TOPIC:

As a follow on to the recently uploded transcriptions of the local forces enrolment forms onto Findmypast.

I find that another of my men, following service with the Protectorate Regiment and Western Province Mounted Rifles, then enrolled on 27 December, 1901, into the 4th Cape Peninsula Regiment, E Company. I Believe that this unit was also known as the Cape Town Town Guard, is that correct?

I cannot find a medal roll for the Cape Peninsula Regiment. Does one exist?

Many thanks,
Nick

Can you provide a link to these uploaded local forces transcriptions please Nick?

Apropos your questions (this one and on a separate thread) - if memory serves there was also a Cape Town Town Guard and photos of this exist. They were never operational that I am aware of and no medals were issued to them off a roll by that name. Most chaps were mustered to one of the local regiments with not a few ending up in the Peninsula Rifles, Western Light Horse Western Province Mounted Rifles etc.

Regards

Rory

Hello Rory,

Thank you for that quick response. I think that answers part of my question, as to why there would be no medal roll.

I do not know how to provide a link. The data is in the Military, armed forces & conflict data set at Findmypast, under:
British Army, Local Armed Forces' Enrolment Forms, Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902.

As I said, sadly, they are only transcripts, not images of the original forms. Even so, I found forms (details) to three of my men which I did not know existed.

Nick

The CPR was formed from the Town Guards. In brief :
- from January 1901 onwards, dozens of town guard companies were raised in Cape Town and the other towns and villages on the Cape Peninsula, such as Green & Sea Point, Woodstock, Rondebosch, Claremont, Wynberg, and Simon's Town;
- Cape Town alone raised a few dozen units, some recruited from municipal departments, large businesses (e.g. Stuttafords and Garlicks department stores), and ethnic communities (Caledonian and Hellenic);
- the authorities organised these units into five battalions, collectively called the 'Cape Peninsula Regiment'; artillery volunteers were formed into the Peninsula Artillery, and mounted volunteers formed the Peninsula Light Horse (which was a DMT unit);
- the battalions were commanded by British (imperial) officers, and the mayor of Cape Town was colonel-in-chief
- the CPR saw no action, although the Claremont companies were once called out in the small hours of the morning, after reports had come in of Maritz's scouts being seen in the vicinity of Bellville;
- the CPR was disbanded early in 1902, except for a small full-time element which was named the 'Cape Infantry' and continued to the end of the war.

After the war, in 1903, a new unit named the Cape Peninsula *Rifles* was formed, to perpetuate the memory of the wartime CPR. It existed until the 1930s, but was inactive after 1926.

Hello Arthur,

Many thanks for that most useful summary, and explains a lot to me.

Nick