RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: AdrianB38 on Sunday 13 September 20 22:50 BST (UK)
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I'm looking at this chap in Ancestry's Australia, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920:
Name: Edward Duncan
Age: 36
Birth Year: abt 1878
Birth Place: Dundee, Scotland
Dossier Year Range: 1914-1920
Enlistment Place: Melbourne, Victoria
Father: Mr E Duncan
On his attestation form of October 1914, there is the usual question about any previous service, and he replies:
Yes, Baden Powell Scout 3rd Class
trooper South African War 1 year 7 mths
(His father's current address in 1914 is in South Africa but how long he's been out there, I've no idea.)
Can anyone explain what "Baden Powell Scout 3rd Class trooper" might mean? Naturally, any Google search I do is drowned by references to Boy Scouts and I'm not finding any references in ordinary family history literature to any Boer War unit that has that title.
Grateful for any help, thanks.
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His AIF papers are freely available online via the National Archives of Australia. I notice his next of kin was his father, whose address was in Sth Africa. Perhaps the Baden Powell Scouts were a Cape Colony unit.
Did he re-enlist after his Nov 1914 discharge for refusing to be inoculated? If so, there would likely be a further AIF file which may have a greater depth of detail.
JM.
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BADEN-POWELL'S POLICE
Terms of Service
London, 5th October.
The following are the terms of pay for members of the Transvaal mounted police force, organised and commanded by General Baden-Powell. First class troopers receive 9/ a day and rations, third class troopers 7/ a day and rations. The men enlist for two years' service, on the expiration of which they can either renew their engagement, or join the reserve constituted in connection with the force, receiving a retainer of £1 per month.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/188645407 The Age, 8 Oct 1900.
JM
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War Items
Baden-Powell's Transvaal Police.
The conditions for service in General Baden-Powell's new police force have (says Laffen's Agency) been published at Pretoria. .... On joining the reserve men who wish to settle will be assisted by the Government to obtain grants of land and to develop the land, &c. The Government will assist the families or brides of any men from England who settle in the country by giving free passages.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162420921 Adelaide Observer, 10 November 1900.
Here is live link to Trove,https://trove.nla.gov.au/ and to the free to search digitised newspapers provided by the National Library of Australia. https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/advanced/category/newspapers
JM
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Constabulary
'The South African Constabulary was disbanded on 2 June 1908. Many of the members from other countries made South Africa their permanent home and their records in the National Archives of South Africa give comprehensive information, including a physical description, their date and place of birth, marital status, occupation at entry, religion, name and address of next of kin, and details of promotions and transfers'
Baden-Powell designed the uniform which he lated adapted for the Boy Scouts organisation. He recruited men from the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand. and from locally in the two British Colonies in South Africa.
https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/boer/southafricaconstabulary_e.html
and
https://www.ancestors.co.za/index-of-south-african-constabulary-in-the-2nd-anglo-boer-war/
Mr Google will likely be a good friend.
JM
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It looks like Baden-Powell was a very busy man. Whether the comments below bear any relation to the original Roots Chat question I do not know.
"At the end of the war, the cadets were awarded a special medal to thank them for their part in defending Mafeking. And a few years later, when Baden-Powell was forming his ideas for the Scout movement, he remembered the cadets and wrote about them in the first book about Scouting. So in a way, the cadets were the first Scouts in the world!
My only claim to fame is that I have stood on the platform at Mafeking Railway Station. Never went downtown.
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In the South Africa Constabulary medal rolls there is a Trooper 3rd Class E Duncan E2802. Discharged by purchase. 1901 and 1902, Cape Colony and Orange Free State clasps.
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Thanks guys - my suspicion was that "Baden Powell Scout" was more of a description than a unit title but what it actually referred to, I had no idea, so thanks for the details.
In the South Africa Constabulary medal rolls there is a Trooper 3rd Class E Duncan E2802. Discharged by purchase. 1901 and 1902, Cape Colony and Orange Free State clasps.
Thanks very much indeed - eventually I found the rolls are on TNA Discovery's Digital Downloads - WO 100/273 for South African Constabulary: "E" Division and Miscellaneous should anyone else come across this post and want to know.
Now all I have to do is try and figure out if he is my rellie - birth details and father look promising...