Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 - newspaper coverage

Did your British Army Ancestor serve in the Boer War? If he did, it's possible that he was mentioned in a local, or even national, newspaper.

Some while back I created a list of British and Irish newspapers which had been published online by the British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast and which covered the years 1914-1918. Each week, as more and more pages are published, I add to this list.

I have now created a similar list for newspapers which cover the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902. There are over three hundred titles on this list and as with the 1914-1918 newspapers, I shall be adding to this whenever new material is published.

The British Newspaper Archive continues to impress and at the time of writing has published close to 19.3m pages across 756 titles. New content is being added at the rate of around 100,000 pages per week. It is, quite simply, a tremendous resource.

The links above will take you to my newspaper lists. Click on the link, if optimised, or simply go to the British Newspaper Archive or Findmypast and browse through the pages yourself. Here are those links to my pages again (which you'll also see in the menu above):

Anglo-Boer War newspaper coverage 1899-1902

First World War newspaper coverage 1914-1918

The superb illustration on this post is taken from the Illustrated London News.

First World War ancestors in the news

I'm publishing a list of newspapers (below) which cover the period 1914-1918 and which are available to search online.

I have long been a fan of the British Newspaper Archive. Military service records, where these survive, are all well and good, but actually how much of the actual service do you ever glean from looking at a service record? There is a tendency amongst historians to hold up service records as the ultimate archival treasure, and whilst I would argue that these are essential to our understanding of where and when a man served, unless correspondence survives in the file, they are unlikely to actually tell us anything about what he went through. Neither do the service records put a man's service into the context of the time.  Step forward then, the British Newspaper Archive.

There are riches to be found in this archive of 15.9m pages - and counting.  This blog post deals only with the First World War, but what follows also holds true for other conflicts both before and since - and remember that the archive covers the period from 1710 right up until the end of the last century. That's nearly 300 years at your fingertips.

As far as the First World War is concerned, you'll find casualty details (men reported as wounded, prisoners of war and missing as well as those killed in action), and also mini obituaries - sometimes with photos - of men.

Take the example of 17166 Corporal Harold Meadowcroft whose obiturary in the Manchester Evening News includes a photo plus details which simply would not appear in a service record. Harold was an original member of the 20th Manchester Regiment or 5th City Battalion; an original Manchester Pal. He appears in the photo below, proudly taking his place in No 3 platoon of A Company.

No service record survives for Harold but even if it did, it would not have mentioned that he was an amateur footballer or that he been shot by a sniper. The newspapers add the meat to the bones and are still, in my opinion, a much under-used and possibly under-valued resource.  Anyway, enough of the waffle. Here's a current list of all those newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive site which cover the period 1914-1918, Unless otherwise noted, all five years are covered. Papers know to have published portraits of soldiers are also noted.

The links below will take you directly to the paper concerned - but you'll ned to pay for access to view the reports.

Aberdeen Evening Express [soldier portraits]
Aberdeen Journal
Aberdeen Weekly Journal
Aldershot Military Gazette [1918]
Arbroath Herald and Advertiser for the Montrose Burghs
Ballymena Observer
Banbury Advertiser
Banbury Guardian
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette
Bedfordshire Times and Independent
Belfast Weekly News [1914]
Bellshill Speaker
Belper News
Berwick Advertiser [1915-1917]
Berwickshire News and General Advertiser
Beverley and East Riding Recorder [1914-1916]
Bexhill-on-Sea Observer
Biggleswade Chronicle
Birmingham Daily Gazette
Birmingham Daily Post
Birmingham Mail
Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press
Bucks Herald
Burnley Express
Burnley Gazette [1914]
Burnley News
Burton Daily Mail [1915-1917]
Bury Free Press
Cambridge Daily News [1917-1918]
Cambridge Independent Press
Chelmsford Chronicle
Chelsea News and General Advertiser
Cheltenham Chronicle
Cheltenham Looker-On
Cheshire Observer
Chester Chronicle
Cornishman
Cornish Telegraph [1914-1915]
Coventry Evening Telegraph
Coventry Herald [1915-1916]
Coventry Standard
Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough
Daily Herald
Daily Mirror
Daily Record
Derby Daily Telegraph
Derbyshire Advertiser and Ashbourne, Uttoxeter & North Staffordshire Journal [1914-1916, 1918]
Derbyshire Courier
Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald [1914-1917]
Derry Journal
Diss Express
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Dover Express
Driffield Times
Dublin Daily Express [1914-1917]
Dumfries and Galloway Standard
Dundalk Examiner and Louth Advertiser [1914-1915]
Dundee Courier
Dundee Evening Telegraph
Dundee, Perth, Forfar, and Fife's People's Journal
Edinburgh Evening News
Essex Newsman
Evening Despatch
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette
Falkirk Herald
Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian
Fifeshire Advertiser
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
Framlingham Weekly News
Gloucester Citizen
Gloucester Journal
Gloucestershire Chronicle
Gloucestershire Echo
Grantham Journal
Hamilton Advertiser
Harrogate Herald [1915 & 1917]
Hartland and West Country Chronicle
Hastings and St Leonards Observer
Hawick News and Border Chronicle
Hendon & Finchley Times
Hertford Mercury and Reformer [1916-1918]
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Hull Daily Mail
Jarrow Express
Kent & Sussex Courier
Kirkintilloch Gazette
Kirkintilloch Herald
Lancashire Evening Post [1916-1918]
Larne Times
Leamington Spa Courier
Leeds Mercury [1914, 1916]
Leicester Chronicle [1914-1915]
Lichfield Mercury
Lincolnshire Chronicle [1915-1918]
Lincolnshire Echo
Liverpool Daily Post
Liverpool Echo [soldier photos]
Liverpool Evening Express [1914]
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle [1917-1918]
Luton Times and Advertiser [1914-1916]
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser [1914-1916]
Manchester Evening News [soldier photos]
Middlesex Chronicle
Monmouthshire Beacon
Morpeth Herald
Motherwell Times
Nantwich Guardian
Newcastle Evening Chronicle
Newcastle Journal
North Devon Journal
Northampton Mercury
Nottingham Evening Post
Perthshire Advertiser
Portsmouth Evening News [1914-1916]
Preston Herald
Reading Mercury
Rochdale Observer
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser
Sheffield Evening Telegraph
Sheffield Independent
Shepton Mallet Journal, City of Wells reporter and county advertiser
Shields Daily Gazette [1916]
Shoreditch Observer [1914-1915]
South Bucks Standard [1914]
Southern Reporter
Sporting Times [1914-1917]
Sports Argus
Staffordshire Advertiser
Stirling Observer
Sunday Mirror [1915-1918]
Sunday Post
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette
Surrey Advertiser
Surrey Mirror
Sussex Agricultural Express
Tamworth Herald
Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser
The Era
The Scotsman
Thetford and Watton Times
Walsall Advertiser [1914-1915]
Walsall Observer, and South Staffordshire Chronicle
Warwick & Warwickshire Advertiser [1914-1917]
Weekly Freeman's Journal
Wells Journal
West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser [1915-1916]
Western Chronicle
Western Daily Press
Western Gazette
Western Mail
Western Morning News
Western Times
Whitby Gazette
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
Yorkshire Evening Post [soldier portraits]
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer

Using local newspapers

As the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Battle of the Somme draws closer, and as more and more military records appear online, a reminder not to overlook the steadily growing British Newspaper Archive.

Since it was launched, over 16m pages from 696 publications have been digitised and published online.You can take out a subscription with the BNA or access the same material through Findmypast. I use the resource a lot and have always thought what a bargain it is to be included in the Findmypast subscription. Although the majority of the published pages date to the nineenth century, there is a growing collection of pages from the twentieth century, including many regional papers published during the First World War. It is these papers which can help to add so much more detail about a soldier, particularly if he was an officer and was killed in action.

For the purpose of this post,let's just take a look at a single page of The Liverpool Daily Post for the 21st July 1916.  Here, the newspaper has pulled names of officers from the official Times casualty lists and published details of Other Ranks from Liverpool and the surrounding areas.  There is good coverage of officer fatalities, which, in this particular issue, included a photograph of Captain Horace John Simkin and the following biography:

Captain Simkin was killed in action whilst serving with C Company, 13th King's (Liverpool Regiment) and is buried in Dive Copse British Cemetery at Sailly-le-Sec. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry notes that he had been mentioned in dispatches.

So ignore newspapers at your peril. Many include photographs of other ranks who were killed or died of wounds - The Manchester Evening News is a good example here - and don't give up just because the search term you have keyed in does not yield results. OCR is still - despite what others might say - an imperfect science and it does not always pick up the text accurately. If you know an ancestor became a casualty on a particular date, try and find the newspaper that would have covered the area where he was living and then start browsing the pages online. Having spent a fortnight at the British Newspaper Library in Colindale many years ago, trawling through back issues of various Sussex newspapers, I can assure you that the online searching is a good deal easier - and doesn't leave newsprint on your fingers.

I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information. 

The British Newspaper Archive - British newspapers online

Now search online for your army ancestor in British newspapers thanks to a fantastic new resource launched today by brightsolid and the British Library. Register here at The British NEWSPAPER archive.