TOPIC:

Hi, I have joined this website as part of my family history research,
My Great Grandfather served with 3DLI during the second Boer War 1899 -1902 in his records he is noted as being with 106 Kokstad I.Gd (I assume this is a guard in the area of Kokstad.
I have a photo of him on horseback and think he was mounted infantry militia, from what I am given to understand there was a "concentration camp" in the area of Kokstad and no doubt patrols will have been necessary on its perimeters.
I would be very grateful for any information that would help in my research, many thanks.
John

John

A warm welcome to the Forum.
Sorry I am unable to answer your question but would just like to say that is a quality photograph you have, you must be very proud.
Thanks for sharing.

Paul

John

I wonder if Kokstad I. Guard is meant to be Kokstad T(own) Guard? Having written that I should mention that I have not previously heard of a Town Guard based in Kokstad. The local militias were the East Griqualand Mounted Rifles and the East Griqualand Mounted Volunteers. (As an aside, I do not know what distinguished these two units from one another.) The uniform worn by your ggf seems to me to be British rather than Colonial.

Regards
Brett

Many thanks Paul,
very kind of you, I hope that I can find out more about the old fellow, thanks again.
John

Thankyou Brett,
I think you are probably correct regarding the Town Guard,
I would dearly love to find out just what the Durhams did over
there other than guard towns?
Can you suggest a book that might cover it?

best regards,

John

The Durham Light Infantry and East Griqualand Mounted Rifles are covered under 'Unit information' on this site ('Imperial' for DLI, 'South African' for EGMR).

The account of the EGMR is copied from the book, 'Short History of the Volunteer Regiments of Natal and East Griqualand' by G T Hurst and is the only one I know of for this regiment. As you already suspect, there was not much else to do in East Griqualand but to be 'on guard'. The situation with the Durham Light Infantry was different, but that seems to apply only to the 1st Battalion. The 3rd Battalion may have arrived later in the war and been posted to East Griqualand.

Although the DLI no longer exists as such, there must be a museum that commemorates this famous regiment and its staff may be able to help you.

Regards
Brett