Monday, March 16, 2015

Richard Cullen

Coquitlam honour roll
Richard Cullen,  Lieutenant.  121st Battalion, B.C.R.. Captain.  524743
Signed his attestation papers on the 10th of December 1915 at New Westminster, B.C. He was born on the 14th of May 1882 at Margate, Kent, England.   Job:  schoolmaster. Sister: Helen Maurian Cullen, Mrs. P.C. Wood, (b.1868) Tyrone House, Margate, Kent, England.
Father: John Cullen is listed, but his father is really Thomas Cullen and his mother was Anne Bullock, and he had a brother who was also a school master: Alfred Richard Cullen ( 1880 – 1958 )
Previous military service was with the 11th Irish Fusiliers of Canada.
Served in the 121st Battalion in France, 16th reserve battalion; BCR Depot; 2nd Depot Battalion, B.C.R.; Canadian Machine Gun Depot; C.M.G. Reserve pool; 1st Battalion, C.H.C.C.

Richard died on the 1st of January 1967 at the Jesmond Rest Home, 668 Dallas Road, Victoria, B.C.
He  lived in the province for 55 years, with the last 21 years living in the Victoria area. He never married, and his death certificate states his birthday as the 14th of May 1879, which differs, as usual from his attestation paper date of 1882.  He had retired in 1948, after working as an accountant for thirty years.  He is buried in the Royal Oak burial park, in Saanich, along with some more family members.  A niece: Norah Dorothea Cullen, Norah Dorothea Wagget,  gave the information used on his death certificate 

Richard first shows up in the 1913 New Westminster directory, listed as a teacher at the  Lord Kelvin School, a job he held until going overseas in August of 1916. 
By 1922 he is found back in New Westminster, working as a clerk for the Public works Department and in the 1936 directory for New Westminster he is a clerk working for the B.C. Government. Next he shows up in Victoria Directory in 1948 as a clerk with the B.C. Government, which was the year that he retired.
IHP7989
Lord Kelvin School with students on lawn. - [ca. 1912]
    ( photograph from the New Westminster Archives IHP7989   and 31 more images )
   This building was fairly new in this image, it replaced another one on the site, both have been torn down, but a Lord Kelvin Elementary school still exists at the same address:  1010 Hamilton Street, New Westminster, B.C.

NOTE:  It is interesting how confusing these records can be sometimes, an example is below:  A death record for a Richard Cullen who was a sergeant in the 32nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. and he died on the 17th of June 1917 in Belgium. the service number given 53021  is for a Stanley B. Rourke
But there are two,  Richard Cullen’s listed in the C.E.F. files, and both made it through the war and lived normal lives. But we have this mysterious other Richard Cullen.
     Threw me off for a while, thinking that the dead Richard Cullen was the person that I was interested in, until I was able to go through the actual service files, which of course continue to have notes past the date of death of the mysterious Richard Cullen.

No comments:

Post a Comment