TOPIC:

I'm enquiring on behalf of a friend, Jacobus Venter, who has come across a Westley Richards "Monkeytail"with the name NWJ Kruger on the butt. Monkeytails were capping breechloaders - they load a combustible paper cartridge into a flip-up breech, and ignition is from an external hammer and percussion cap. Monkeytails were very popular with burghers in the Transvaal war of Independence of 1881, but obsolete by the South African War.
Can anyone trace the owner?
many thanks
Rob

Hi Rob,

I hope someone else has better luck; I had a couple of go's but came up short.

An option for "N" is Nicolaas and there are a few options for "W" and "J" like "Willem" or "Wikus" and "Johannes"; but I didn't have any hits for NWJ Kruger; it seems to be a rare initial combination.

Good luck.

Hi Rob
As Sturgy has mentioned the initial combination does seem to be rare.
Family Search has quite a few N J Ks but not N W J Ks
Ref ABW this is the closest I could find.


Dave....

Thanks!
In my experience burghers'names on rifles are often scrambled with commonly misspelled names or letters reversed, so initials in the wrong order would be quite commmon.
Also, I have observed that not all initials were used on every occasion, so he could have sometimes been N Kruger, NW Kruger, NWJ Kruger or even NJ Kruger. But I would expect his date of birth to be before 1861, for him to have carried a Monkeytail. Thus Dave's POW is certainly a contender.
Is there a list of burghers who served in 1881?
Rob