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Wow, thanks Frank. Presently travelling this week so I will PM you shortly.

Cheers
Stephen

Hi Stephen,
Okay, no problem, I'll wait till I hear from you, I enjoyed looking at your great grandfather, I suppose I have looked at several hundred of these fellows down the years and on the face of it there was nothing that unusual about him.

One thing that did strike me though, he had left the relative tranquillity of life in Poverty Bay and sailed out to the Cape, presumably, at his own expense, with the intention of getting himself into the war.
The New Zealand government had already sent their own troops out and were busy raising more NZMR regts in New Zealand and your great grandfather could have saved himself the time and expense and just joined them instead.
I think from memory they sent around six and half thousand men and they arrived with the best horses in the country as well
If you are collecting QSA's, those to New Zealanders are very interesting, they did very well during the war along with the Australians and Canadians, they often distinguished themselves, much to the discomfort of the British staff, very troublesome and truculent people these colonials!

His attestation paper is of the generic type i.e. Colonial Irregular Mounted Corps and not the earlier Brabants Horse type, so the attesting officer is not General Brabant himself, and he is given the regimental number of 64 and is "posted" to Brabants Horse.
I looked at the nominal roll and both the QSA roll entries, I just assumed that you must have seen them so I did not copy them.
The rolls are available on line at ancestry and his entry in WO127 is here on this site, this latter also confirms his address, although the left hand side of the photo is a little indistinct.
The supplementary roll also confirms his SA 1901 clasp was issued on the 12th of June 1908 and sent down to him in New Zealand, it also confirms both his unusual rank and the initial of his forename i.e. B (Braham) which is not shown elsewhere as he just signs Walter Bayley, if you would like good clear A3 sized copies of these three latter from Kew just let me know.

Regards Frank

Hi Frank,

Back Home again. Nothing like ones own bed!!

Thanks for your efforts and your insights. It is implied that a photo exists on File and quite a volume of information. I would be extremely grateful for copies of those files/photos. Yes, I have copies of the Roll & Clasps. Let me know what it has cost you and I will happily reimburse you? I will PM you my address and PO Box tonight.

If GG enlisted in East London, one supposes he was on his OE in the Mother Country and decided to get into the action rather than return to NZ and waste time? I understand he worked his passage to SA as a Horse Groom on one of the ships heading to the Boer War from England. Note he then traveled to Cape Town after BH service finished and not sure how he travelled to NZ. GG first name was Abraham which he did not seem to like using and used either Walter or Braham. His Gravestone in Gisborne NZ, is marked Braham Walter Bayley.

Poverty Bay an unfortunate name given to the place by Captain Cook. I suspect PB in fact NZ was in the 1800 was rather an unexciting place for a young name in his twenties. Hence why so many colonials (NZ & Australia)were keen to get away from mundane work on the land and get paid to travel to Africa.

Interestly for me, I am related to a NZMR 1st Cont Horseman, so I am interested in the NZMR and they did do very well in SA. Believe the last KIA of the 2nd Boer War was a NZMR 9th Cont officer Lt Robert McKeich. So I have certainly taken an interest in the role of the NZMR in the Boer War.

I am very much enjoying unravelling the story of my GG and would appreciate the copies to help me in that discovery in due course.

Cheers
Stephen

Hello Stephen,
Thank you for the pm, I have emailed you a 14 meg photo of the attestation sheet in WO126 and as I assumed you must have seen the medal and nominal rolls, so I did not make copies at Kew.
I have, however, just sent you the medal roll entries from the ancestry web site, the nominal roll entry is on line on this site. I could get copies from KEW for you, they would be on A3, but if you already have them? they will be just the same!

Your great grandfather joined in East London in the Cape, NOT, in the east end of London in Great Britain!
Do you have evidence, that he was actually in Great Britain in 1900? this would explain why he did not join one of the NZMR regt's being raised in New Zealand.

I will send the copy of the original sheet in WO126, by airmail to you at the address you have given, tomorrow.

Good to talk to you Stephen and I'm glad you have the same thoughts as me regarding those truculent colonials!

Regards Frank

Hi Stephen,

I have enjoyed reading this thread.
My interest is in the New Zealanders who fought in non Nz units during the Boer war.

Roberts timeline is absolutely typical of the hundereds of New Zealanders who fought in these units.
You must remember that the first 2 NZ contingents only took members of existing volunteer units and the next 3 were only taken from certain areas and in small numbers as a general rule.
It was extremely competitive to get into these units and hundreds of people missed out.The most determined of these went anyway.
Most seem to have got there on remount ships-Im guessing they got a free passage for working with the horses on their way over.
Off the top of my head I think 50+ kiwis were in the ranks of brabants horse over its existence so it was a fairly popular unit to serve in.

Good luck with the research-these units are extremely interesting to study!!

cheers

Glenn

Big Thank You Frank. Learn't heaps. My emails to you seemed to have bounced which is a shame. I will post up GG's QSA when I work how to drive this function here.

Greetings Glenn thanks for your post and following the story. I am really enjoying the unravelling and learning as I go.

Cheers Gents