TOPIC:

Smethwick wrote: If I do a military search on Find My Past for somebody who served in the NF with a regimental number 4908 I do get a positive reply along the following lines:

Militia attestation papers (3 pages) for an Ambrose Goymer, Reg No. 4908, 3rd Militia Battalion of the NF. Dated early May 1898 and location Alnwick. Ambrose claimed to be 33 years of age, born in All Saints, Bristol but living in All Saints, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He did not report in during 1899 and there the record stops.

Besides this record according to both Ancestry & Find My Past Ambrose Goymer did not exist - heard that somewhere else recently!

Regards, David.

The final number is very difficult to interpret, I assumed it was an 8, but it looks like that's incorrect, it looks like a backwards 3 on the image! The first 3 digits are right though!

A quick question, what context are we looking at reference
4908 and 5463? Are those numbers still relevant to the original request of the Robson who served in the Irish Fusiliers?

Hi, yes, 5463 is the number from the medal which we know was awarded to Pte A Robson who went on to join the RIF in 1907. 4908 was the number on the attestation attributed to him by the current owner of the medal group, but which I am not convinced is the same person.

This is getting horribly complicated but first I would like to thank Dave for his "Snippet" - I love it!

I have now found Alexander Robson's 1898 Militia Attestation for the 3rd Btn NF with a regimental number of 4902 - when Jo reported he was uncertain about the 8 I started at 4900 and it was third time lucky.

Here is the header of the first page - the date at the bottom of the page is 2 May 1898:



This is the top of the third page which shows his service in the Militia:



The second line appears to say "Joined NF 1898" which means he joined the regular NF.

You might be able to notice there was something pinned on top of this and here it is:



On the left in the "margin" is his name & the address given on page 1. I read the rest as "Certified that I visited the address of the man named in the margin and found it correct. I also enquired of the police to his Character they have nothing against him." Sounds as though he may have gone AWOL.

There is no 4902 on the 2nd NF Medal Roll.

In my experience men who joined the militia and then in short time signed up to be regulars in the same regiment usually kept their militia numbers so I agree with Jo I think the medal owner may have made 1+1 equal to 1 (if you get what I mean). A transcription errors work both ways and the medal engraver of 5463 might have misread an "H" for an "A" or been supplied with duff information.

I have now been the through list of NF PoW's released from Watervaal in June 1900 and 5463 R Robson is among them (about 200 of them, something like 550 British soldiers were taken prisoner at the Battle of Stormberg.)

I am convinced that our "Alexander" was in the NF at the time of the ABW but I have to be convinced he served in SA.

I don't know if it helps, but this is the image containing the medal group, I wouldn't know one from the other!. Did they get the medals despite not actually going to SA?

Not sure if this has already been noted - apologies, this is a complicated thread!

Various newspapers have 5463 A. Robson of the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers being dangerously ill with enteric fever at Germiston as of 25 December 1900 - some expand on the name, confirming an "Alexander Robson". He had been "recovered" from being a POW on about 9 July 1899 at Pretoria.