TOPIC:

Smethwick
From your first post on this subject, the name " 1567 Tpr. T.Gray, SALH" rang a distant bell. Sure enough, in the back of the safe resided -



The medal was obtained more than fifteen years ago from an unrecorded source and together with quite a few others was side lined for future research and overtaken by events.
I realise that what I have posted adds nothing to answering your query - unlike the contributions of others. But it is a small world.
Regards
IL.

I am currently in a state of delightful confusion regarding miner Thomas Gray also known as 1567 Trooper Thomas Gray. I cannot leave miners at rest as my GGF, who gave me my surname, went down a Durham coalfield mine aged 10 - he escaped 12 years later when he was offered a place at a Primitive Methodist College in Sunderland to train as a minister, then woe betide you if he caught you creeping out of a local hostelry.

Why were the SALH apparently so keen on recruiting miners? The only quadrupeds they would have had experience of were pit ponies. Just a word about the German (I thought they preferred fighting on the other side) William Theodore Wagner - in early June 1900 he was reported missing and a week later he was reported to be a PoW. In June 1901 he was discharged as "medically unfit to be a soldier". Elsewhere on his discharge papers it twice says he was insane. Also, on his discharge papers he is Wilhelm.
Edward Newby was an iron ore miner and lived at Egremont which lies between the Lake District and the coast. Initially he joined the NVAC in December 1899 and when they were closed down in March 1900 transferred to the SALH. He must have stayed in SA because his parents' headstone tells us he died in Africa in 1910.

IL - your medal appears to be missing a clasp - "South Africa 1901".



From the paperwork CapePolice posted Thomas Gray obviously had a connection with Hartford Colliery nr Cramlington - two pics of Hartford Colliery below:


1900


1916

Smethwick
Yes, I am aware of the missing SA1901 clasp. Thanks to your initial post, my index card for Gray SALH is pretty well filled out. Cannot really say why SALH liked recruiting miners; they were a crack unit without the reputation of others - but they have always interested me to the extent of having no less than four QSAs to them.
I trust your Delightful Confusion resolves itself soon.
Regards
IL.

On the last intriguing paperwork supplied by CapePolice there was a list of 8 men who served in the SALH and they had consecutive regimental numbers (ranging from 1563 to 1570) meaning they all joined the SALH at or about the same time.

I now believe they all had a previous existence as “body-snatchers” i.e. they served in the Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The ABW Forum write up on the NVAC says they were disbanded in late February 1900. Checking out the NVAC Medal Roll you can see that it gives a joining and discharge date for everybody and all those still with them at the end were discharged on 12th March 1900.

CapePolice previously supplied the SALH discharge papers for 1567 Thomas Gray (i.e. numerically right in the middle of the eight). These show that Thomas joined the SALH on 14th March 1900.

I have now found six of the eight on the NAVC medal roll, as well as the SALH medal roll, and for 5 I have found other records saying they also served in the NVAC as well as the SALH. All six joined the NVAC in its early days in December 1899 and were discharged on 12th March 1900. The two defeating me in this respect are 1567 Thomas Gray and 1570 John Burrell. On the NVAC Medal Roll there are two J Gray’s.

Of the six who were miners I have tracked five back to the UK and know in which mine they spent their working life before moving to South Africa. For four I have worked out their family life and found them still living in the UK on the 1891 Census. The one whose family life I cannot work out is unfortunately 1567 Thomas Gray but we know he was destined to return to Hartford Colliery, Cramlington, Northumberland.

The four I have fully sussed out can be split in two as two worked in iron-ore mines situated between the Lake District and the coast of Cumberland and two worked in coal mines in Northumberland – I know which I would have preferred.

So taking them alphabetically:-

1570 John Burrell was a coal miner and worked and lived at Cramlington Colliery very close to Hartford Colliery. When I say he lived at the colliery he lived in one of the houses built and owned by the colliery owners and had a very, very short walk to work.

1566 Adam Kendall was an iron-ore miner working at Frizington Mine, just to the north of the Lake District and quite close to Whitehaven where the iron works was situated. These days Frizington village is somewhere you might consider staying on holiday.

1568 Edward Newby was also an iron-ore miner probably working at Parkside Mine and living in Egremont. The seam of iron ore here spread over 16 hectares and at the time was under attack by several mines. Egremont is due west of the Lake District and these days is definitely somewhere you would consider spending a holiday – besides the nearby Lake District and coast it has a picturesque, ruined castle.

1569 James Watson was a coal miner and worked and lived at Cambois Colliery on the Northumberland coast. His mother was on her second marriage and James was the only child of her second marriage but he had plenty of half-siblings to keep him company. His father was killed in November 1881 by an underground rock fall when James was only 11. Even so, by the time of the 1891 census, James was working at Cambois Colliery as a coal miner.

I have been unable to make any progress on 1565 Thomas Kidd except to say that whilst he served with the SALH he was mentioned in despatches.

So I would suggest that these 6 miners were all Uitlanders who went out to South Africa sometime between 1891 and the start of the war, attracted by the possible fortunes to made in the Diamond & Gold mines. If Thomas Gray kept to his stated intention on his discharge papers he returned to the home country but I can find no definite evidence it happened. Edward Newby definitely stayed on in Africa because his parents headstone in Egremont tells us died there in 1910. As for John Burrell & James Watson I can find no definite evidence as what they did after the war.

I apologise to Linneyl for not having made much progress with his medal bearer but will keep trying.

Finally, a photograph of Cambois Colliery which illustrates what I mean by the Northumberland coal mining pair living where they worked – I think in Cumberland things were more civilised. Don’t have a date for the photo but as it is obviously taken from an aeroplane most likely 1930’s