TOPIC:

Neville - regarding your last post:

Extract from the service records of 643 Private Thomas Fitzpatrick of the York & Lancaster Regiment:



Despite what it says he did serve in South Africa from 13/12/1899 to 02/04/1901. He can be found on medals rolls for the 1st Battalion which shows his QSA had 7 clasps - Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Laing's Nek & South Africa 1901.

Dugdale St is very near the Birmingham border with Smethwick and in 1891 the Beardmore family, including 10 year old Thomas Henry, lived at the Birmingham end of Heath Street, the other end is in Smethwick - so just missed out by 100 yards or so on being included in my Smethwickian Database. Medals Rolls show his QSA bore the same 6 state & battle clasps as Thomas Fitzpatrick's, the date clasp was replaced by the KSA with both clasps. He also served in WW1 and only three pages of his combined Boer War & WW1 service records survived the WW2 fire - two are charred and water damaged and tell us little more but the third is in pristine condition and shows his military career extended from before the start of the Boer War to at least October 1916 in WW1. Thomas Henry and his family appear on numerous census returns, both he and his parents were very long lived.

Full write-ups to follow in due course.

Fantastic David,

I thought you might come up with something as I had seen on Google maps that Dugdale Street was right on the border of your neck of the woods...!

I had a half-hearted trawl through the census returns, but got nowhere.

Thank you,
Neville

1900 and 1901 Christmas gifts for active service members of the Army Ordnance Corps. The men received straight razors in 1901 and, although not marked "Xmas", the pipes were probably 1900 Christmas presents.





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Printed greeting card from Vryburg Xmas 1900 sent by Col. Sergeant F. Shepherd to 4908 Boy F. Shepherd 2nd Somerset LI School of Music.

Boer POW Diyatalawa, Ceylon, Xmas 1901

A variant Angus Thomas card