TOPIC:

My interests as a new member, are 1. where Western Australian units fought and West Australia Hill and 2. the identification of a relative who was (according to family history) killed by lightning in 1901 in South Africa. His name was Henry Francis Duncan Hand. However his name does not appear on the Nominal Rolls so far published. Any assistance on identifying the role that Henry Hand possibly played in the war and where he was killed will be most appreciated. Thanks. John Adeney

John
Welcome to the forum. I am sure you will find forum members to be a helpful lot! If your "Hand" does not appear on the WA nominal rolls; nor on the published casualty lists (I just checked them), then you have a puzzle to solve. There are two main possibilities; the first being that he went over to SA on his own account and served in a local unit there. The second possibility is that family memory just might have got it wrong.
What I regard as an excellent outline of the activities of the West Australian contingents to South Africa may be found in Stirling's "The Colonials in South Africa". I understand that that particular publication may be found in the "books" section of this site.
Good luck with your research. If you ever do run down anything, you might advise us of it.
Regards
IL.

Hi john,

Welcome to the Forum.
He served in Bethune's M.I. Killed by lightning at Blood River.
see OzBoerWar data

Cheers,

Jim

A brief look at WO100/236 shows that 997 Trooper Hand had enlisted into Bethune's Mounted Infantry on the 11th of July 1900 and was indeed killed by lightning, at Blood River Station on the 31st of October that same year, a glance at Watt suggests he was interred at Vryheid, interestingly, there is also a reference to his nationality and a former rank of Lieutenant.
I think the obvious way to go would be a careful look through WO126/2-3 at Kew, hopefully his original paper will have survived, Bethune's Mounted Infantry was an SAMIF unit that had been raised on the 20th of October 1899 in Natal.

John Adeney wrote: My interests as a new member, are 1. where Western Australian units fought and West Australia Hill and 2. the identification of a relative who was (according to family history) killed by lightning in 1901 in South Africa. His name was Henry Francis Duncan Hand. However his name does not appear on the Nominal Rolls so far published. Any assistance on identifying the role that Henry Hand possibly played in the war and where he was killed will be most appreciated. Thanks. John Adeney

Jim
The work on Bethune's MI I have access to says that "997 Tpr,. Hand, Francis H.D." was from Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia. Interestingly, in both SAFF and the Palmer roll his surname is shown as "HANDS".
Regards
IL.