No service records findable but found the following:
At this stage I was content that I could add Private 5309 William Hobbins as number 212 on my “Smethwickians who served in the Boer War 1899-1902” and that he died at Winburg on 2nd March 1901. One remaining doubt at this stage was what he died of, but almost certainly disease because there was a hospital at Winburg. The other doubt was whether his father’s name was William or John and I didn’t know his DoB. Looking at birth registrations and census returns I become certain he was born very late 1880 or early 1881 as a birth of a William Hobbins was registered in the King’s Norton Registration District (which included Smethwick at the time) in Q1 1881. I found in the 1891 census returns a William Hobbins aged 10, which complies with the previous birth registration, living at 49 Unett Street, Smethwick with his parents John & Emily and his siblings. I can find John & Emily still living at 49 Unett Street on the 1901 census with their family minus William. Not absolute proof I have the right man but I am content.
In an attempt to establish that he did die of disease I did a name search on the ABW Forum website and received the following:
Transcriptions of the SAFF record are also findable on both Ancestry & Find My Past.
Well now I knew 5309 died of disease but was he my William?
Then I found a photo of the Boer War Memorial in Lichfield Cathedral to the fallen of the 4th Battalion (see right hand column eight down).
Now I am wondering if anybody who has direct access to the SAFF Casualty Records and/or S Watt In Memoriam by S Watt can check for any relevant entry in the comments column.
What I think has happened somebody has misread the “W” in Lichfield 1903 Medal Roll as “A J” (see start of the post). From my studies of WW1 War Memorials mistakes regarding names and especially initials can be surprisingly common.