TOPIC:

Stephen

There is a short account of Royston's Horse in the book 'The Volunteer Regiments of Natal and East Griqualand' by Col G T Hurst (1945). If you pm your e-mail address to me, I will send you a scan of the page.

Regards
Brett

Thanks again Frank, greetings David. I have been to the National Archives website and there are some 167 boxes of data on SAMI in WO 126 - all undigitised. I suspect that a personal visit might be the best solution. I have been unable to locate information on Royston's Horse at the National Archives. Would these records be in South Africa?
Regards

There are eight files dealing with Royston's Horse in the Pietermaritzburg Repository of the SA National Archives. They date between 1906 and 1909 after the Rebellion was over and deal with issues such as payment to repatriate a New Zealander, compensation for the next-of-kin of a KiA and other such issues. None refer to Stephen Midgeley.

Regards
Brett

Many thanks Brett. Grandfather served for 9 years in the Queensland Defence Forces before going over the South Africa. There are no records of this service to be found in Australia - many records were lost as the Australian colonies were blended to become one Australia after 1901. Perhaps the same happened in South Africa? If you ever find our where the enlistment forms and the applications for commissions for Royston's Horse are located, I would be grateful for the advice. I expect that there must be discharge papers somewhere as well? Thanks for the interest. Regards

I will keep watch for Midgeley and Royston's Horse reports. They should have ended up in the PMB Archives, so, if they still exist, I cannot imagine where they are now.

Regards
Brett

Hello Stephen......I have read and re-read the book Gallipoli Sniper where your grandfather plays a significant role as the officer in charge of the sniper unit where Billy Sing made such a huge impact sniping away at the Turks. One truly fascinating aspect of Major Midgley's part in the Gallipoli campaign was his seemingly insatiable need to go trench raiding and give the Turks what oh! The book says his favourite trench weapon was a sawn off shotgun......ideal when you think of it but after a while Stephen Midgley was ordered to desist using this weapon as it offended the enemy. Such is the ironies of war. It doesn't matter the enemy being killed but not with a sawn off. Anyway, I am utterly intrigued that you are writing a biograph of this great soldier.