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 have just been given copies of poems that William wrote in 1902. These are helpful in showing his location, but some help is needed to explain his movements.

5 and 18 May 1902 William is at Maitland Camp in Cape Town. What would his DMT regiment be doing at Cape Town at this time? Was Maitland Camp a demobilisation centre?

July 02 William says he is visiting relations. His relations would have been in NE England.

3 September 1902 and William is writing to his future wife from Las Palmas (presumably on Gran Canaria). It looks as though from July - September he has returned to England.

His diary says he served in DMT until 25 September 1902.

So my request for help is clarification on the pattern of service in the final year of the war.
Why was he in Cape Town in May 1902
Would his regiment have been disbanded soon after the end of the war?
If William says that he served until 25 September 1902 would he have been given permission to return to England for a short trip?

Thank you

larryc,

I have recently being looking at Williiam as part of my research into recipients of the Wepener clasp. My records show he received QSA (5) CC Wep Tr Witt SA01. I do not have any information beyond what you have written.

Most of the regimental records that I have seen suggest that the units were disbanded very quickly after peace was signed. It is usual to see people's service coming to an end in June 1902 on disbandment of their unit. I was working on the Driscoll's Scout roll last night and that unit was disbanded on 30 June 1902.

It would be unusual to see units going on beyond July but there may be reasons why Burghersdorp DMT continued. The impetus from London would have been to disband the local units as quickly as possible to save the money.

As a DMT, I think the members would have a lot more freedom of movement compared to an Imperial unit and that permission to travel would have been easier to obtain once the war ended.

These are just my speculations on what might have happened.

Kind regards
David

Thank you David.
It is possible that William's diary entry is not quite right and Burghersdorp DMT were disbanded in June 1902 and he then travelled to England.
Is there any significance of him being at Maitland Camp in May 1902? Also is there any account of the movements of Burghersdorp DMT 1901-02?

Best regards

Larry