South Africa Light Horse

[harleybabe]

Anyone know if men joined this Regiment in England and then went to Sth Africa or were they men already in Sth Africa?

[dot.hawkes]

already in SA:
http://www.regiments.org/regiments/southafrica /volmil/cav/05ilh.htm

[harleybabe]

Thanks, that helps. Any thoughts why a man born in1881 and brought up in Leicester would be in Sth. Africa?

[dot.hawkes]

Though the recruiting was done in South Africa, he may already have been in a British Regiment out there, he could have been transferred to make up numbers, his regiment would be on his marriage cert, childrens birth certs etc, you should be able to track that from his service records.

[dot.hawkes]

Funny how things jog your memory, after answering this one I suddenly drew from my memory banks the TV series Frontier, I watched it in 1968 , it was only on for a few weeks but the star, Gary Bond, was gorgeous, so i googled him and found out just now hge died in 1995 aged 54, that was a bit of a surprise. The reason I thought of the programme was it was set in the late 19th century and was about the Brituish Army in either South Africa or India, South Africa I think.
The other show I watched back then was Virgin, with Clinton Greyne, better google that too, I had forgotten all about them Virgin was set in the same time and he was also an Officer in the British Army in either South Africa or India. (soz for digressing)

[harleybabe]

I remember those programmes as well. According to the records at Kew he was not in a Regiment prior to this, I wondered whether he had worked his passage to SA for some reason.

[dot.hawkes]

just an educated guess, but the link between leicestershire and south africa could be mining related, the de veers mining company had a massive operation going on in south african gold mining in the late 19th early 20th century. Did he join to fight in the Boer war?

[harleybabe]

According to papers I found he joined the Sth African Light Horse until it was disbanded, re-enlisted with Corps of Hussars again in SA, went awol for a year, tried to enlist fraudulently with the Bedfordshire Regiment. I guess the Corps of Hussars took him back as he was awarded another medal for the 2nd Boer War.