TOPIC:

Hi everyone, I'm Colin and, thanks to David, I've finally managed to log in

So what do I bring?

Well, firstly, my great-grandmother's brother in the Imperial Yeomanry was killed at Tweefontein on Xmas Day 1901, so I've always been interested in him and that calamity.

And I'm also trying to identify a WW1 NCO from a 1913 photo of him in dress uniform (probably 2 Middlesex) wearing his medals - a QSA with three clasps, a KSA with (only!) one clasp and a LSGC.

On now to the nitty gritty on the forums...

Cheers!

hi Colin, have you got any names or numbers regards saxon,

Obviously nothing on 'Tim' (yet!).

But Private Frederick Oliver Bird (in some records wrongly indexed as FC Bird) was no. 33706. He apparently got a QSA with bars for Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal and was 35th Squadron 11th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry.

His medal has not survived within the family (so far as I know) and his last letter home (arrived after his death) was apparently donated a few years back to a British Legion Club in North Wales by his niece (she lived on Anglesey). Would dearly love to see that! And his medals of course!

And apparently he is on the IY memorial in the crypt of St Pauls but I haven't seen that yet.

But beyond reading about the battle (if you can call it that), I know nothing about his Boer War experiences.