TOPIC:

That would be awesome if you can look that up, please...
I wouldn't even know where to begin

Thanks, again

Mr "H" identified !

I was idly searching for information about Uitenhage on the Forum and came across this topic which was posted numerous years ago.

I guess that Mr "H" was the following - a medal acquired a few years ago.

Single – Queen’s South Africa medal no clasp (Lieut. F.L.H. Aitchison. Britstown T. G.)

Confirmed on QSA medal roll for Britstown Town Guard.

Francis Louis Hay Aitchison was born in Cape Town in 1859. He was the eldest son of George William Aitchison (b 12 September 1828) (9 children - 6 sons and 3 daughters) and Margaret Frances Gertrude Ford (b 23 Jan 1835 in Cape Town). His father George succeeded Charles Piers as Post-Master General of the Cape Colony in November 1873 and continued to serve in that capacity until his death on 26 January 1892. In those days the Postal Service throughout the world was a most important function. This was of course well before the introduction of the telephone let alone the modern-day equivalents of the internet, E-mail and cell phones with all the video communication “tricks” available today. Once again, we need to thank the British for their foresight in opening up letter postage for the common man and the introduction of their “penny black” postage stamp in 1840. It would seem to be clear that Francis’ forename “Hay” was adopted from the surname of his paternal grandmother.

Francis’ paternal grandfather was Alexander Aitchison. He is recorded as being a ship chandler) (b 1773 – d 1835) and was born in Inveresk and Musselburgh in Midlothian in Scotland on 2 May 1775. Francis’ grandmother Ann Hay Groves was born in Dublin in Ireland. She was just 17 years old when she married Alexander in Cape Town on 21 August 1819. Alexander and Ann had five children of whom George, this medal recipient’s father, was the second eldest. Alexander died in Knysna on 22 October 1835 whereas Ann died in Cape Town in 1863.

Francis was educated at the South African College and married Isabella May Miller, the daughter of Alexander Miller and his wife Catherine Milne Butchart of Broughty Ferry in Scotland at the Scottish Church in Cape Town on 18 October 1886. Isabella was born in Dundee on 30 January 1861 and their marriage produce three children. Francis died on 28 May 1940 aged 81 years his cause of death being recorded as pyelonephritis and nephrectomy. At the time of his death, he was living at “Airlee” on Camp Ground Road and lies buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Mowbray.

Francis first entered the service of the Cape Colonial civil service as a clerk on 1 (19) April 1878. A few months later he was designated as a 3rd Class Clerk on 1 December 1878 and was transferred to Tulbagh on 1 April 1879. He was promoted 2nd Class Clerk in July 1882 and to the increasingly important position as Assistant Magistrate in Tulbagh on 18 November 1885. Unlike many young men of that era, he did not see any military service during the various frontier wars of those years. Not surprisingly further promotions and appointments followed and on 1 May 1889 he was transferred to Ceres. On 16 July 1897 he was appointed as Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate at Prieska, before moving to Komgha on 30 January 1898 and soon thereafter to the important and busy location of Britstown on 9 May 1898.

He was therefore settled in his position and was in charge at Britstown when hostilities commenced in October 1899. Britstown was a small town in the Northern Cape which had come to the fore when diamonds were first discovered at Hopetown and Kimberley. The town was named after Hans Brits who had accompanied David Livingstone on a venture into the interior and had then settled on the farm, Gemsbokfontein. In 1877, a group of local men, headed by Thomas Philipus Theron (later a Member of the Cape Legislative Assembly and Chairman of the Afrikaner Bond from 1898 to 1908), bought a section of his farm on which they built a community centre and a church. Soon after the discovery of diamonds, Hans Brits realised that he and his neighbours could earn good money by serving the growing traffic along the Diamond Way. Fortune hunters paused there in their frenzied dash to the fabulous diamond field and soon a settlement mushroomed to provide fresh horses, fodder, refreshment and accommodation. Brits arranged for a town to be laid out on a portion of his farm and as a tribute to him it was named Britstown. The extension of the railway line from Cape Town to De Aar was completed in 1884 and the line linking “Brounger’s Junction” at De Aar through to Kimberley had been completed before Britstown was granted municipal status in 1889. Britstown was therefore a very important transport centre during the Anglo Boer War.

Britstown was occupied on at least four occasions during the Anglo Boer War and on each occasion contingents of British troops ejected them. The first occasion was in December 1900 when Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry under Lt. Colonel A.W. Thorneycroft occupied the town. In February 1901 it was the turn of a Company of the Warwickshire Mounted Infantry and yet again in March 1901 Colonel J. Adye of the Royal Artillery reinforced the town’s garrison. On the 6th March 1900 the British forces were attacked approximately 20-miles from the village by Commandant Liebenberg’s Commando and were forced to retreat back to Britstown, with the loss of 21 men. Britstown was one of 14 Cape districts to be placed under martial law. Being particularly concerned at the seriousness of the rebellion in the Britstown district the Commander in Chief, Lord Kitchener himself arrived with more troops in late March and the superior number of British troops resulted in the expulsion of the raiding Boer Commandos who were forced to retreat across the Orange River. It was here at Britstown while serving as Magistrate that Francis’ meritorious service was recognised, and he was Mentioned in Despatches by Lord Roberts in his despatch dated 2 April 1901“for his services rendered in the Cape”. Francis Aitchison (spelt Aitcheson in London Gazette) was one of only five Cape Magistrates so mentioned and this clearly for the period up to 29 November 1900.

Soon after the fall of Pretoria and evidently due to his competent service during the early phases of the War Francis was specially selected for service in the new captured territories as he was one of those Cape Magistrate who were transferred from the Cape Civil Service to assume a similar position in the Transvaal and on 17 May 1901, he assumed his new duties as the Magistrate for Heidelberg. The Transvaal civil Service List of 1905 records that his annual salary was £1 000 per annum with an added allowance of £180.

After serving in Heidelberg for 5 years his good service was once again recognised and in November 1906 he was appointed as the Inspecting Magistrate for the Transvaal which was soon extended to include the territory of Bechuanaland. During the years 1914 to 1919 he served as Inspecting Magistrate and Inspector of Prisons (Transvaal and Bechuanaland) being in receipt of an annual salary of £1 200/1 300. Web sources record that during the 1920s he was based in Cape Town and served as an appointed Member of the Board for the Breakwater Reformatory for European Juvenile Adults. During the 1930s he is noted as having served as a Member of the Immigration Appeal Board.