I am currently researching in detail the life & times of one of “my” 207 Smethwickians with the help of his great niece who lives in Australia.
His potted history runs like this – born a Quaker and nephew of Sir Richard Tangye, apprentice mechanical engineer in Smethwick, whilst in Smethwick he became a teenage political activist which led to him being jailed for 3 days, this caused a rift with his family and they exiled him to sea for 3 years as a ship’s engineer, grounded in Australia where he worked as a mining engineer and then moved to South Africa where he worked for the Government of the OFS, at start of ABW (fluent in the Afrikaans language) recruited into Rimington’s Guides, MiD twice and awarded DCM and QSAM with 7 clasps, gave up engineering to become a war correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War, then spent a decade in China covering the famine there and wrote “The Silent War” about his experiences, served in WW1 but not in a combat role as he was 48 when it started and ended up a Major, moved to Kenya where he became a coffee planter, his funeral was attended by hundreds including local tribal chiefs. I have missed out the best bit of his ABW.
His great niece has sent me two obituaries both of which contain obvious errors. The Times one states “he acted as galloper to Colonel Frank Rhodes in the Jameson Raid” the other one supports this but in less detail. Is there anyway of verifying this was true – does a list of all the Jameson Raiders exist? Am I right that all the raiders were jailed, Colonel Frank definitely was, and if he was involved did “my” man become a jailbird for a second time? Also, what was a “galloper”?
One of the references for him I have found on the ABW Forum is in Chapter 24 of “Staff”. What should I cite as the full reference for this?
I notice “Donner” is often given as a reference by others – can anybody explain what this means in more detail?
His potted history runs like this – born a Quaker and nephew of Sir Richard Tangye, apprentice mechanical engineer in Smethwick, whilst in Smethwick he became a teenage political activist which led to him being jailed for 3 days, this caused a rift with his family and they exiled him to sea for 3 years as a ship’s engineer, grounded in Australia where he worked as a mining engineer and then moved to South Africa where he worked for the Government of the OFS, at start of ABW (fluent in the Afrikaans language) recruited into Rimington’s Guides, MiD twice and awarded DCM and QSAM with 7 clasps, gave up engineering to become a war correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War, then spent a decade in China covering the famine there and wrote “The Silent War” about his experiences, served in WW1 but not in a combat role as he was 48 when it started and ended up a Major, moved to Kenya where he became a coffee planter, his funeral was attended by hundreds including local tribal chiefs. I have missed out the best bit of his ABW.
His great niece has sent me two obituaries both of which contain obvious errors. The Times one states “he acted as galloper to Colonel Frank Rhodes in the Jameson Raid” the other one supports this but in less detail. Is there anyway of verifying this was true – does a list of all the Jameson Raiders exist? Am I right that all the raiders were jailed, Colonel Frank definitely was, and if he was involved did “my” man become a jailbird for a second time? Also, what was a “galloper”?
One of the references for him I have found on the ABW Forum is in Chapter 24 of “Staff”. What should I cite as the full reference for this?
I notice “Donner” is often given as a reference by others – can anybody explain what this means in more detail?