TOPIC:

A recent newspaper search threw up another possible soldier of the Boer War with a connection to Smethwick when I found this newspaper article in the Bromsgrove, Droitwich & Redditch Weekly Messenger of October 27th 1900:



As you can see Sergeant Fisher came in for special mention for gallantry and had a brother residing in Smethwick. Armed with his service number finding his attestation papers & service record should have been a doddle but Find My Past came up with “No Records”. Searching the same paper the next year provided a possible reason:



The article does not actually say he died in South Africa and further newspaper searching and other sources available to me provided no confirmation.

Turning to Ancestry for the medal rolls of the Volunteer Service Company of the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment produced a double hit. He is listed on two medal rolls drawn up in Bewdley, Worcestershire. The first dated September 23rd 1901 shows he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with Wittebergen, Cape Colony & Transvaal clasps, the second dated January 8th 1904 shows he was awarded a fourth clasp – South Africa 1901. The right hand “Remarks” column on both is blank against his name although both show one of his comrades “Died at Sea” on June 3rd 1901.

If he did die of tuberculosis in De Aar he should be listed on one of the cemetery memorials there but having found them in the past I seem to have lost the knack. So if anybody can oblige I would be very grateful.

Only armed with initials I did not hold out much hope of examining census returns although they did throw up a 7 year old Frank Weaver Fisher living in Bromsgrove in 1881 and by 1891 he and his parents and only brother had moved to Birmingham – the trouble is that his brother was called Ernest Arthur Fisher which does not fit with the 1900 newspaper article.

I cannot find your man on the Official Casualty Roll or in Watt, which suggests he did not die in South Africa.

Neville

He is listed in FMP as having the KSA with two bars so he must have survived,,,,,,

Mike

Thank you both for driving the fixation from my head that he did die in S Africa. This has caused me to look at later editions of the local paper and all is revealed, quite why I did not discover it in the first place is beyond me - it just goes to show one should always keep an open mind.

His name was Frederick William Fisher, born, raised and died in Bromsgrove. He was invalided home in 1901 arriving back in Bromsgrove at the end of August 1901. When he arrived back in Bromsgrove he was feted as a local hero and in November 1902 they held a smoking concert in the Dog & Pheasant in Bromsgrove (it still stands today) when they presented him with a cheque for £20 and a gold pendant. However he never recovered full health and had to undergo an operation which was carried out in the home of one of his many brothers in Birmingham. This probably prolonged his life but he spent his remaining life disabled although he managed to marry in 1907. On the morning of Sunday 22nd March 1908 he eventually answered the call of the grim reaper aged only 31. He died in the home of another brother who lived in the High Street, Bromsgrove and was given a military funeral at the local church. I have now identified him and his many siblings (11 to be precise) on several accessible family trees on Ancestry - not one has discovered his Boer War Service let alone that he was a hero in Bromsgrove. The brother who lived in Smethwick was seven years his senior and named Henry - based on census returns he did not live in Smethwick for very long. So. I cannot count Frederick William as a Smethwickian, which is a shame.

Neville very appropriately posting the Bromsgrove Tribute Medal list on my “Men of Bromsgrove” post caused me to reopen my file on Frederick William Fisher, a “Smethwickian” but by association only. He topped the Tribute Medal List but could not attend the July 1901 presentation because he was still in Cape Town “sick”. He eventually received his Tribute Medal in Bromsgrove in November 1902. My investigation focussed on his elder brother Henry who lived in Smethwick and I received a surprise because if the postman had misread a 3 for an 8 and I had been half a century ahead of my time Fred’s letter from South Africa could well have been delivered to my father.

Henry can be found on the 1891, 1901 & 1911 Census returns living in Smethwick and each time his occupation is given as “Relieving Officer” with “King’s Norton Board of Guardians” added two occasions. I quote “ Relieving Officer - A person employed to evaluate the cases of people applying for relief, and to allocate funds or authorize entry to the workhouse”. The King’s Norton workhouse was one of the largest in the Birmingham area and was still going strong at the time of the ABW. One of “my” Smethwickians spent some time there and Canon Astbury, Vicar of Smethwick Old Church, and whose son served in the Imperial Yeomanry, was Chairman of the Board of Guardians at the time of the ABW. The workhouse infirmary eventually evolved into Selly Oak Hospital which still operates today.

At the time of the 1891 Census Henry and family were living at 39 Bearwood Road, Smethwick and they had a visitor, 14 year old Frederick William Fisher. Henry was his eldest brother by 16 years. In my youth the northern end of Bearwood Road was very much in my stamping ground as two of my mates lived there and one of them might well have lived at 39.

The 31 March 1901 Census shows Henry had moved to 53 Edgbaston Road, Smethwick. Fred’s letter from Hekport (see start of thread) was dated 28th September 1900. My formative years were spent at 58 Edgbaston Road, Smethwick - more or less dead opposite 53!

Some time between 1902, when he returned from South Africa a far from well man, and his death in 1908 Fred underwent an operation that was carried out at his brother’s house in “Birmingham”. As far as I can tell no other brother left the Bromsgrove area and, as I have reported before, Smethwick suffered an identity crisis and things that happened in Smethwick were often reported as happening in big brother Birmingham. By the time of the 1911 Census Henry and family had moved but only round the corner to 66 Waterloo Road, Smethwick – for 5 years I attended Waterloo Road Mixed Infants & Junior School. Thus, I strongly suspect Fred’s operation occurred very close to where I was living half a century later.

The other thing I have now realised about Fred is that he married in 1907 and they had a very short-lived son.