TOPIC:

BereniceUK wrote:

Kathy re Coppock wrote: For a bit of detail, I am especially interested to know where the Imperial Yeomanry would have landed in 1901.

Do you know which company of the IY he served in?

91st Sharpshooters

....From a press report of Sergeant Jack Greensill's death -

…."....he joined the 3rd Company of Sharpshooters 23rd Batt. Imperial Yeomanry, and was sworn in on March 1st, 1901. On arriving at Cape Town on April 20th of the same year, the 3rd company became known as the 91st. Mr. Greensill [Jack's father] had received a letter, written at Frankfort, from his son on the 14th December....He had taken part in engagements at Thaba 'Nchu, and had been working in the Springfontein districts, and latterly at Heilbron and Frankfort."

BereiniceUK's post from a press release prompted me to search in the British Newspaper Library's Archive. I struck gold, especially with the first part of this story, in the Volunteer Service Gazette and Military Dispatch. The first part appears in the 15 September 1905 edition and the second part in the 22 September 1905 edtion. See the attached images (clipped out of the paper), some of which are highlighted for some relevant detail. The first two are from 15th September.

Further than this, I have looked up the ship the Salamis and found a Wikimedia Commons link . If you read this you can see that she was a fine three-masted clipper built in 1875, a fast ship built along similar lines to the Cutty Sark. She would have been chosen to take troops to South Africa with minimal delay as clippers were the fastest sailing ships going, built to transport goods in the shortest time possible so that they didn't spoil.

Well-researched, and thank you for posting all that information, Kathy. I'm glad you got there in the end.

Ah, but it appears that I haven't yet finished! I've been in touch with the museum at Hever and they have been kind enough to send through a copy of their Green Book. The text within matches exactly that which was published in the Volunteer Service Gazette and Military Dispatch, which serialised the IY Sharpshooters' story for many different Companies, this time on 8th September 1905.

I have now found that they sailed from the Royal Albert Docks. Since this is the same ship sailing on the same day, there can be no mistake that this is the correct location.