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Joshua Perry - A Cape Railway Sharpshooter 3 years 1 month ago #81448

Rory
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Joshua Perry

Private, Cape Railway Sharpshooters – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with Cape Colony clasp to 1374 PTE. J. PERRY, CAPE RLY: SHPTRS:

Joshua Perry was born in Hartlepool, County Durham in about 1879, the son of Joshua and Mary Perry. The patriarch of the family was a Ship Plater by trade and the family, according to the 1881 England census, were living at 10 Outram Street in Hartlepool when the enumerator called round. A 1 year old Josh was joined in the sibling category by 4 year old brother James.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, the family had moved to 35 Bengal Street in West Hartlepool. An 11 year old Josh’s parents had not been idle – joining the family since the last census were William (7), Margaret (6) and Thomas (4). Mr Perry was still an Iron Ship Plater and, as if to prove just how difficult life was in late Victorian England – 14 year old James was already employed as an apprentice to his father.

Possibly imbued with a sense of adventure, Joshua Perry decided that his future lay elsewhere and, in the last few years of the 19th century, he sailed for South Africa where, on arrival in Cape Town, he ventured upcountry to the then thriving diamond city of Kimberley where he sought and obtained employment as a Shop Assistant.

It was in this capacity that we find him when the Boer War broke out on 11 October 1899. The long simmering tensions between Paul Kruger’s Transvaal and her Free State ally and the might of Great Britain, had finally erupted into an ultimatum of war and, the saber rattling over, the fighting commenced.

Perry served with two units during the conflict, something not uncommon for a Colonial volunteer. According to the Attestation Paper he completed at Kimberley on 12 September 1901, when applying to join the Cape Railway Sharpshooters, he had previous service with the Cape Town – based Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Volunteer Rifles – although no evidence of this exists. Undertaking to be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Edward VII, he confirmed that he was now 22 years of age, lived at 116 Jones Street, Kimberley and that his father, as his next of kin, lived at 39 Lowthian Road, West Hartlepool.

Raised by Major R. G. Scott, V.C., Scott’s Railway Guards, as the name suggests, were employed guarding the railways and armoured and regular trains. This was a difficult job, with numerous dangers faced, not least of which were, during the guerrilla phase of the war, the bands of marauding Boers who were perpetually on the hunt for provisions and ammunition. They were wont to lie in wait and ambush small patrols and isolated stretches of track where providing protection for trains would prove to be almost impossible. For his efforts he was awarded the Queens South Africa Medal with Cape Colony clasp.

The war over, Perry returned to his civilian pursuits, but the lure of adventure was still strong – at some point he trekked north into Rhodesia, still comparatively uncivilised in the early 1900’s. he met and married Nelly Webb at Salisbury on 29 July 1913 and settled down to a life of marital bliss. He passed away on 22 October 1941 at the Florence Nightingale Nursing Home in Johannesburg – the cause of death being Pneumonia, Lung abscess, and cancer of the stomach. His mortal remains were cremated at the Braamfontein Crematorium. His home address was provided as 22 – 12th Avenue, Bulawayo, Rhodesia and, having made something of himself before he died at the age of 62, he was the Manager of the Castle Brewery in Bulawayo.

His wife lived to the ripe old age of 89, passing away on 16 July 1961 in Bulawayo. There had been no children of the marriage.