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Hello, my name is David Redhead.
I have been asked by the Smethwick Heritage Trust to look into the contribution Smethwick made to the Boer War. For those who don't know, Smethwick was an industrial town lying between Birmingham & the Black Country. It was the home to Chance's Glass Works, Guest Keen & Nettlefold's (screws, nuts & bolts), Avery's (weighing machines), Tangye's (jacks) to name just a few, and the local beer Mitchell's & Butler's was brewed at the bottom of Cape Hill just before you strayed into Brum. All gone now and Smethwick is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. Back at the time of the Boer War Smethwick was buzzing with civic pride having just been created a Borough which allowed it to appoint a Mayor amongst other things. In 1903 the Mayor of the day, Edward Cheshire, paid for the (attached) memorial to "Smethwick men" who had served in the "Transvaal War". My research to date shows only one died, Ernest Whitton, and then of disease rather than battle. Over the weekend I have made a major advance on the others when I found their South African Service Records on Find My Past. With the help of contemporary articles in the local rag (Smethwick Telephone) I now realise the 26 listed were all members of the Smethwick Volunteers which seems to have been a local militia. So they are by no means the only Smethwick men who served in South Africa. Thomas Webster gets some attention on this forum and two more who died of disease were Private A Barker (1901) & Private J Harrison (1902)
Anybody else out there with an interest in Smethwick men?

Good Morning and Welcome David......

Welcome to the forum......

I reduced your picture to post here....... (Max 700 pic.)



Mike

Hello, David, welcome to the forum, and thank you for the photo of the roll of honour.

Thomas Webster is the only man I've come across with a Smethwick connection, but I've not yet done any research in South Staffordshire newspapers.

"Mr. A. Mitchell, son of Mr. Henry Mitchell, and one of the directors of Mitchell's Brewery Company, Cape Hill, Smethick, has volunteered and been accepted for service with the Imperial Yeomanry. Mr. G. Nettlefold has also been accepted, and the workpeople of the firm with which he is associated have presented him with a pair of army revolvers."
Birmingham Daily Post, Saturday 13th January 1900

The above report doesn't make it clear if Nettlefold was also a Smethwick man. Was he connected to Nettlefolds, which became part of GKN in 1902?

....3421 Private George Hill (Mounted Infantry Company) was slightly wounded at Hontnek on April 30th. He is a Reservist, and belongs to Smethwick, Birmingham.
South Wales Daily News, Thursday 10th May 1900


Edit - Godfrey Nettlefold was a lieutenant in the 16th (Worcestershire) Company Imperial Yeomanry

...."The twenty-first ordinary meeting of [Nettlefolds] shareholders was held yesterday at the Grand Hotel; Mr. J. A. Nettlefold (chairman) presiding. . . . The meeting might be interested to know that at the present time some fifty-one of their men were serving with the army in South Africa. The representatives of those men received half wages up to 15s. per week. One man had been invalided home with three Boer bullets in his body. One had been extracted, and he was waiting to be operated upon for the other two. When that was done the man was anxious to be sent out to South Africa again. Mr. Godfrey Nettlefold, who ws doing good work in their engineering department, and was also a member of the Worcestershire Yeomanry, volunteered with the rest of his company, and, being selected, was serving in South Africa at the present time. He was sure they would wish him and all their other men a safe and speedy return (Hear, hear.)"
Birmingham Daily Post, Friday 29th June 1900

Godfrey Nettlefold appears in the 1911 Census living in an 18 room mansion in Edgbaston with his wife and newly born son and 8 servants. His occupation is given as "Screw Manufacturer". So the answer to your question is YES. He died in Sussex, probably living in an even larger mansion, in March 1918 aged only 43 - did deprivations/injuries suffered in the Boer War shorten his life?

The Mitchell family were great benefactors of Smethwick and it is difficult to write anything about the place without mentioning the name. M&B were a good company to work and they had cricket ground up to County standard and they used to put out a cricket side that could give the likes of Worcestershire & Warwickshire a run for their money.

At least 3 of those on the Smethwick Boer War service memorial were to lose their lives in the Great War - Walter Boyles, Frederick Burrell & Frank Pearce.

....Lieut. Godfrey Nettlefold, who in February, 1900, went out to South Africa with the 16th (Worcestershire) Company of the Imperial Yeomanry, has returned to Birmingham. He was met at New street Station by a large number of relatives and friends, and also by a detachment of the 16th Company recently returned from South Africa, as well as a number of men of his old squadron of the Worcestershire Hussars. The men were under the command of Lieut. E. A. Knight and the Adjutant (Major Baldwin). Lieut. Nettlefold, who was heartily cheered on stepping from the train, has been in hospital for some months as the result of a severe attack of enteric fever, but he is now convalescent, and, it is hoped, will shortly be restored to his usual health. Lieut. Nettlefold will accompany the detachment of 40 officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the 16th Company Imperial Yeomanry who, on the 26th inst., will receive war medals from the King."
The Worcestershire Chronicle, Saturday 27th July 1901

Hi David,
A very warm welcome to the forum.
I live not very far from you in Stourbridge, so I hope to hear about any connections of Smethwick men to the Worcestershire Regiment during the Boer War and also to the Imperial Yeomanry (Worcestershire) that you may come across.
I do not have any Smethwick men in my collection as far as I know but will keep an eye out for anything interesting to report on my travels.
Cheers Steve