TOPIC:

My ancestry includes 3 Australian convicts and William the Conqueror, however I would appreciate help with my grandfather, Percy Smith who claims to have served in the Boer War "for 18 months." I have his Attestation and Statement of Service for him as no. 15128 in the 107th Battery, Royal Field Artillery from Feb 1901 to July 1901, 5 months; we also have a photograph of him in a Boer War uniform with cocked hat and feather, holding a rifle believed to be a Lee-Metford; he is also wearing a Bandolier.
I can see a Percy A Smith, no. 294 in your records, a Trooper, serving in "2nd KFS 2/8/01 to 17/2/02" and if I had this man's Attestation form I could confirm if it is my grandfather. I am unable to find this form and now ask for your help.
Trish, Adelaide, South Australia

Trish
Regarding "294 Pte. Percy Allan Smith, 2KFS", his medal roll entry p125 on WO100/257 shows a marginal note : "I .L.I." (previous service with the Imperial Light Infantry). So unless your GF enlisted early in the ABW, and had subsequent time in 2KFS, I don't think it would be him.
Can you post a pic of your GF in uniform?
I am having trouble ID'ing 107th Bty, RFA.
Regards
IL.

Trish/IL

I cannot find any military paperwork for 15128 Percy Smith on Find My Past, nor find him on a Medal Roll on Ancestry. The unit information on this site does not list a 107th Battery of the RFA, and a whole site search comes up with nothing except the mentions above.

However, the newspapers of the day do frequently mention a 107th Battery of the RFA with the earliest in 1881 and going on as least as far as WW1. See example below for the ABW period, they also did very well in the RFA sports day in July 1911.

From Western Morning News 12 February 1900



A sight of the paperwork you have might help as well as the photo - note to post on this site you will need to electronically shrink them down to less than 500Kb.

David

Just checked through the newspapers again and the 1881 mention looks dodgy and they don't get mentioned again until the one I posted in February 1900. So it appears the 107th Battery RFA were created in February 1900 as the article says. Looking at the 4 dozen subsequent mentions in 1900, 1901 & 1902 they remained in the British Isles and never went to South Africa, hence their lack of a listing in the Unit Information on this site.

Trish/Smethwick
Just now, I checked my copy of the History of the RA and there is no entry for that battery serving in SA. Doesn't mean your Smith did not serve in that battery, of course.
We need more info.
IL.

Thank you Linneyl and your info re Percy Allan Smith confirms for me that he is not my Percy Nicholas Smith grandfather. I am not clever enough to attach the 3 copies of info to this message, so I have sent David an email, and hopefully David can share that with you, as it contains more information and photos.
Kind regards
Trish