Hello,
Welcome to this forum, I'm sorry I did not write to you earlier, I did see this post yesterday and had wanted to write a few lines, but, time overtook me as usual, anyway, I do so now.
I like the Manchester's and I always have since I was a small boy, a fine regiment who could always be relied upon to get the job done, they never had the publicity of so many others and they never sought it either.
I am rather ashamed to admit that I have never really bothered with their 2nd Battalion as far as the Anglo Boer War went, they arrived rather late in the day as so to speak, in April 1900, but they were, upon landing in South Africa, thrown into the line from day one.
From memory, their first job was with the 17th Infantry Brigade and it was a bloody hard march to Wepener and beyond, very hard indeed.
People will talk about the relief of Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith, but Wepener is often forgotten.
Regarding your great grandfather, as I understand he was attached to the 2nd Battalion and was actually serving in the 3rd Volunteer Service Company from the Militia.
Sadly, because he was not discharged and the fact that he was only attached to the battalion, which was part of the Army and not the Militia, there would not normally be any service papers for him in WO97, there is a partial entry in WO96, he had originally joined the Lancashire Rifle Volunteers before joining the 4th Battalion of the Manchester's, so you would approach this matter from a differant angle given that.
He is shown in the published casualty returns as killed, a brief look at WO100/198 shows his entitlement to the medal and clasps for the Cape Colony, Transvaal and Wittebergen, also the South Africa 1901 clasp from their supplementary roll in the same volume, this latter merely says "deceased" with nothing on the main roll.
As far as events at Tygerkloof goes, from a contempory point of view, you can look in the Illustrated London News and the official dispatches that were published in the London Gazette in 1902 as well as the average histories of the campaign that are more freely available to you, some, here, on this site.
As far as memorials go, you will find his name on the handsome memorial in St Annes Square and their Anglo Boer War plaque in the Cathederal, if you want to go further, there was a memorial at Hatheringsdal in South Africa, I assume it is still there.
Regarding any particulars in relation to him and the war, because, he was killed, the thing to do would be to look at the local newspaper of the day, in the place of his birth and the place he and his family actually lived at in 1899, the national press, would just list him, but I am confident that a local or sometimes a provincial paper would give you much more information that would prove very useful to you.
Now this is often a labour of love and can be frustrating, in particular when the records are not digitized and you end up have to use wretched antique reader machines, but, well worth you seeing through.
Their museum is also worth contacting too, they are at the Portland Basin at Ashton, the actual museum galleries are in the old town hall and they have an archive at Tameside Central Library, so all in Ashton, their regimental depot was there too, from 1881 to 1958, from memory, it was actually being used by the old 63rd and 96th Regiments in 1873, but, sadly today, only the bit of wall and gateway exists,
Is your family Welsh, it's an interesting name, anyway, I wish you bon chance,
Kind regards Frank Kelley
greeneyes61 wrote: I have tried to get more information regarding my Great Grandad from the Manchester Regiment today to no avail.
He was killed at Tyger Kloof 06/11/1901
I have got some information from yourselfs, but I really want to know more about what battles he would have been before his death.
I dont think I will find out any real information regarding how he was killed but heard, (family grapevine) whils I was little was that he was killed by a sniper.
Fingers crossed for you help as I really have hit a brick wall.
