Passenger Lists - Boer War

[aferny77]

My great-great-grandfather, Thomas Shepherd (Engr. Clerk Staff Serjt. No. 26010) served in the 2nd Boer War and died in SA in 1903.

At some point in time, his wife Laura Francis Gibbs, was living in SA with him, as their daughter Jessie was born there in 1899. 

Are there passenger listings that would show when the family arrived in SA, or returned home to the UK? Just looking to complete the picture on this family.

Thanks!

Andrea

[km1971]

Hi Andrea

They probably arrived by troopship. If so there will be no passenger lists as the army would have taken one or two roll calls each day to see if anyone had fallen overboard.

Can we take it that you have found his medal roll? If so you should look for the service records of men in his company to see when they arrived in SA. They will be on Findmypast if they were discharged before the end of 1913. His service before going to South Africa would have been similar. His record would have been destroyed 20 years after his death.

She would have been one of the first to benefit from a widow’s pension. It would only have lasted for six years. If she remarried she would have received a year's pension in lieu of it being cancelled.

They may have found a space for her on a troopship leaving SA – so again no passenger list. If they paid for a passage on a normal ship you need someone with access to a World sub with Ancestry.

Ken