2nd Bn Northamptonshire Regt, Boer War

[dpatterson25]

Hi,
I am researching the military history of my great-grandfathers career. He served in the 2nd Bn Northamptonshire Regt between 1891 & 1902.  During the Anglo-Boer War he was apparently serving as Mounted Infantry and was severely wounded at a place called Sandbaker.  Does anyone have any information regarding the 2nd Bn during the Boer War, in particular the Mounted Infantry.
Regards.

[km1971]

Each regular infantry battalion were asked to form a Mounted Infantry company. The 2nd Northants provided a full company (of c128 men) to form No 4 Company of 11th Battalion (11th MI). They must have had a few extra qualified men as they also provided an unknown number to No 4 Company of 23rd MI. So he is more likely to have served in 11th MI than 23rd MI, but neither is mentioned in the official history.

As mounted infantry they served separately to the rest of 2nd Battalion Northampton Regiment, so researching their actions in the Boer War will not help you. Findmypast may be publishing his records ‘this month’. If so you may get confirmation of his MI posting from that.

Ken

[dpatterson25]

In the medical records from 17 General Hospital at Standerton he is listed as 11th MI.

[km1971]

I think it is safe to believe that Sandbaker must be within 30-40 miles of Standerton. He was wounded on 3 July. Does your information include the date he was admitted to the hospital?

Ken

[dpatterson25]

His date of admission into hospital was 4 Jul where he stayed until 5 Sep and transferred to No 7 Ambulance Train.

[km1971]

As it was the next day it would only be 10-15 miles from Sanderton.

Ken

[ladysmith]

I'd never heard of Sandbaker before but when googling it the first topic was your enquiry on another forum in which you give your great grandfather's name and a few other details.

The casualty roll confirms 3027 Sgt. J. Mellett 2/Northants (MI) severely wounded at Sandbaker 3/7/1901. He is also listed as wounded at Enslin 7/12/1899 but with the name Mellitt. This was presumably a relatively minor wound as he continued to serve.

Now for the good news. He was what is known as a 'PIN man'. These were men who were invalided to pension as a result of wounds, injury or sickness and are a particular interest of mine because of the wealth of research material available on them. Their files are in the series PIN/71 at the National Archives and they frequently run to well over 100 pages, sometimes over 200 pages. Much of this relates to pension awards but typically they also include correspondence to and from the man, medical reports (their disabilities were reassessed over a long period), discharge documents, defaulters' sheets and death certificate.

These file headings give only the full name of the man and the years of enlistment and death so with common names you can't always be certain it's the right man. However, Mellett is an uncommon name and file 71/4263 is that of James Mellett 1891-1948.

The only practical way to retrieve all the available information is on a CD-ROM which my researcher compiles with a digital camera. If you'd like him to do this for you let me know and I'll PM his details. He can also check his medal and clasp entitlement on the medal rolls at the same time. It's also possible James's attestation and service papers survive in series WO 97 but even if not the PIN file will contain much more information than that.

David

[dpatterson25]

Hi David,
Thanks for the reply.  I already have copies of his Service records and letters regarding his disability pension.  I'm luckey that the incident at Enslin Stn is well written about, however, I was hoping to get to know more about his role in the MI and what happened at Sandbaker.
His medal records show he was entitled to the QSA Medal with bars for Belmont, Orange Free State and Transvaal.  He does not appear to be entitled to the Bar for Modder river or the Relief of Kimberley which I am certain that 2 Bn were involved in, so I assume he was with the MI at this time and they were operating away from the main Bn.

[ladysmith]

You've got most of the available background information but the PIN file will be well worth getting. Among other things these files often contain hospital admission/discharge slips and some information about the circumstances of the wound(s).

The clasp combination isn't untypical of 2/Northants. I have two in my collection and one has Modder River while the other doesn't and neither has the Relief of Kimberley. According to 'British Battles and Medals' the battalion was at both actions but clearly not all the men were there. It's quite possible that he'd been detached for service with the MI as you suspect.

Sandbaker would appear to have been a minor skirmish as he was the only member of the battalion to have been wounded there although men in the same MI unit but from other regiments might also have been casualties. As such it might be difficult to find out much about it although his PIN file may have more details. Pensioners who petitioned for an increase in pension (as most did at some point) sometimes elaborated on the circumstances of their wounds in correspondence.

David