Boer War Medal Indexes

[corisande]

Is there a way of looking up indexes for Boer War Medals.

With WW1 medals one can get the MICs on Ancestry or look them up on Nat Archives

Does any similar online facility exist with at Nat Archives or on commercial sites for Boer War medals ? I find Nat Archives a very difficult place to plumb the depths of their search engine.  I have tried and failed - I suspect I am not looking in the right place

I am not asking for a specific look-up, but wanting to know if I can look up a number of men myself

[ShaunJ]

Some useful Boer War databases:

Roll of Honour http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Databases/BoerDetailed/index.html

Soldiers of the Queen http://members.pcug.org.au/~croe/sotq/welcome.html

Anglo Boer War
http://www.angloboerwar.com/index.htm

Casus Belli (PPV) http://www.casus-belli.co.uk/index.asp?PageId=1

[corisande]

Thanks Shaun.

That lot  should keep me out of mischief for a fair amount of time

[neil1821]

You can't find them on the TNA website because the QSA rolls aren't online.

Some rolls have been published in book, CD-ROM or electronic form however.
For instance I have those for the Royal Navy & Royal Marines (book), British Cavalry (text file), Foot Guards (CD), Royal Artillery (CD) and Royal Engineers (book). Also the full roll for the battle of Elandslaagte (book).

If primarily you want to see if a man was in the Boer War (medal details are secondary), then nominal rolls are just as good. Some here:
http://www.britishmedals.us/kevin/nominal.html

Also there are great online resources for Australian, NZ and Canadian forces in the Boer War.
http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/nominal_rolls/pre_first_world_war/
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/south-african-war/index-e.html

[corisande]

You can't find them on the TNA website because the QSA rolls aren't online.

Thank you for confirming that. I find the National Archive search facility so bad, that it is often possible to think that something is not available, when they have it all the time!

[km1971]

All the published rolls will only add up to 15-20% of the men who fought in the Boer War, and most of these have not been indexed. The best resource will be the service records for men discharged 1900 to 1913 that Findmypast are putting online this summer. However, if a man died while serving his service record was destroyed.

Ken

[corisande]

Maybe I should switch my money to FindMyPast 

So that I get this right - they will put online service records of men who were discharged between 1900 and 1913.

However some, I would think the majority of them were discharged to the Reserves, and got called up in1914. and those records are the "burnt" ones by and large. And you take your chances with their survival unless the man was still serving in Aug 1920, in which case records were transferred to MOD and survive.

So will FindMyPasts records only be for men who were discharged and were not recalled to the Colours in 1914?

For example, the record, if it happens to exist, on Ancestry for a man who served from say 1904 to 1909 was discharged to Reserves, then recalled from 1914 to 1919 will show his complete record from his enlistment day in 1904

[km1971]

However some, I would think the majority of them were discharged to the Reserves, and got called up in1914.

For most men discharged means leaving the army after any service in the Reserve. No one has done the maths, as far as I can tell, but my view is that a large majority of Boer War veterans were discharged before the end of 1913. You are correct in that a man who had completed 12 years could extend his service in the Reserve and so may have been recalled in 1914. But then lots of Boer War veterans enlisted before 1898 and so were not recalled.

If a man was killed before WW1 you have virtually no chance of finding his record. If he was killed during WW1 you have a 20% chance. The War Office/Public Record Office left to their own devices destroyed 98% of army pension files. Goring only destroyed 80% of service records.

Ken

[km1971]

Findmypast are quoting this month for the release of records for men discharged 1900 to 1913.

Ken