How Is John Bulmer Rutherford Related to James Augustine Rutherford?

John Bulmer Rutherford (known as Bulmer to his family and friends), my husband's grandfather, wrote to his mother, Ida (Bulmer) Rutherford of Montreal, while he was serving during World War I.  We recently found two of his letters among some family papers.  One of them was sent from Highclere Castle in England, where he was visiting relatives. Below is a transcript of the letter, which was only partially dated, but must have been written in 1918.

"Highclere
Oct 13th

Dear Mother, 

As you see I am at Highclere just now and am having a very restful time for a few days.  I received Dad's cable yesterday but it is very late and I am not going to answer it as I know you have the information you wanted by now.  As soon as I arrived in London I went to Mr. Rowson's place to make sure he had the news but I presumed that Mr. Hodgson would have been informed officially some time before.  I wrote to Mrs. Williams at Liverpool and asked her to break the news to Marjorie if she had not already been informed.  It turned out that she was sick at the time and the doctor would not let them break the news.  I went up to Liverpool on Wed. night (I arrived from France Fri night) and spent the day with Marjorie Hodgson.  She was bearing it very bravely, far better than I thought she could stand it considering that she had been ill.  She said that General Dodd's cable had arrived at home in addition to Mr. Rowson's.  It had helped her a lot to know that Sid had not suffered in the least.  I brought her the little personal things that he would have wanted kept.  I also wrote to Mrs. Hodgson and presume that she has received the letter before this one.

Sid and Oliver Becket were both killed instantly by the same shell just two hours after the opening barrage of the battle for Cambrai.  It dwarfed into insignificance everything up till that time but as you have seen the casualty lists you will realize that Canada had to pay the price of her victory.  It was the pivot point of the whole front and all these later victories have come about as a result of what the Canadians accomplished there.  It had to be done and nobody else could do it.  When I came away the greatest part of the battle was over & the city was below and in front of us and within easy reach of our guns though not in our hands.  Of course since then it has fallen. 

I was staying in town with the Blaiklocks or Col Birks  whichever you please.  I told Polly B. that she ought to call it the 16th Canadian Gloucesters (16 Gloucester Sq) as their passing visitors certainly number a battalion.  She was very struck with the idea so it is christened as such.  Geoff Williams and Geordie Nick were both staying there at the time in addition to many others so it was very fine.  Mrs. Blaiklock is a wonderful hostess and Col Birks is fine.  I went up to Liverpool and came back to town for a day and then up here on Sat.  Uncle Jim is away to-day but expects to be back to-morrow.  Kenneth, the youngest boy, a little younger than I am, is here at present.  It was a perfect day to-day the first for some time and we were out on the lake and tramped through the park and incidentally took a few photos, which I will send home if they turn out.  I am feeling very comfortable (sic) arrayed in some of Ken's clothes (civvies).  I am not going to Scotland as I do not particularly want to go alone.  Nick might have gone up but it is too late as he has to report to his depot to-day.  I just missed Fred Peverley by a few days as he went back to France just as I arrived in Eng.

By the looks of things the end of the scrap seems to be in sight now.  This is not the time to talk peace though.  Not when we have him more or less on the run.  The time to talk peace is when he says he surrenders unconditionally, which he will do sooner or later.  I do not understand why they address all their notes to Wilson.  I guess they are afraid of the Americans in the future for they have really had little to do up till now.  I am going up to town for a couple of days before going back which I do on the 18th.  

With love to all the family,
Your Loving Son, 
Bulmer"

The Sid Hodgson that Bulmer discusses in this letter is a fellow Montrealer and McGill student, Sidney James Hodgson, who was killed in battle in September of 1918, at the age of 20.   Bulmer obviously survived the battle.

This letter is particularly important for the light it sheds on relationships between Canadian Rutherfords and those who remained in Britain.  Specifically, who was the Uncle Jim who hosted Bulmer during his stay at Highclere?  I believe "Uncle Jim" was in fact James Augustine Rutherford, the Estate Manager at Highclere.  According to census records, his youngest son, Seymour Kenneth Rutherford, was born around 1900.  Bulmer was born in 1897, and so would have been three years older than Seymour, or Kenneth as he appears to have been called.  However, although James Augustine Rutherford (who was born in 1856) was a generation older than Bulmer, he could not have been Bulmer's uncle.  I believe that they are cousins.  

Bulmer was the son of William Rutherford Jr. and Ida Bulmer, and the grandson of William Rutherford Sr., who immigrated from Scotland, and Elizabeth Jackson.  He would have been the great-grandson of James Rutherford of Jedburgh, Scotland, and his wife Helen Paton.

James Augustine Rutherford, on the other hand, was born in Stallingbusk, Yorkshire, England in September of 1856 to James Rutherford and his wife Ann Foster.  His siblings were Helen (1858), Jane Elizabeth (1861), Ann Isabella (1863), Maggie Laird (1865), John Edward Foster (1869) and William Archbold (1871).   His father, James, was a land agent and later a gardener, and census records consistently show that he was born in Scotland around 1828.   One of his children carried the family name Laird (Maggie Laird Rutherford), and one of James Augustine Rutherford's did as well (Godfrey Laird Rutherford).  (Laird was Helen Paton's mother's maiden name).  I believe that James the father of James Augustine was a son of James Rutherford, forester, and Helen Paton, of Jedburgh.  Their son James, who was William Rutherford's brother, was born on November 9, 1829, in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland.   If I am correct, then William Rutherford Jr., Bulmer's father, would be James Augustine Rutherford's first cousin, and Bulmer would be his first cousin once removed.  I have to say that there are a few genealogies online which state that the James Rutherford who was born in 1829 lived and died in Scotland, but I don't see any sources, and I believe that my theory explains the relationship between Bulmer and the Highclere Rutherfords. 

By the way, Highclere Castle, home of the Earls of Carnarvon,  is now famous as the estate where the TV show Downton Abbey is filmed.  James Augustine Rutherford was the estate manager when the 5th Lord Carnarvon (of King Tutankhamen fame) lived there.

Here is a picture from the book Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey:  the Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2011).  Major J.A. Rutherford (James Augustine Rutherford) is front and centre. 

Here is some evidence of John Augustine Rutherford's leadership in military matters before the start of the war, from the Reading Mercury newspaper, May 12, 1900.

And here is a death notice for Major Rutherford, from the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer Newspaper, June 11, 1929, p. 10.