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Good evening and Merry Christmas.

I'm trying to help a lady who has been given here great grandads Boer war medal.

I cant find him on the search and wondered if anyone was able to find any further information. If his name is not shown would it be possible to add him to the list.

Many thanks Dylan

During the ABW he served in the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and the rim of his QSA should show this and it should be adorned with 4 clasps - Wittebergen, Cape Colony, Transvaal & South Africa 1901. He can be found on two battalion medal rolls on Ancestry.

His personal military paperwork can be found on Find My Past and shows he originally enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment in 1883 and was discharged to the army reserve in 1890 having completed 7 years of home service. The paperwork then becomes a bit hard to fathom but he obviously rejoined to fight in the ABW. Included with the paperwork is a copy of his death certificate.

Dylan,

Here are a few of the more useful pages from Crow's service records that David refers to.

Now that you have started this topic on 631 Private Ernest Crow, Worcestershire Regiment, future visitors to this site will be able to find him through the search tab.






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Thanks for doing that Neville.

Have just found him on a public family tree on Ancestry which based on the 1939 Register shows he was born on 5th February 1866 which means he was 17 years 10 months old when he first attested on 5th December 1883 - I am always a bit suspicious when I see a round 18 years given as age at attestation.

He was born in Redditch where once upon a time 90% of the world's needles were made so not surprising he gave his occupation as "needle hardener". For those who might be wondering: "A needle hardener, or temperer, hardened needles to make them strong enough to withstand the pressures of sewing at high speeds. The process involved heating the needle and then quenching it in oil or another bath. The oil quenching method was preferred because it left more needles straight than quenching in water."

By 1911 he was working for the local railway company as a "plate-layer" but one his eldest daughters he described as a "pin worker" and that she was involved in "pin knobbing" - the enumerator overwrote "pin knobbing" in red ink with "Needle works". Not sure what a pin knobber did but a visit to The Needle Museum in Redditch would probably provide the answer.

Ernest passed away in 1943 aged 77 and still living in Redditch.

One cannot say whether he was directly involved in the defence of Pinnacle Hill/Burnt Hill/Signal Hill on 12th February 1900 as only three out of five companies making up the battalion were involved and the majority of the 16 NCO's & men killed in action allegedly came from E Company. He definitely does not appear on the wounded but survived list I am just putting the final touches to.

Happy New Year to you! Thank you for the information which has been of great help thank you and passed on.