This blog is part of the GOTTS Surname Family History, which contains: News and incidental articles in this Newsblog Main Gotts website with 360 pages describing where the surname occurs, notable Gottses, War, Crime, etc (Click on ‘Gotts website’ above) … Continue reading →
Having used the family tale in the previous post, I decided to try and identify the proper relationships between the Gottses who came North from Norfolk in tree #040, to identify two brothers and a cousin who were two miners and a sea captain.
By looking at the grandchildren of George 101 in tree #40, we can see that half of them left Norfolk.
What transpired was a micro view of the mass migration off the land from Norfolk to places where there was more work.
Click here
For further details.In the Archives in 2012 is the mate’s ticket for Thomas 1865, born 1814. By 1837 he was the Master of ships and gained his Certificate of Competency in 1857.
By 1867 he was Captain of SS Gibraltar, bringing barley from Odessa, when in the bad seas the hold started flooding. That day the ship sank, the end of a ship originally named SS Sumter which fought in the American Civil War.
Click here
to read about him and SS Sumter.
My Auntie Blanche was a great source of the tales about the family, and had told me this tale. She knew the two brothers came up to the North-East area, but did not know anyone who was the ship’s captain.
For a long time we knew that Hannah 113 wife of George 105 had moved up to Hull, but we could not place her definitively as George’s wife. The only way turned out to be to demonstrate that there were no conflicting records which would prevent her from being his wife. This was more difficult because George 105 did not move up to Hull, but everything seems to fit that Hannah 113 moved up there with her family, following her sons who had already gone there for work.
Click here
to read about Hannah and her family.
Matthew was a miner turned tunneller, and was working a tunnel near Fricourt when he died. Click here for more details
Sydney 600 Gotts signed up for the Local Defence Volunteers in 1940. We can see where he lived, though his career in the Home Guard was cut short. Read about it here: Sydney 600 Gotts
The list of people in an earlier post on VE Day is now on the website here: Other Gottses in WW2. If you can help with sharing stories of their war then please get in touch.
There will be others who served and are not in the Casualty lists or other available records, so please let me know of them as well.
John Thomas served in in the Royal Navy in WW2. He was involved in Radar and the Normandy landings on HMS Cattistock. Barbara Adams, his daughter, has kindly provided lots of information about his war career. We can understand the training that RN sailors had at the start of WW2, the Normandy invasion and preparations to invade Japan in 1945.
Jim Gotts joined the Royal Navy around 1941 and was Petty Officer on HMS Electra. He saw service in the North Atlantic, HMS Hood sinking, and was on the first convoy to Archangel. And then he went to Singapore in late 1941…
Read his story here: James A 373 Gotts PO HMS Electra
We wrote about Howard F Gotts flying bombers on a raid to Ploesti in Romania in 1943
Click here
I have found two new documents which describe what happened during the raid, with slightly different views of the success of the raid and the reasons for high casualty numbers.
Warfarehistorynetwork.com 1: Operation Tidal Wave takes aim at Ploesti
Warfarehistorynetwork.com 2: ‘Ploesti Raid: A Tragic Tidal Wave
Between them, they show some bad planning assumptions at the outset, and problems with the senior commanders in charge.
If you know of any other Gottses who should be in this list please get in touch
| Gottses who lost their life during the war | |
| UK | |
| Eric William 3372/#022 | Royal Marines |
| John 1739/#091 | Civilian War Dead |
| Reginald Bertie 542/#022 | Royal Corps of Signals |
| Robert George 217/#040 | Civilian War Dead |
| Stanley 511/#022 | 5th Royal Norfolk Regiment |
| Australian | |
| Eric Aubrey 2890/#022 | Australian Infantry |
| Hilton Kenneth 2891/#022 | Australian Infantry |
| Rex Alfred 1246/#040 | Royal Australian Air Force |
| USA | |
| Howard F 4599/#040 | U.S. Army Air Forces |
| Other known Gottses, already written up in the WW2 section of the website | Rank Service number Regiment | Known because of: |
| British | ||
| Alfred 3267/#108 | Serjeant 909424 Royal Artillery (Field) | POW Oerbke, Lower Saxony |
| Arthur William 4194/#038 | Sapper 56216 288 Field Coy RE | POW Singapore |
| James A 414/#040 | Private 7387033 22 Field Ambulance RAMC | My Dad |
| James A 373/#040 | Petty Officer 7387033 RN HMS Electra | His son |
| Leslie George 214/#034 | L/Cpl 5777189 5th Norfolks | POW Singapore |
| Other Gottses known eg from casualty lists: would like more info on: | Rank Service number Regiment | Known because of: |
| A C Gotts (Alfred Charles) 2650/#034 | Gunner 797896 Royal Artillery (Field) | POW Torun, Poland |
| C W Gotts (Cyril Walter?) | Gunner 1659386 Royal Artillery (Light Anti-Aircraft) | POW Hartmannsdorf, Saxony |
| C W Gotts | Gunner 216559 RAOC | Casualty list entry |
| C W Gotts | Gunner 5771760 2/ Devonshires Catering Corps | Wounded |
| E Gotts (Eddie?) #040 | Fusilier 6914636 Nthld Fusiliers | Wounded Italy |
| IB Gotts | Private 14205782 2 Yorks | Wounded |
| J | Private 5772173 2 Bn Essex Regt | Wounded France 1940 |
| Patrick 3263/#083 | WS/Bdr 907953 64th Med Regt RGA | Wounded 1942 Western Desert |
| S | Private 5255385 1 Bn Royal Worcs | Missing 8/7/1944 |
| Cyril 2593/#071 | Merchant seaman | Medal 1945 |
| Blanche S 430/#040 | 2091480 WAAF | Relation |
| Elizabeth 406/#040 | 2096644 WAAF | Relation |
| Eugenia 422/#040 | 429635 WAAF | Relation |
| Sydney | 1 Bn Durham Home Guard | Medal 1945 |
| USA | ||
| Carl V | Private 39596344 | Enlisted 1944 Los Angeles California |
| Kenneth O | Private 36487970 | Enlisted 1945 Detroit Michigan |
| Leone R | Women Army Corps A-219463 | Enlisted 1944 Buffalo New York |
| Lewis | 32266908 | Enlisted 1942 Ft Dix New Jersey |
| Maurice W | Private 42025467 | Enlisted 1943 Buffalo New York |
| Ray A | Private 36106952 | Enlisted 1941 Michigan |
| Shirley R | Women Army Corps A-906349 | Enlisted 1943 Portland Oregon |
| Warren E | Private 32835377 | Enlisted 1943 Rochester New York |
| Wesley D | Private 16164527 | Enlisted 1945 Ft Sheridan Illinois |
| Wilford D | Private 39467543 | Enlisted 1943 Spokane Washington |
| William H | Private 16065182 | Enlisted 1942 Detroit Michigan |
