TOPIC:

1413 TROOPER PIETRO CARPENA: BETHUNE'S MOUNTED INFANTRY AND 624 BUSHVELDT CARBINEERS/PIETERSBURG LIGHT HORSE

A MALTESE MAN IN THE ANGLO BOER WAR

Pietro Carpena attested to Bethune's Mounted Infantry on 22nd July 1901 and served with the unit until 14th February 1902.


Enlistment details for BMI from FindMyPast


Medal Roll WO100/236 for Bethune's Mounted Infantry.
Note the initials 'BVC' in the Remarks column.



Queen's South Africa medal awarded to Trooper Carpena


Officially impressed naming to Carpena to the rim


Officially impressed regimental naming



For Carpena's next military enlistment I will quote the relevant section from the above biography of the BVC/PLH by Bill Woolmore as follows:

"CARPENA Pietro, Trooper No. 824 (sic. 624 (PLH): Born Valetta, Malta. Previous service as Trooper No. 1413 in Bethune's Mounted Infantry from 22 July 1901 when his next of kin was given as his brother, Francis Carpena, 125 Royal St, Valetta, Malta. Enlisted in PLH at Durban on 3 March 1902-age 37, engine driver, height ,5'7", 37" chest, 7" head, size 9 foot, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair. NOK: British Hospital, Malta. Discharged from PLH on 7 July 1902. He qualified for the QSA medal with clasps Cape Colony, OFS, Transvaal, SA1901 & SA 1902."

Unfortunately, the medal lacks clasps Transvaal and the other two date clasps.

Was Pietro Carpane the only Maltese who served with the unit? I will have to run a further check through Woolmore's book.

Refering back to the Remarks found in the Medal Roll for BMI, clearly the name of the notorious BVC had been changed to the Pietersburg Light Horse by the time Pietro had reached them from where he attested in Durban.

Having attested to the unit less than a week after the execution of Handcock and Morant and the death sentence of George Witton being commuted to life imprisonment, you can only imagine the atmosphere surrounding members of the unit. If there was a stigma attached to serving with the BVC/PLH, it did not seem to deter men from joining up, as many men attested during March 1902 along with Carpane.


Enlistment details for Bushveldt Carbineers from FindMyPast.


Enlistment details for Pietersburg Light Horse from FindMyPast.


Medal Roll WO100/263 for Pietersburg Light Horse.

Hopefully, I will be able to add more to this thread for a man who served with two famous units.

If anyone on the forum has any further information concerning Pietro Carpena or recruitment and reputation of BVC/PLH, this would be most welcome.

Cheers Steve

Steve,

A very nice medal that is very well documented. Were those transcripts linked together or are they three separate items?

It is interesting to think about the reputation of these units and why people joined them. Rory sometimes suggests that people switched South African units because they wanted more or less action and that makes sense. I presume the news about an event such as Morant's would have spread quite quickly in the BVC even though they were widely spread. That said, the recruiting happened much further south so I wonder how much Pietro knew of the affair when he enlisted?

Here is the origin of the information in Bill's book:







Best wishes
David

David,

Thank you for posting the attestation documents here. It is good to have them for both units he served with, and also to see that it was in fact the PLH to which he attested and not BVC.

The FindMyPast pages were all separate and came up by just entering a search for his unique name.

Cheers Steve

T

I had reached my maximum number of images for my first post on this thread, and so omitted the image of Bill Woolmore's excellent biography of the BVC/PLH. So please find below. Well worth having in your ABW library....if you can find a copy at a reasonable price!



Mostly Unsung of Australia, a publisher of booklets on military matters published a short biographical account of Bethune's Mounted Infantry back in the 1990s. Another one on my wishlist.
Would anyone on the forum know of a copy available in the UK? A lead would be greatly appreciated.

Morning Steve

On 1st trawl of the UK military book outlets, I could only find on line books like Google and JSTOR ref the booklet you seek.
Attached is the Australian publisher link. With contact details. Bethunes Mounted Infantry is still listed at 20 Aus Dollars. Maybe worth a email to see if it's still available.
www.mostlyunsung.com.au/publications

Best wishes

Dave....

These copies are on ABE books UK
Both with pricey shipping fees from Oz
I wonder what the shipping cost is directly from the publisher?
20 Aus Dollars is just over a tenner, so maybe beneficial to buy direct. Just a thought.

Dave......