Boer War Soldier

[anniew]

I have the same problem as Magpie, my grandfather James Marsden from Wigan in Lancashire is on the 1901 census as being in Chatham Barracks in Kent aged 18. He then pops up in 1907 where he marries my grandmother Mary Ann Williams, in Seaham, Durham where he is a miner. I too have hit a brickwall as I live in Australia and therefore not able to get to Kew to look in the National Archives. Does anybody have any other suggestions of where you can look up Boer War soldiers that returned to England.

Anniew

 

[Minden]

Do you know who he served with, i.e. what regiment? There may well be a regimental museum that could help you online.

When he was at Chatham, was he going out or coming back? You should be able to work that out from the service of his unit, probably easiest found on regiments.org.

Other names on the census may give you officers he served with, who may have published memoirs or had their deeds recorded elsewhere. If the census doesn't state the unit, you may be able to find the commanding officer, which could lead you in the right direction via Google or a decent written history of the war.

Did he serve again in 1914? His service records might be, or about to be, online on ancestry.com (about a 1/3 chance, apparently. Curse those German bombers!). The Great War Forum is populated by people who really know their stuff about that war; I culled this from a similar thread I found afte 30 seconds on Google:


"You will find info on the Regiments here:

http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/

A Boer War Forum here:

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/

and a Boer War Resource here;

http://www.questia.com/Index."


Hope this helps.

 

[gortonboy]

just trawling through some old military posts,,,as more records are now available.
This is one that can be solved,,,if the poster ever comes back to it