TOPIC:

Hi Linneyl,
thanks for clarifying the discharge date, since the 1901 census was on 31 March I don't think that can be the right Athol Murray, I might have to start looking at A. Murray's in UK regiments to see if I can find my Great Great Uncle Athol in there, I suppose his place of residence in the 1901 census might help me to know where to start looking. Although one interesting thing I have found out is that I can not find my Great Grandfather Samuel and Great Great Uncle Percy in the 1901 census, which I understand is common for those that served in the Boar war. I have thought about getting a researcher etc, but when I started looking into my family history I only knew about a couple of Aunties and a few cousins, and since then I have found so many ancestors that I am enjoying the finding out (both when I get it right and wrong), that I will try to do as much as I can by myself (with a little help from friendly people on sites like this) before I look to the professionals. Thanks for the help

Hi again.

Percy S Murray is with Athol H Murray in London on the 1901 census that you've already got.

(I have this trouble all the time - can't remember what I've got and then when I get it again, I remember that I'd already got it. If you see what I mean!)

And here's the link to Percy's death in WWI ...

www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/7791...Y,%20PERCY%20SIMMONS

I've found a

P S Murray
Lieutenant in the Royal Irish Rifles
who was "slightly wounded on 27 Dec 1901 at Mooiplaats"

Murray is a very common name as far as the Anglo Boer War goes and I would treat your uncle in the same way as I advised you to treat your grandfather in your other thread about him, if you really believe that he served in Brabant's Horse, you simply have a researcher look in WO126/6-14 at Kew and see if that particular paper has survived, but, if you are merely thinking that it must be him because of the name, I suspect you will be disappointed, again it is just another name.
We get an awful lot of people who come on here because they think that they had an ancestor who fought in South Africa, but, who have no physical evidence whatsoever that they actually did other than a family story that is three or four generations old, sometimes it can be proven either way, sometimes it is far more of a challenge.

muzz1969 wrote: I am hoping that someone might be able to help me. i have started looking into my family history, and i have been told that my Great Great Uncle Athol Harcourt Murray (1876-1903) fought in the Boer War and died in 1903 from wounds received during it, and that also my Great Grandfather Samuel Holmes Murray (1869-1916) might have as well (he was in the South African Medical Corp when he died in action in 1916). They were both born in India and moved to South Africa sometime before 1900 i think. I have found references to a Athol Murray (5059) in the Brabants Horse and a Samuel Murray an Orderly in the Imperial Hospital Corps both listed in WO127 however I live in New Zealand so i dont have access to visit the National Archives WO127 to check the relevant information to see if it was them. Is anyone able to tell me if there is a way to check this type of information online or somewhere else i might find this information?
Any help would be much appreaciated.
Richard Murray

Hi Frank

I've advised Richard to invest £9.25 in Athol's death certificate. Hopefully, that would nail the "died of war wounds" story once and for all.

STG