TOPIC:

I knew you would get there in the end!

Based on British newspapers of the day it was initially called the Transvaal War but generally by the end the Boer War - never Second because that admitted to the disastrous (from the British point of view) short-lived First Boer War. I have also come across a headline calling it the Dutch War in South Africa. By the time of WW1 the Dutch were our allies and it became known as the South African War. When I was attempting to learn history at school the terms First and Second Boer War seemed to have become fashionable but now the Second seems to have become the Anglo Boer War.

Hot head? - he did indeed spend six months of his nearly 7 years of active service in the clink - this was above the average but not unprecedented. By the time of the ABW when he probably saw real action for the first time he seems to have reformed and on 11 October 1901 (just over 2 years after his last release from prison) he was awarded a Good Conduct badge and pay rise which he never forfeited.

You do now have his "full" service record. Looking at my Smethwickian database none of the men I am interested in served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers so I can't help you on that. His Talana clasp is significant showing he was involved in the Battle of Talana Hill (also know as the Battle of Glencoe) one of the first and bloody battles of the conflict.

Thank you again Smethwick. This is much appreciated and I am delighted to have uncovered a major piece of lost family history from quite recent times. I never recall my grandmother mentioning this so it essentially vanished from family memory. Maybe he did not speak about it personally, so it did not get passed to my grandmother, who would have been born years after he returned.

I would think six months in the can is quite significant but maybe not at that time. I will look up the battles to understand what he may have experienced. I also thought there would be further detail, like battalion reports and so on where you could garner more information. But from this one topic on the forum, it has already released a trove of information

With his entitlement to Orange Free State and Transvaal clasps and not a Defence or Relief of Ladysmith clasp I strongly suspect he was one of many RIFs taken prisoner at Nicholson's Nek 30/10/1899. Prisoners sent to POW camps in Transvaal automatically qualified for the Transvaal clasp when they were liberated by advancing British forces. Many also subsequently qualified for the Orange Free State clasp.

David

Edit: This is indeed confirmed in the Talana book by our own David Biggins. "A Company. Taken prisoner at Nicholson's Nek, 30 Oct 99".

Thank you for that additional observation. This is new to me so I am unaware of such subtleties regarding these clasps. Is there anyway to verify this? What would being a POW of the Boers be like since they were essentially an irregular army?

An interesting point is that he might have come into contact with Capt. Jack White in South Africa, son of General Sir George White, as they both reconnected in later life in the Irish Citizen Army. These new pieces are starting to fill the puzzle gradually.

"Edit: This is indeed confirmed in the Talana book by our own David Biggins. "A Company. Taken prisoner at Nicholson's Nek, 30 Oct 99"."

Do you mean to confirm the topic of the award of the clasps, or you can confirm that he was taken as POW? Many thanks.

And unfortunately, all medals from the Boer War have vanished, as is often common in families. Irony is that I am a medal collector

There is no way to track them as the family are not even aware of this service record. They will hopefully be taken care of in somebodys collection somewhere.