TOPIC:

My take on his first three medals are
1902 Coronation
KSA with 2 clasps on QSA ribbon
QSA with 5 clasps on KSA ribbon

Pete

PS
Roll for 1902 Coronation




Roll for KSA



Pete

Addition to Pete's (Volunteer) paperwork.
T H Charles QSA roll

Dave..

So what do we conclude? Thomas Henry Charles was invalided home on 6th August 1900 and then made his own way back to SA to enlist in the SAC on 10th February 1901?

Wendy - you can find two sets of attestation papers & service records for your great-great uncle Louis Sutcliffe Charles on FMP - you only need to enter his full name on a military search. He initially joined a militia battalion and then transferred to the Scots Guards. He only ever served in the British Isles (which at the time included the whole of Ireland) and was discharged "medically unfit" in 1894 and died two years later aged 23. I am afraid his army medical records do not make the best of reading.

I can find no military records for the elder brother whose full name was Frank Whitehead Charles as shown by this extract from Louis's military records - it also shows that your great-grandfather for a time lived in Liverpool.



Finally the 1861 Census for Habergham Eaves, once a village south of Burnley now a suburb of Burnley. On here you can see your great-great grandparents living with your great-great-great grandparents. Your great-great grandmother did indeed start life as Alice Whitehead and your great-great-great grandmother started out as Sarah Sutcliffe - thus explaining the second given names of your great-grandfather's two brothers.



Think you need to join Ancestry as somebody on there starting from your great-great grandfather has gone back several generations - A DNA analysis should show you have a lot of Lancashire blood in you.

David, thanks so much for your time. You have filled in so many gaps for me, including the Liverpool question and even why he returned to South Africa to enlist in the SAC in 1901!
But to hear that there is already a tree on Ancestry going back generations, wow, that had me feeling quite emotional.
The history bug has definitely bitten, big-time! Thank you

TO ALL OF YOU. Thank you David-Smethwick, Dave, Arthur and Pete.
I'm overwhelmed by everyone's replies and all of your input!
I can't believe there's so many kind people on this site who are willing to help.

I haven't had a chance to look thoroughly at everything you've all sent, but I'll work through it and I'm as keen as mustard
I'm really going to pore over every single detail!
Thank you very much.

David, thank you so much for the baptism and census info and also your follow-up message on siblings and parents too! I had no idea that one could source so much information from the past, even occupations! Thank you for the time and effort you took to share these smaller details.

Dave, thank you for the attestation and service record documents - I don't have a paid membership to any website yet, so to see this information with my own eyes is quite precious to me, thank you.

Pete and Arthur and Dave, thank you also for your take on the medals and for those images. Feeling so proud to see TH Charles right there in print on these medal rolls

With so much gratitude and best wishes,
Wendy

P.S. You folks must be 'old hat' by now to be able to read that scribbled, cryptic handwriting in old docs! I'll have to train my eyes better, haha

Wendy you wrote "I don't have a paid membership to any website yet"

If you send me your email address via the private message facility on this site, happy to forward all the documents I have discovered regarding your ancestry.

Best regards, David.