TOPIC:

Tinker,

Would you know off hand if his wife's name was Jessie Cleland (Born Stewart)?

Regards
Adrian

Thanks for having a ferret for me, Paul. The badge issue is a little confusing: the attestation papers give his Corps as Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry, while his discharge papers give the info that he's in the 1st Provisional Battalion, 7th Coy., I.Y., so obviously a lot of shuffling around was going on. I'll see if the British badges forum you mentioned can help.

Adrian, thank you for telling me about Audrey. I'll contact her asap. John's wife was Ethel Amelia Cutting. The Cutting family originated in Suffolk, but Ethel's branch had been at Wynberg in the Cape since the 1820s.

Good morning,
Glad to see that the ball is well and truly rolling as far as research goes, of the Imperial Yeomanry Companies that actually served in South Africa only a few had individual unit badges, if a badge was worn at all, they tended to be the general pattern brass or bronze Prince of Wales plumes above a brass or bronze IY, made in Great Britain or locally in South Africa and often worn on a rosette attached to the up turned side of the slouch hat.
Regarding "mounted riflemen" that is exactly what the IY were, so by joining the SAMR he is not doing anything new, he is merely being paid by the Union Government and doing things already very familiar to him.
Of course after the war, in Great Britain, the Imperial Yeomanry had a huge number of distinctive regimental badges.
Regards Frank

Tinker wrote: Paul, a huge thank you for that heads up! I now know that he was discharged from 111 Coy., at Shorncliffe, on 5 July 1902, as medically unfit, and that he was an apprentice coach trimmer with the G. N. R. by trade. Up to now I had no idea what trade he'd been trained in because he was in S. A. by the time the 1901 Census was taken. (His father and one brother were also employed by the G.N.R, while the other brother was a telegraph boy for the G.P.O.)

In spite of being discharged as medically unfit, the army obviously suited him because he was back there by W.W.I. Would he have been actively re-recruited by the army in the aftermath of the Boer War, when it became apparent that there was mopping up to be done, or is it likely that he re-applied on the eve of W.W.I as a result of 'itchy feet' having 'tasted adventure in foreign climes,' as it were? I'm curious to know how he ended up as a Mounted Rifleman.

Also, what cap badge would he have worn during the Boer War: that of the Leicestershires, or an Imperial Yeomanry one? He was with the 2nd Yorkshire and Lancashire Volunteers at the time of his enlistment, I've just discovered.

Thank you for clarifying the badge issue, Frank -the only photos I have of John in uniform are from his stint in the S.A.M.R, and obviously those show the circular Springbok badge with the motto around the outside, so that didn't help!

With reference to the "mounted rifleman," I'm not sure how John came to be in a mounted unit in the first place i.e. when he initially joined the I.Y. He lived in Doncaster and worked on the railways so I can't think he would have had a lot of experience with riding horses, in the way a farm boy would have, say, although he may have been familiar with them as draft animals. (As a matter of interest, at the top of one of the pages of his Attestation Paper someone has written ' wishes to join 66th(?) Coy., I.Y'). Would all raw recruits to the I.Y. have been trained to ride horseback, or is that something he would have been likely to have picked up during his time in the 2nd Yorks and Lancs Volunteers?

No Problem,
Glad to help, I think Frank has answered the question of your badge query very well.

Paul

Tinker wrote: Thanks for having a ferret for me, Paul. The badge issue is a little confusing: the attestation papers give his Corps as Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry, while his discharge papers give the info that he's in the 1st Provisional Battalion, 7th Coy., I.Y., so obviously a lot of shuffling around was going on. I'll see if the British badges forum you mentioned can help.

Adrian, thank you for telling me about Audrey. I'll contact her asap. John's wife was Ethel Amelia Cutting. The Cutting family originated in Suffolk, but Ethel's branch had been at Wynberg in the Cape since the 1820s.

Thanks to all the help everyone has given me, I have been able to track down an image of the I.Y. rosette with the number '7' in it, and even better, a group photo of the 7th (Leicestershires), posted on the Prince Albert's Own Yeomanry website. I'm currently trying to trace their movements in South Africa, with mixed success, so far.

Adrian, I've contacted Audrey and am now waiting to hear from her.

I see that this website's section on the SA Constabulary records a J.J. Flannigan in 'A' Division. It will be interesting to find out who he is!