Alfred Charles Newbold Hibbitt
I’d known for a long time that my great-grandfather, Alfred Charles Newbold Hibbitt (see right), was a Coastguard and I’d already obtained a copy of his Naval Service record some while ago from the National Archives. The record, however, ends on 30th April 1919 and a note appears at the bottom stating, “Transferred to Coast Guards (New Force) (see Special Register)”. My next question was, “Where was this register and how could I view it?”
Well, I recently discovered the Digital Microfilm records, which the National Archives have made available on their website free of charge. These records are in PDF format and aren’t indexed so you have to scroll through the pages in much the same way you would a microfilm.
Series ADM 175 consists of a variety of records relating to the Coastguard formed in 1822 by the amalgamation of the Revenue Cruisers, the Riding officers and the Preventative Water Guard. These particular records range in date from 1816-1947. (Incidentally, the Digital Microfilm records comprise numerous collections, not just Coastguard records.)
I knew my great-grandfather was a Chief Officer and so the record entitled ‘ADM 175/109 New Coastguard Force: Chief Officers service 1919-1941‘ caught my eye.
After downloading the document, I opened the PDF file and spotted Alfred C Hibbitt amongst the index pages near the front. It was then very easy to scroll down and find his entry.
Alfred Hibbitt’s entry in the Coastguard’s New Force Special Register
Now, I’d previously been told by a member of the family that Alfred had been paralysed in some sort of an accident. This new record was exceptionally sparse, stating that he’d been invalided on 27th March 1920 and it therefore appears to go some way in supporting this story, or does it? We have photographs of Alfred in uniform, and also as an older man, with a walking stick so perhaps the paralysis was something which developed over time (his death certificate states he died of dementia paralytica so this is quite possible). The record also confirmed his date of death in 1928, information that I already knew.
The record revealed one other detail. There’s a heading called ‘Station’ (presumably a reference to the Coastguard station) and under this heading it appears to say ‘Galloways’. My dad understood that Alfred was, at one time, stationed at Lydd in Kent and it appears there was a coastguard station there called Galloways. As the Naval Service record hadn’t mentioned Lydd I’d expected it to crop up in the ‘Special Register’ and, sure enough, it did.
