Hi Rory
A few days ago I found your article, posted 10 months ago:
. Thomas William Harding Wilson
. Trumpeter, Bethune’s Mounted Infantry – Anglo Boer War
. Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal . & Laing’s Nek to Tptr. T.W.H. Wilson, Bethune’s M.I.
For the last nine years I have been looking for a “Trumpeter Tom Wilson” who was in the ambush at Vryheid in May 1900.
I have Tom’s tin of Queen’s chocolate, dated 1900, inside which are two letters sent by “Tom” to Mrs C Groves, 69 Broad Street, Birmingham. The first, dated Jan 21 1900, assured her that “all is well” and that he would be “unable to write any more until we are in Ladysmith”.
The second, 27 May 1900, from Natal, referred to an ambush at Vryheid and the casualties suffered there. Tom’s horse was shot from under him and he “had a narrow escape but have since become quit a hero as I saved my queens chocolate which was in the saddle at the time”. He promised to “despatch it to you and remember there is a special value attached to it now”.
Two newspaper cuttings, in the tin, report this “daring feat”. The Piertermariztburg correspondent, reports the ambush of E Squadron of Bethune’s Horse and the death of Lieutenant Lanham also reported is TRUMPETER WILSON’s escapade.
My Father gave me the tin several years before his death and I regret not showing more interest in it. There is no-one to ask now. Dad was a respected genealogist and traced many branches of our family tree meticulously keeping every piece of evidence. I am sure he would not have kept the tin so carefully unless there had been a connection which, as yet, we have been unable to find
The tin, its contents and the recipients address were all I had to go on. My initial instinct was to trace descendants and return the tin and details of Tom’s exploits to his family.
My search for Trumpeter Tom Wilson began.
Over the course of many years, and false leads, I was able to trace Tom’s relationship to Mrs Groves, nee Charlotte Elizabeth Wilson.
Charlotte and Tom were the children of Samuel and Elizabeth Wilson who in 1881 were living in Beaufort Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Tom William H Wilson was born in 1876/7.
I was unable to find Tom’s full name or record of him in BMD records or in the 1911 Census return.
There seemed to be some circumstantial evidence, from the casualty list, that Tom may have joined the Dragoon Guards, the Durham Light Infantry or Bethune’s Mounted Infantry
In 2007 I first found reference to Trumpeter TWH Wilson 114 on the “nominal role” of Bethune’s Mounted Infantry. I found no other soldier with those initials.
However, I was unable to find his full name and address – not even whether his first name was Thomas, he appears to have been living in Natal before the War which started in October 1899, this Trooper signed up, for a year, on 19 October 1899. There was no apparent link to England. One report suggested that he had links with New Zealand.
You have provided the missing link as you have traced TWH Wilson back to his family in Birmingham thank you Rory for sharing this information online.
I am happy to share information on Tom’s letters and his family background if anyone is interested.
I would be grateful for more detailed information on Tom’s life and family in Natal.
