6477 Rfm Samuel Morter Smith, Rifle Brigade

Here's a great photograph of a boxing and wrestling champion who served with the Rifle Brigade between February 1899 and November 1911. The write-up that accompanies this photograph in the Rifle Brigade Chronicle for 1908 notes that Samuel was born on the 13th March 1881 and served with the 4th Battalion Mounted Infantry during the Boer War. He was later posted to the 2nd Battalion in India and won several boxing and wrestling tournaments. The final paragraph of the shirt editorial reads:

"He frequently displays feats of strength, both in the barrack room and on the stage of entertainments, one of which is to make a bridge of himself, and in this position supporting seven men (equivalent to 1,087 lbs). He is entirely self trained and is popularly known as "Sandow Smith".

As well as notching up various wins in the ring, Samuel also amassed quite a good collection of tattoos. His original attestation papers survive in WO 97 and the distinctive marks' section on page two simply mentions "scar on left eye-brow" and a "patch of hard skin, back of left hand". 

We can be certain therefore, that all of the tattoos on display here were acquired after he joined the army. The tiger and palm trees on his chest was presumably inked some time after his arrival in India in February 1906.  There is what appears to be rifle on his upper right arm, above the crossed swords motif commonly rendered as a badge for army gymnastics instructors. On his left arm there are two flags, possibly Rifle Brigade standards, and other motifs which are unclear. Who knows what was rendered on his back.

Samuel Smith remained in India until 1911 but returned home in November and was discharged "free after 12 years' service" this, despite having re-engaged at Fort William, Calcutta in February 1911 to complete 21 years.

If he served in the First World War, I have yet to find evidence of this. He certainly worked as a policeman, however, and on the 1939 Register is listed as a retired police constable, married to Rosie L Smith (born 20th July 1894). There are also four probable children noted, as well as three closed records:

When the 1939 Register was taken, Samuel and his family were living at Broad Street, Depwade Rural District, Norfolk. I have not yet identified when and where he died.

The Last Queen's Guard - January 1901

The photograph above originally appeared in the Rifle Brigade Chronicle for 1901. It shows one officer and thirty-one NCOs and men of the Royal Rifle Reserve Regiment who formed the Queen's Guard at Parkhurst in December 1900 and January 1901. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, died on the 22nd January 1901 and these men were therefore part of the last Queen's Guard.

The Royal Rifle Reserve Regiment, then quartered at Parkhurst, was one of several reserve regiments formed in 1900 of time-expired soldiers. In the case of this last Royal Guard - a complete contingent of two officers and forty-four NCOs and men - all men with the exception of Lieutenant Okeover who had served with the militia, had originally served with the Rifle Brigade.

The following men are all named in The Rifle Brigade Chronicle as having formed part of the last Guard of Honour, all of these men being awarded the Royal Victorian Medal (above, courtesy Science & Society) which had been instituted by Queen Victoria in 1896. Their regimental numbers are those of the Royal Rifle Reserve Regiment and date to March 1900.

Surviving Rifle Reserve Regiment records are few and far between and, where they do survive, are not generally held with the man's earlier papers. Nevertheless I did find records in WO 97 for some of the men in the list below, most of whom had left the Rifle Brigade by the early 1890s and were therefore old soldiers in the true sense of the word. Where I have uncovered additional information, I have expanded the man's forename and also added in his previous Rifle Brigade regimental number and years of service.

932 Colour Sergeant T Lewis

203 Sergeant H Gilbert
978 Sergeant G Blackman
933 Corporal Ernest Martindale; formerly 5571; 1883-1895
1275 Corporal G Taylor
123 Corporal J Clark
407 Acting Corporal B Wells
529 Acting Corporal R Gilmour
1013 Acting Corporal J Rhodes
422 Acting Corporal T Kilshaw

404 Bugler E Mallet (presumably the man above)
532 Rifleman J Ballard
424 Rifleman G Charles
539 Rifleman J Currall
389 Rifleman A Day
419 Rifleman G Fisher
538 Rifleman J Foster
988 Rifleman Joseph Gartshore; formerly 8274; 1886-1898
997 Rifleman J Logan
996 Rifleman Thomas Lynch; formerly 5970; 1883-unknown
999 Rifleman John Pitchford; formerly 6104; 1883-1895 
410 Rifleman T Naylor
846 Rifleman J Edmonds
394 Rifleman M Richards
391 Rifleman J Smith
527 Rifleman C Street
1003 Rifleman T Sweeting
411 Rifleman J Tiff
434 Rifleman William Tiffin; formerly 4188; 1880-1892
400 Rifleman Thomas Wagerfield; formerly 1861; 1877-1889
534 Rifleman J Waller
814 Rifleman J Woodward
1556 Rifleman R Fidoe
499 Rifleman J Fishlock; formerly 6348; 1883-1895
674 Rifleman A Piket

Some of the men listed above with common names may also have surviving service records in WO 97 but it would be impossible to pick them out, particularly as their Royal Rifle Reserve service is almost certainly not indicated on their original papers. That's one of the reasons that published lists such as this, even though it is small, is so important. For some of the men listed above, this single listing in a half-forgotten Chronicle published by the Rifle Brigade over 100 years ago may be the only surviving evidence of their army service.

Apart from the Royal Victorian Medal, five men wear the India General Service Medal 1854-1895. Clasps are visible on some of these medals and these are almost certainly the clasps for Burma 1885-7 and Burma 1887-89, as illustrated below. The corporal sitting on the ground on the left wears the Sudan Medal and Khedive's Star, evidence of campaigning between 1882 and 1889.

Ernest Martindale is one of the India General Service Medal holders although he was only entitled to the clasp for Burma 1887-89. He later re-enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in 1914 at the age of 48 and saw service in the UK with the 15th Battalion before being discharged in 1915. John Pitchford served in Gibraltar, Egypt, South Africa and India during his original stint with the Rifle Brigade but still came away with no campaign medals; a case of being in the wrong location at the wrong time. 

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The King's Royal Rifle Corps regimental depot, 1899

There's a nice article in my recently purchased KRRC Chronicle for 1903 which details the workings of the KRRC regimental depot. The article deals specifically with the way in which the depot managed men coming into and leaving the regiment during the Boer War, and I thought it might make a nice opening blog post for 2017.

Traditionally housed at Winchester, and sharing their depot with the Rifle Brigade, a fire in 1894 completely destroyed the King's House and barracks which had been designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1685, forcing a re-location to Gosport. It would actually be ten years before the regiments moved back to their newly built barracks and depot in Winchester. I draw attention to this as this is referred to in the text below.

Notes on the Working of the Depot during the War

"The duties of the Rifle Depot are comprised under three heads. First the care and keeping of the records with all its attendant correspondence; second the receiving, clothing, partial training, and dispatch to the home battalions of recruits; and third, duties connected with mobilisation for war.

"As regards the first heading it need hardly be said that the necessity for accurately keeping all records is as paramount during war as in peace, but when the Reserves are called out all their documents, instead of lying idle on the shelves, are in active use. In addition there are innumerable letters received from relatives and friends, but perhaps the amount of clerical work will be better realised by stating that during the war roughly speaking, fifty-three thousand documents were received and dealt with, while certainly another six thousand must have been received by the commanding and other officers and which, being sent privately, were not entered into the registers. It will thus be seen that on mobilisation becoming imminent, or even probable, one of the first measures is to arrange for a considerable expansion of the office staff, and a carefully thought-out scheme of sub-division of work, in order that the additional clerks may be fully and usefully employed...

"... We come then to the third heading... The first step is the issue of the order for mobilisation, posting up the placards and sending out the notices to the reservists - the latter being done by the paymaster. Arrangements are then made for the housing of the Reservists on arrival, and drawing arms, equipment and ammunition. (This will be unnecessary when the Depot has returned to Winchester, as everything will be stored in the barracks). Then the mobilisation store has to be got ready , and the system which most happily was in force at the Depot was this. All clothing and necessaries were kept in bulk until required, the packages were then opened and the articles places in sizes for issue. There was no attempt to keep the things packed in kits, as lai8d down by regulation, for the good reason that there were no lockers for the kits, nor was there space available for any other system than adopted...

"... Then one waited for the coming of those for whom we had prepared. As a rule, one or two men appeared almost as soon as the notices were sent out and towards the expiration of the time, during which Reservists had to join, they began to come in small parties, but the large majority came only at the last minute. Needless to say this added enormously to the difficulties and militated greatly against the comfort of the men themselves. It is sincerely to be hoped that in future mobilisations the officer commanding the Depot will be permitted to exercise his discretion as to the times and numbers of men to join. To have a thousand men coming into barracks late at night - many suffering from the effects of kindness (?)  shown them during the journey by injudicious friends - meant an amount of discomfort and disorder not only prejudicial; to discipline but quite unnecessary.

"The Reservists having arrived proceeded to the guard room, where each man's name was entered on a roll, a sergeant of either regiment [ie the Rifle Brigade and The KRRC] being there for that purpose. The men were then sent to the companies (the first fifty to A Company, the next fifty to B, and so on). On joining the company each Reservist was given a card, on one side of which was a printed form for the Medical Officer's certificate of fitness or otherwise, and on the reverse a list of the articles of clothing, small kit etc the man had to receive."

I suggest that this same procedure was almost identically repeated at regimental depots up and down the country, not only in 1899 but again in 1914.

Pictured at the hesad of this post is Lieutenant, the Honourable Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts VC, an officer of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and only son of Lord Roberts VC of Kandahar, who died of wounds in South Africa in February 1900.

Happy New Year, evryone.

Major Frederick Maurice Crum 1872-1955

I recently bought the King's Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle for 1903. The endpaper bears the signature that I have published beneath this paragraph. F M Crum was Frederick Maurice Crum and what follows is not my text at all, but rather an account of this man's life that I found online at Blairlogie Scotland. I hope this credit and the link gives me sufficient permission to re-publish - with minor editing - the words below. Note that I have omitted much of the text that covers his First World War service.

Frederick Maurice Crum was born 12th October 1872, the son of William Crum and Jean Mary Campbell. The first documentary evidence that we have of Major Crum is in The London Gazette of 7th February 1893 where it indicated that “The King's Royal Rifle Corps, Gentleman Cadet Frederick Maurice Crum, from the Royal Military College, to be Second Lieutenant, on augmentation. Dated 8th February 1893". 

Soon, Frederick was off to India to join the 1/60th Rifles as a subaltern at Rawal Pindi. Strangely the London Gazette did not mention him again until 1900. In December 1896 the 1st Battalion of the 60th Rifles sailed from Bombay for the Cape, which was three years before the second South African War of 1899 to 1902 was declared. In May 1899 Frederick moved to Natal and on the 25th September he was off once again, this time to Ladysmith where he arrived on the 2nd October. On the  5th October the battalion was marched to Dundee, arriving there two days later. On the 12th October 1899, war was declared. and Frederick was soon  in the thick of the action. He received a wound to his right shoulder at the battle of Talana Hill, which would blight him until 1919. Unable to fend for himself he was taken prisoner  and ended up in a hospital in Ladysmith where he received treatment which saved his life. 

The London Gazette for 2nd March 1900 reported "Gentleman Cadet Austin Henry Hull, from the Royal Military College, to be Second Lieutenant, in succession to Lieutenant F. M. Crum, a prisoner of war. Dated 3rd March, 1900". Frederick remained a prisoner until June 1900 when he and a further 150 or so officers and 3000 troops were released at Ladysmith. The London Gazette published on 2nd April 1901 reported "Lieutenant Frederick M. Crum to be Captain, in succession to Major O. S. W. Nugent, D.S.O., appointed to the Staff. Dated 1st January 1901". 

By 1901 Captain Crum had lost all of his molars and his manservant took this into consideration whilst preparing his meals in the field. January 1902 was Frederick’s last night patrol of the war as after this he was given leave to return home on medical grounds. His journey started in an ambulance train and then a long sail home. Six months later he was fully recuperated and returned to the Cape, being posted to De Aar. In December 1902 the Battalion was moved to Malta and in 1903 he gave his first lecture, the topic being “Mounted Infantry”. Shortly after this he received leave of 3 months and he returned home to Stirling. 

My copy of the 1903 Chronicle also mentions Major Crum:

In December 1903 Frederick was posted to the 2nd Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps as a Brevet-Major and in October 1904 he qualified in Hindustani. During his service career he was often bothered by his wound which he received in 1900 and in 1904 a surgeon removed an inch of bone and some splinters from his right arm. 

During his time in South Africa, Major Crum wrote With the mounted infantry in South Africa; being side-lights on the Boer campaign 1899-1902 and this was published in 1903. In January 1905 he arrived home on leave, boarding his ship in Bombay. From January to October 1905 he was on leave due to the wound to his right arm but by November 1905 he was back in India and was posted to Bareilly. The period April to October 1906 was to prove important for both Frederick Crum and the Boy Scout movement as he was posted to Scout Training at Rhanikhet where he excelled. 

In November 1906 he received leave to return home to cram for staff college exams. On returning home he underwent intensive learning to bring himself up to the level of passing the Staff College entry exams and on the 3rd March 1907 he sailed from Marseilles to Aden to sit the exam. Possibly fortuitously for the Boy Scout movement, he failed the exams and therefore did not attend Staff College and further promotion did not follow. In June 1907 he returned to India and was posted to Jubbulpore and then in October 1907 he was put in charge of the Battalion for 3 weeks until the new Commanding Officer arrived. The London Gazette dated 21st April 1908 reported that “The King's. Royal Rifle Corps, Captain and Brevet Major Frederick M. Crum is seconded for service on the Staff. Dated 28th February 1908.” 

In February 1908 he was posted to the Mounted Infantry School at Fategarh where he excelled. Sadly luck was not on his side and in May 1908 he fell from his horse whilst pig sticking and was given a week's leave to the hills to recover. It was at this time that the London Gazette dated 26th May 1908 reported, “To be Assistant Commandant of a Mounted Infantry School. Brevet Major F. M. Crum, 2nd Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps. Dated 28th February, 1908.” 

On 6th November 1908, Frederick left the Mounted Infantry School to take over the Mounted School at Poona and there was also talk of him being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He arrived at Poona and was given 6 months leave of absence due to being unwell and overworked. The London Gazette dated 18th December 1908 reported “The King's Royal Rifle Corps, Captain George F. B. Hankey is seconded for service as an Adjutant of Territorial Infantry. Dated 1st December, 1908. Brevet Major Frederick M. Crum, from Supernumerary Captain, to be Captain, vice” It would take Frederick three years to fully recover from his wound and condition. 

During his recuperation period it looked as if there was hope that Frederick would return to active service as The London Gazette dated 26th January 1909 reported "The King's Royal Rifle, Corps, Captain and Brevet Major Frederick M. Crum is seconded for service on the Staff. Dated 1st December, 1908.” Later, on 5th February 1909, the Gazette reported, “ARMY STAFF. To be Assistant Commandant of a Mounted Infantry School. Brevet Major F. M. Crum, King's Royal Rifle Corps. Dated 6th November, 1908", and on 1st March 1910,  "The King's Royal Rifle Corps, Brevet Major Frederick M. Crum, from Supernumerary Captain, is restored to the establishment, vice Captain R. Johnstone, retired. Dated 19th February, 1910". 

On March 4th 1910, The London Gazette reported, "The King's Royal Rifle Corps, Major Lord Robert W. O. Manners DSO, retires on retired pay. Dated 5th March, 1910. Captain and Brevet Major Frederick M. Crum to be Major, vice Lord R. W. 0. Manners, D.S.O. Dated 5th March, 1910". 

Clearly none of the above took place as he did not take up any of the posts due to his ill health. 3rd November 1910 would prove to be a very important date as this is when Captain Crum met Baden-Powell for the first time and he was very impressed by him and his views on helping young people. It was on the 12th October 1911 at Saint Andrews and on his 39th Birthday that Captain Crum decided to leave the army and dedicate his time to the Boy Scout movement. He sent his letter of resignation to the War Office on the 16th October 1911, resigning his commission. and from this point on Major Crum (retired) concentrated on building up the Boy Scout movement in Scotland. 

For his service during the the 2nd Boer War, Major Crum received the Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps for Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal and Talana; and the King's South Africa Medal with the usual two claps for 1901 and 1902. The KSA roll alos notes service with the 25th Battalion, Mounted Infantry. 

When Britain went to war again in August 1914, Frederick Crum was at Hamilton Barracks by the 10th, helping to organise the new influx of recruits. It was during this period that he used boy scouts to act as guides and take recruits to the various areas rather than have them milling about. This brought order to some of the proceedings. 

On 12 October 1914, Frederick joined the 8th Kings Royal Rifles and by May 1915 he was in France. He would serve until the end of the war and would be mentioned in despatches in 1917. In July 1919 he returned to scouting in Scotland. The reverse of his medal index card, above, gives his home address - presumably in 1922 when he applied for his medals - as 13 Pitt Terrace, Stirling.

The 1933 to 1945 Valuation Rolls show that Major Crum was the tenant of Gogar house and from 1945 to 1948 he was the owner occupier of Gogar House where he built a gymnasium for scouts to use. Frederick Maurice Crum of Kenmuir, Rosneath, Dumbartonshire died at Rosneath on 8 October 1955. His diaries can be viewed in the Archives at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.

I presume that his copy of the 1903 KRRC Chronicle (and presumably other volumes besides) was donated to the KRRC Museum and subsequently sold by the museum as my copy of this volume also bears a KRRC museum stamp and a biro annotation "E14". All in all though, a nice addition to my library, and with some fine provenance.

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Making sense of army ancestors

It's been a busy week so far with research projects.

The Gallipoli commemorations have obviously triggered some requests and it gave me enormous satisfaction to deliver reports to two clients on the 100th anniversary - to the day - of those ancestors hitting the beaches on 25th April 1915.

Recent projects have included:

1. The mystery of a Boer War militia enlistment and whether this man later served in India and with the RGA during the First World War
2. Unpicking the First World War service of a Westmorland and Cumberland Yeoman who later served with the Labour Corps
3. A private with the RAMC who later served with the Welsh Regiment
4. A Royal Munster Fusiliers regular who served in India before the First World War and served with the RMF and Royal Engineers during the Great War
5. A KOYLI recruit who went on to serve as a regular in the British Army and earned a General Service Medal with Iraq clasp to go alongside his 1914/15 Star trio
6. An HLI regular who served in India and who is mentioned multiple times in the HLI Chronicle. I even found a photo of him in the regimental football team (above) in October 1913
7. A Middlesex Regiment regular with service in India, Gallipoli and France and Flanders
8. A Yorkshire Regiment war-time enlistment who later served with the 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment
9. Identifying when a 4th Dragoon Guard, born in the 1840s, must have enlisted and where he subsequently served
10. Researching the military career of a regular in the Dorsetshire Regiment who was awarded the India General Service Medal with clasps for the Punjab and Tirah.

Drop me a line if you think I could help with your own research project.

Soldier cameos - South Africa & the Transvaal War

 

 

I picked up a number of army prints yesterday from what I now know to be the six-volume "South Africa & The Transvaal War" by Louis Creswicke which was published in 1900.  King Edward VII (above in 10th Hussars uniform) was still plain old HRH Prince Edward when this photo was taken, and an image of two CIV officers plus no evidence of Boer War medals on any of the other photos had made me think that the publication probably dated to around 1900. Turns out I was correct.

The images I bought were mostly cameos of soldiers from various regiments, as in the image of two Gordon Highlanders (below) but there are also some nicely posed group shots. I've used a black and white version of this RHA group (above) on a post elsewhere; note the jaunty pose of the sergeant, far left. I've seen these prints being offered for sale for £20 each on eBay which makes the 50p each I paid, something of a bargain.

Boer War records on line

Ancestry has recently added a new data set: Casualties of the Boer War 1899-1902 In Ancestry's words: This data collection contains the following information on over 65,000 soldiers who either died or were wounded during the Boer War: Force Regiment Battalion Battery/Corps Rank Name Casualty type, date, and place For example: South Africa Field Source, Staff, 3rd Brigade, Major-Genl. MacDonald H., C.B., D.S.O. wounded in Paardeberg on 18/02/1902. The data, which is taken from official casualty rolls, is sortable on First Name, Last Name, Place of casualty / Year of casualty, Regiment and Keywords but unfortunately is only available as part of Ancestry's premium or worldwide membership schemes. 

Another useful source for Second South African War information is The Boer War Register which presents "over 258,700 entries... [including] a fully revised and corrected casualty roll of over 59,000 records." Also see The Anglo Boer War and The National Archives's page on the South African War. Finally, it's always worth running a keyword search at the Internet Archive for military archive material. Type in Royal Fusiliers and you get a number of very useful lists including this listing of recipients of the Queen's South Africa Medal. The image on this post shows British casualties at Spion Kop in January 1900.

Updates - week ending Saturday 1st August 2009

A flood of enquiries this week, but first an appeal to DAVE BIRD, enquiring about your relative killed in action at Ypres. Dave, please re-submit your enquiry as your e-mail address was incomplete.

Queries into the Army Ancestry mailbox this week have mostly been WW1 related, although we have some potentially interesting Boer war era work and we are also checking the availability of surviving (and publicly accessible) documents relating to a WW2 Lt Colonel killed in action with an Indian regiment in 1941.

Enquiries this week have come from Australia, Canada, Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

The image on this post appears on the Hampstead Pals website and shows the Arras Memorial to the Missing. One of our projects this week was for a man whose name appears on the Arras War Memorial.