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Queen’s South Africa Medal (1899-1902) with clasps ‘Natal’, ‘Transvaal’, ‘South Africa 1901’. Named to 130 CORL T. MILLS, LD. STRATHCONA’S H:

Personal History: Thomas Mills was born c. 1870 in Newmarket, Ontario. He attested into Lord Strathcona’s Horse at Regina on 8 February 1900, indicating his trade as farmer. He was 30 years old, single, 5’ 8 1/2”, weighing 142 pounds, with brown hair and grey eyes. Mills indicated his next of kin was his mother, Mrs. S. Mills, who lived in Newmarket. He was promoted to Corporal on 4 July 1900, and was wounded in action the next day, on 5 July, during an engagement at Vlakfontein, and taken prisoner. Mills was serving at the time as a member of 4 Troop A Squadron under Lieutenant Ketchen, whose troop had been assigned to a convoy under the command of Major Rycroft of the 10th Hussars. The latter ordered them to occupy a distant kopje and did not give them sufficient time to rejoin the column when he ordered a retirement. As a result, the troop had great difficulty getting back and lost 6 men, one of whom, later confirmed to be regimental # 152 Pte. F. Norris, was assumed to have been killed. Mills eventually escaped Boer custody at Bethal (`~ 182 kms from where he was captured) and rejoined General Cleary’s forces at Standerton (~66 km away) on 5 September 1900. Mills was in hospital in Woolwich, England at the time of the presentation of medals to the Regiment by King Edward VII on 15 February 1901, and a note in his service file indicates that his wound was not yet healed as of 30 March 1901. Mills was finally discharged on 15 May 1901. Mills’ medal was mailed to him at his home in Newmarket on 11 November 1901, slightly delayed by the visit of the Duke of Cornwall and York according to a letter from the Deputy Adjutant General in his service file, and he acknowledged receipt on 16 November 1901.

Your Photo Jim......

Standerton Cemetery

Jim,

Many thanks for a great first post.

Thanks to Mike for adding your photo. If you wish to do this yourself, you can attach it, as you have done and then move to the place in the post where you want the image to appear and then click Insert (below the image in the Attachments section). You will see a line of text appear in the body of your message which includes the word Attachment in square brackets. When you post the message, the text is replaced by the image.