The Misses Gosling

Buried away of page 107 of my copy of the 1916 Rebellion Handbook in a passage relating to the Kingstown Volunteer Corps is a reference to Miss Baird, Miss Nancy Gosling and Miss Lucy Gosling.

Miss Nancy Gosling gave her services voluntarily as typist to the APM (Assistant Provost Marshal).

Miss Baird and Miss Lucy Gosling acted in  the same office as telephone clerks.

I suspect that Nancy Gosling is Annie Eveline Gosling.

On the basis that the Goslings are named and likely related, I decided to delve in to the records to find out who they were. Miss Baird for a later bit of research.

In the 1901 census the Gosling family appear in Kingstown

Gosling family Kingstown 1901 census

The mother, Lucy Eveline, is a 32 year old widow (army Pensioner) with 4 daughters :

Annie Eveline aged 4 born Fermoy, Co Cork
Nellie Elizabeth aged 3 born England
Kathleen aged 3 born England
Lucy May aged 10 months born Dublin

Their religion is described as Congregationalist which is not something I'm familiar with.

As an army family with a deceased father, it's possible the father was killed during the Boer War. My initial delve in Boer War records came up with Colour Sgt George (Henry) Gosling of the 1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment who died of peritonitis in February 1901. A war memorial gives his middle initial as A rather than H - always a possibility that an H was badly written and became an A.

A search for marriage records for a Lucy Eveline came up with a marriage for Lucy Eveline Copland to George Henry Gosling.

1896 marriage for Lucy Eveline Copland

1896 marriage for George Henry Gosling

A birth record for Lucy Eveline Copland in 1868, gives the father as Thomas Cooke Copland and Annie/Anna  Porteous.

Birth record for Lucy Eveline Copland

Thomas Cooke Copland appears to have originated from Norfolk, worked in the Accounts Department of Public Works, and was in correspondence with Charles Darwin

Thomas Cooke Copland and Charles Darwin

In the 1911 census, the family are in Kingstown minus Annie but with a visitor, cousin Isabella Annie King

Gosling family Kingstown 1911 census

Annie Gosling 1911 census

The mother of Isabella Annie King is Isabella Porteous from Dublin. Possibly the sister of Annie/Anna Porteous given that she lists her relationship to Lucy Eveline as cousin?

Annie Eveline Gosling was appointed a telephonist in the Civil Service in London in 1920

London Gazette for Annie Eveline Gosling

but possibly married in Ireland in 1921

Marriage record for Annie Eveline Gosling

Isabella Annie King's family appear to have settled in West Ham, Essex/London.

A nephew of Isabella Annie King, John Jackson Porteous King, appears to have been conscripted into the Royal Army Medical Corps, number 99575, in 1916.