TOPIC:

Served: Christiana.

Hi David,

I'm quite confident that this is:

Surname HANDFORD
Name JOHN HENRY CHARLES
Age 42
Address CHRISTIANA
District BLOEMHOF
Where Captured PAARDEBERG
When Captured 1900/02/27
Camp Onbekend
Country St. Helena
Ship (To) Onbekend
Ship (Back)
Number 1200
Ref ID 925

Hello, I am an amateur collector of ABO medals and memorabilia, however whilst doing active genealogy research I've discovered a direct family link to John Henry Charles Handford and also Jacobus Joachim Porter (then aged 16) both from Christiana and captured at Paardeberg and sent together to St Helena. Jacobus Porter married one of the daughters of John Handford after the war in Christiana and she is my great-great grandmother

Any details on his ABO would be much appreciated

John Henry Charles Handford's family were interned in the Kimberley concentration camp from 30/04/1901.
In Tent 1010 were Mrs Anna Margaretha Handford, aged 34, and her children.
The following girls survived [one of whom is, I assume, your ouma-groot-grootjie]: Elizabeth aged 14, Adriana Maria, aged 12, Annie aged 7 and Rosina aged 5.
John and Anna Handford also had 3 sons:
Henry James aged 4 who survived;
and two boys who I suppose were twins, as they were about the same age [18 and 20 months] when they died.
Their names were William and Johan Christian Handford.

Hello Rod, thank you so much for your post, its a revelation and I am extremely grateful for your effort.

You have the details perfectly, I was not at all aware of their incarceration in Kimberly Concentration Camp. Elizabeth Magdalena Handford, was married in Christiana on 19 December 1905, aged 17 to Jacobus Joachim Porter, aged 23. I have attached their wedding certificate which was witnessed by John Henry Charles Handford a well as the POW schedule for her father and husband when they were captured at Paardeberg.

Its quite moving to consider that my mother speaks fondly of growing up with her ouma (Elizabeth Handford was her Great Grandmother) and they were at a point in time 5 generations alive. Also for Elizabeth to put behind her the struggles of the ABO and her personal loss of her brothers, as her granddaughter (also named Elizabeth) married into an English immigrant family who arrived in South Africa in 1920 from Yorkshire.

Gruffydd,
You can read about the Kimberley concentration camp here:
www2.lib.uct.ac.za/mss/bccd/Histories/Kimberley/
If you contacted Elmarie Malherbe, [she posts here regularly], she might be able to photograph on the memorial in Bloemfontein the names of your relatives, William and Johan Christian Handford.
Rob