a relative who is an expert in certain areas of military history and in 1997 he tried to tie down the mystery of the duplicated numbers for Robert and Hammond, but from the following extracts from his letters, you will see that he had no more success than Michael:
I found an H. Collett number 4998 in both the King's and Queen's medal rolls being listed with the 2nd Battalion Middlesex in the Queen's but no battalions were given in the King's. There was also in the Queen's a R. Collett, but his number was also given as 4998; he was with the Mounted Infantry Company of the Middlesex. The numbers for Robert Collett in the WWI medal rolls are 3429 (Middlesex Regiment) and 21367 (Labour Corp). I also found in the WWI medal rolls, Hammond Collett no 42708 R.F.A (Royal Field Artillery) as Gunner and Bombadier (one up from Gunner), and it showed that he received the Victory Medal, British War Medal, 1915 Star and the Silver War Badge, which was issued to men who had been discharged due to injuries or bad health contracted in the fighting. He also received the Military Medal and was gazetted 21.09.1916. I checked the London Gazette for that date but no details were given as to why: he was one of about a thousand men listed that day. I don't know how often they published lists. Seeing the date, would he have been at the Somme?

Michael and Gordon Collett, October 2000

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