I am seeking information on Oscar Evelyn STEEL for the period 1882 (birth) to about 1914. His parents were Thomas Rees STEEL and Sarah Ann BLANCH. Thomas was a public servant for most of the later part of his life so his activities are fairly well documented. At various times he lived in Coleford, Newland, Woolaston, Lydney and Chepstow. I have census, trade directories and the like. Whilst I have a lot of the publicly available information about Thomas and Sarah, I have very little about Oscar Evelyn, their son and my grandfather. This is particularly so for the period between 1882 (his birth) and 1914 (when he joined the army in Australia). I am trying to "get behind" his story. Oscar left home at about 18 (probably from Woolaston or Chepstow) and came to Australia (about 1900, via NZ I think) where he clearly was "keeping his head down" for some reason (for instnce, he changed his name - to John!). I have heard all sorts of rumours about the reasons for this, but nothing so far bears up to investigation. His army records in Australia show that he served for a time in the Royal Glos Hussars Yeomanry. (One suggestion is that he didn't want to fight in the Boer War.) Whilst there is plenty of information on the R G Hussars, there is little available on the RGH Yeomanry, which I understand was a separate "territorial" or army reserve unit. RGH archives cannot help. His life in Australia after 1914 is quite well documented (when he joined the 6th Light Horse and served in Palestine and France). He died in Sydney in 1956. I am hoping to track down some Gloustershire descendants of Thos and Sarah (Blanch) STEEL(Oscar's parents) who may have information about the circumstances of Oscar's departure from England. Thanks in advance. ---------- Rob Clifton-Steele, Sydney, Australia Researching: VOS (NL, Kent, SA, NSW & Pacific), BLANCH (Glos), STEEL (Glos), GRAVES (NSW), BROMLEY (Glos & NSW), MCCORMACK (Tas), DAVIES (Tas), FERGUSON (Tas)