TOPIC:

I am interested in William English who served in the Kaffrarian Rifles (19 Oct 1899–20 May 1901) and The Burghersdorp Town Guards and District Mounted Troops (10 Jun 1901–25 Sep 1902). I have found details of his medals (WO100) and his attestation paper for The Burghersdorp Town Guards and District Mounted Troops (WO 126/149). I visited the National Archive and looked in WO126/74 – Enrolment Forms Kaffrarian Rifles and Kimberley Horse, A-K and found some discharge papers which in some cases included attestation papers, but not William English (Regimental Number 655). I was also looking for an A Bevington who also served in the Kaffrarian Rifles (Regimental Number 1479) with no luck.

I would welcome any advice about other sources for the attestation papers of the Kaffrarian Rifles.

Thank you

Larry

Surviving SAMIF rank and file papers are at Kew, sadly, they are a great many that are missing, but, at least your visit was fruitful.

Thank you Frank. I suspected that was the case, but had a vague hope there might be another location, possibly South Africa, with records.

Larry

Strictly speaking the Kaffrarian Rifles was a volunteer corps of the Cape Colony since it's inception, from memory, at least, about, circa Christmas 1883, however, both just before and during the Anglo Boer War it expanded very considerably indeed.
For example, it's rank and file made up a great proportion of a particular Squadron of wretched Robert Baden Powell's Protectorate Regiment Frontier Force, which had been raised in Cape Town and Mafeking, once, publically, at least, war was seen as a foregone conclusion, privately, of course, the game was merely afoot.
It is significant that if a man joined after about August 1899, he was, in effect, joining the Class D SAMIF and of course, as a result, any subsequent claims made by him would be guaranteed by the War Office here in Great Britain, rather than the Cape Government, moreover and better still, a further incentive, was simply the level of pay on offer.