[1] There seems to be no record of Frederick Balmer (b c 1847/1849) before his marriage to Mary Ann Halliday in 1885, when his father’s name - Frederick - and occupation - blacksmith - were recorded. The couple are recorded the 1891 and 1901 Censuses living in Glendale. There is a very real possibility that Frederick was registered at birth as Roderick Balmer. A Roderick Balmer whose birth was registered in the Berwick registration district, in 1847 rather than 1849, and a Roderick Balmer, aged 4 years and born at Tweedmouth, appears in the 1851 Census living at Ford Forge, Ford, with his mother Jane Balmer and older siblings Alexander (aged 13 years), Agnes (10 years) and James (aged 7 years) and a younger brother John (aged 2 years). In 1861 Roderick was a ‘scholar’ and living at Encampment Farm, Ford with his widowed mother and his siblings. In 1871 he was an ‘Ag Lab’ living at Heathery, Chatton and still with his widowed mother and all his siblings. However there appears to be no record for Roderick Balmer after 1871 and he does not appear to be in either the 1881 or the 1891 censuses of England and Wales. It seems possible that he had changed his given name to Frederick. Furthermore, in 1887 two years after Frederick married Mary Ann Halliday, Frederick's/Roderick’s brother James Balmer married Ellen Robinson in Wooler. James Balmer gave his father’s name as Roderick Balmer! However James’s age was recorded as 40 when he married, which would place his birth in 1847, whereas census records suggest that he was born in c 1844 in Scotland. (There is a record of the baptism of a James Balmer (b 22 July 1843), son of Roderick Balmer, blacksmith, and his wife Janet Voy, at Coldingham, Berwickshire, who just may be the brother of Roderick/Frederick Balmer.) James Balmer died in 1892. In 1881 Roderick/Frederick Balmer’s unmarried oldest brother Alexander was living at Coupland in Glendale with his widowed sister Agnes Scott and her son John, and in 1891 Agnes Scott, her son John and her brother Alexander were living at Unthank, Rothbury. Agnes Balmer had married John Scott in 1873, and their son John was born in 1875. John Scott senior had died aged 50 in 1877.
[2] The grandmother Jane claimed in 1871 to be a widow. However in 1861 she was living in Church Street, Wooler and was recorded as 'unmarried'. Her daughter Margaret was living with her in 1861. It seems most likely that the twin girls Mary Ann and Margaret Jane Halliday and of the two younger boys, who were recorded as Jane Halliday’s grandchildren in 1871, were the children of the unmarried Margaret Halliday. It is significant that neither of the twins recorded the name of their father when they married in 1885.
[3] James Balmer, the brother of Frederick and the uncle of James and William Balmer, had married an Ellen Robinson (b 1860) in Wooler in 1887. Although the similarity of the name is suggestive this does not explain how James and William were the nephews of Watson and Ellen Mills. Further work is needed.
[4] Industrial Schools and Training Schools were designed to provide training for boys and girls who were vulnerable, perhaps because their parent or parents could not cope, or they were orphans, were found begging, or were destitute. Children were rarely sent to industrial schools because they had committed a crime, although they may have been mixing in bad company. Today such vulnerable children are taken into the care of social services.
[5] There is a Robert Balmer (Private, No.T4/216722) who served with the Army Service Corps. This Robert Balmer had married Margaret (Maggie) Stewart, at St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne on 3rd February 1916. The couple lived at 38 Liverpool Street, Newcastle and had a son William born in April 1916. When he attested on 2nd October 1916, he was working as a labourer and was 28 years 5 months old. Therefore he was born in 1888, whereas Robert Albert Balmer was born in 1886 would have been 30 years old in 1916.