Looking for information on interesting character

[pubrunner]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 03 November 2020 at 10:16

[C n C]

I'd never heard of him, but from the links you've provided he seems to have been a very interesting bloke. (.... goes off to find a copy of Black Jack's Spurs)!

I'm not sure if you'll have seen it already, but according to an Amazon review, he crossed paths with an American bandit/robber/rustler called George West Musgrave who used the alias Robert/Bob Stewart/Steward when he went to South America.

His biography is called:
Last of the Old-Time Outlaws: The George West Musgrave Story

One reviewer of the book notes:
This biography ties in to a book called Black Jack's Spurs by Thurlow Craig, about his life as a cowboy in Argentina. Musgrave (aka Bob Steward) came into that story so this book is of great interest and is extremely well researched and packed with information.

[pubrunner]

C n C said:

I'd never heard of him, but from the links you've provided he seems to have been a very interesting bloke. (.... goes off to find a copy of Black Jack's Spurs)!

I'm not sure if you'll have seen it already, but according to an Amazon review, he crossed paths with an American bandit/robber/rustler called George West Musgrave who used the alias Robert/Bob Stewart/Steward when he went to South America.

His biography is called:
Last of the Old-Time Outlaws: The George West Musgrave Story

One reviewer of the book notes:
This biography ties in to a book called Black Jack's Spurs by Thurlow Craig, about his life as a cowboy in Argentina. Musgrave (aka Bob Steward) came into that story so this book is of great interest and is extremely well researched and packed with information.

Thank you very much for providing such useful information, which we will certainly use !

In Black Jack's Spurs, Thurlow Craig does mention George Musgrave in some detail, but I never thought of looking to find any information on him, because I thought that none would exist - you've proved otherwise !

[C n C]

..as I'm not at work at the moment, I've been having a look around and found the following:


He apparently left 2 sons - Adrian and Philip, although suspect Adrian may have spelling Adrien.

As the surname is very unusual, it seems that Philip had a role at Stafford district voluntary services in the 90s as listed at Companies House

Full name Philip John Francis Donald Thurlow-Craig, born 1942, which would make him 78 now.
He’s also listed on 192.com as being resident in Stafford
If you paid the small 192.com fee, they apparently have the full address, so you could potentially then write to him and ask about his dad?

He also appears to be on Facebook - so maybe message/friend request him?


The other son, Adrian/Adrien Brewster Thurlow-Craig appears to live/recently lived in Braintree Essex.
192 listing here

He left a review on a shooting site in Essex in 2018. This suggests that he is/was based in the Essex area, and like his Dad is interested in shooting. I guess if you wanted to contact him, the shooting site may agree to at least pass a message to him?


ETA:

There are references to 3 x Thurlow-Craigs at the My Heritage site - Adrian, Charles, and Tony (grandson potentially?)
Again, I understand full records are available for a small fee.

Tony is also mentioned with an address on the CEO Email site. May be worth a letter?

Edited by C n C on Monday 2nd November 13:24

[pubrunner]

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply.

I’ve tried contacting both of the sons - with no success. The one I contacted via Facebook, but he didn’t reply. The other I contacted by a third party, but he’s also not responded.

Of course, they are perfectly entitled to ignore messages (from strangers) regarding their father - perhaps they prefer his life to be a private family matter. It’s a bit disappointing - but the presentation will still go ahead, with the material that we do have.

Thank you again, for all your help - it’s made a difference.

[TonyRPH]

pubrunner said:

<snip>
The one I contacted via Facebook, but he didn’t reply.
<snip>

Unless the person you are messaging is a Facebook friend, the message will be delivered to them - however they will never receive any notification of said message.

They will however see it if they open the full messenger (web browser) and then there will be a "Message requests" (or similarly named) folder.

So chances are you are not being ignored - he just doesn't know the message is there.

Sending a friend request might be one possible way forward.

[pubrunner]

TonyRPH said:

Unless the person you are messaging is a Facebook friend, the message will be delivered to them - however they will never receive any notification of said message.

They will however see it if they open the full messenger (web browser) and then there will be a "Message requests" (or similarly named) folder.

So chances are you are not being ignored - he just doesn't know the message is there.

Sending a friend request might be one possible way forward.

Hi, cheers for taking the trouble to reply.

The Facebook account gave little impression of being used; I took a look at his 'Friends' list and sent one of them a message, asking if they'd forward it on.

I actually got a reply, which stated - "before I pass this on, could you tell me the name of the person who gave you the information".

I provided the friend with such information that I have and I presume that it has been sent on to the intended recipient.

I'm keen not to cause the family of Thurlow Craig any possible distress - they might consider (unsolicited) messages to be harassment, especially as they will be in their senior years. That said, we've only very positive things to say about their father, but it might well be the case that they don't want any attention drawn to his exploits - if that is the case, will just have to use secondary sources of information.

[TonyRPH]

pubrunner said:

Hi, cheers for taking the trouble to reply.

Always happy to help where I can.

pubrunner said:

The Facebook account gave little impression of being used;
<snip>

This can happen if the user's profile was not very secure, but then has subsequently been locked down restricting the audience to friends only.
Unless the "Limit previous posts" option was checked during the locking down process - any posts up to a certain date will still be visible, but newer posts will only be available to a limited audience, leaving the impression that the profile sees little use.