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Thanks to the wonderful array of information to be found on this Forum I think we can take Tommo on another step in researching his Grandfather.

The Shipping Records, and I still cannot get over the amount of effort somebody put into transcribing them all, tell us that on 15th January 1900 at Southampton 1,111 men of the 2nd Battalion of the South Wales Borderers embarked on Transport Ship No.16 the SS Bavarian.

Thanks to the research of Neville C we can even show him a photo of the ship that his 19 year old Grandfather sailed down the Solent on. You can imagine him on deck surrounded by a throng of soldiers all fighting for a vantage point with ever widening eyes as many would never have seen the sea before including, I suspect, James Thomas, born and raised in land-locked Radnorshire.



The Shipping Records tell us that the Bavarian arrived in Table Bay on 6th February 1900 after 22 days at sea and no doubt young James Thomas would have experienced some trepidation descending the gangway as the “serious stuff” was growing ever nearer.

Tommo – Boughrood looks an interesting place to visit even without your family connections. The restored Dead House, originally built in the 1850’s, in the corner of the churchyard is the only surviving Parish Mortuary in Wales.