TOPIC:

John

I am sure as a North Easterner like me you have visited the D.L.I. museum, but as Brett says that might be a good place to look for more information.


county.durham.gov.uk/sites/dli/Pages/MuseumHomepage.aspx

Paul

Brett,
having looked more closely at GGF's service record for 1903 3DLI were attached to the Mount Currie Reserves EGFF, that is on the header of the record.
I will try and upload a copy of the sheet for you to see.

best regards,
John

Brett Hendey wrote: 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

Service record 1903 attached.

John

Dear John,

The scan is a copy of the page of the medal roll for the Queen's South Africa medal, which shows that your great grandfather served in the Mount Currie Reserves of the East Griqualand Field Force - it's a very small unit as you can see and was based out of Kokstad. I'm not sure that he also served in the Kokstad Town Guard, I think that's the man below.

It is possible that he went out to the Boer War with the 3rd (Militia) Battalion Durham Light Infantry and took his discharge in South Africa, subsequently joining the MCR. 3rd DLI arrived in East London, South Africa from the UK on February 3 1900 and served through 1901 guarding lines of communication in blockhouses in Cape Colony and Orange Free State, escorting convoys and garrisoning Dewetsdorp.

The next steps would be to check the Boer War medal roll of 3rd DLI in the National Archives and also to see whether his militia service papers are in the War Office records there.

Hope this helps, best wishes

Justin

Hi Justin,

Very grateful for this info on GGF, I suppose the Militia records will be kept separate from other Army units of this period.

As you say my next step will be 3DLI National Archives records to see what the medal roll has to say, this is a real step forward for me in my research thankyou very much,

all the best,

John

DLI Museum:

county.durham.gov.uk/sites/dli/Pages/MuseumHomepage.aspx


Copied from the Army Museum:

For researchers, the DLI's archive is held by Durham County Record Office (0191 3833253) and the catalogue,including all the DLI's photographs, is available on-line on the DCRO's website.