My mum was positive that her grandfather served in the Boer War. However, on the 1901 census he's at home in Guernsey, so If he was in South Africa it had to be before or after April 1901. I have searched and searched but I can't find a record of him serving in the army in that period.
During the First World War he was well into his fifties but he signed up and served as a driver with the Middlesex Regiment and served on the home front at Gorleston on the East Coast. Now a driver in those days could mean a driver of a mule train, not a vehicle driver.
The mystery is this. My mum definitely recollects seeing a picture of him in army uniform on a horse, wearing a slouch hat... the wide brimmed hat with one side turned up still worn by the Australians. I've checked and although these hats were worn in the Boer War campaign the Army stopped using them in 1905. So my question is.... would a driver in the Middlesex Regiment on home service around 1916 be mounted on a horse with a slouch hat?
During the First World War he was well into his fifties but he signed up and served as a driver with the Middlesex Regiment and served on the home front at Gorleston on the East Coast. Now a driver in those days could mean a driver of a mule train, not a vehicle driver.
The mystery is this. My mum definitely recollects seeing a picture of him in army uniform on a horse, wearing a slouch hat... the wide brimmed hat with one side turned up still worn by the Australians. I've checked and although these hats were worn in the Boer War campaign the Army stopped using them in 1905. So my question is.... would a driver in the Middlesex Regiment on home service around 1916 be mounted on a horse with a slouch hat?
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