TOPIC:

My great grandfather William Whelan and his family had lived in Kroonstad from 1885 and was there at the start of the Anglo Boer War. He was about 51 years old and apparently joined the local kommando, although he is not recorded as a member of the Kroonstad Kommando. In Dot Serfontien's book on Kroonstad, she records 'Max Schon and his friend Mr Whelan' as being responsible for the 1899 Christmas decor in the officers' mess. He was interred by the British, but I have no details. So I am looking for any information about William Whelan or Max Schon relating to the AB War period.
Regards Mark Skelton

From the War Museum of the Boer Republics database; nothing on Whelan but:

Surname SCHON
Name MAX JOHAN
Age 21
Address KROONSTAD
District KROONSTAD
Where Captured KROONSTAD
When Captured 1900/05/12
Camp RAGAMA
Country CEYLON
Ship (To) CATALONIA
Ship (Back)
POW Number 7100

Group photo at Green Point, Cape Town.
MJ Schon - no 6

Family history (verbal story) is that William Whelan (b.1849), who was a barber in Kroonstad at the time and had lived there since about 1885, was interned by the British. (Whether he ever fired a shot in anger is uncertain, though my uncle who knew him (when a child) said that Whelan said he was in the siege of Ladysmith). My grandmother told me that she (then a teenager) and her mother went to East London, where they provided (her father) William Whelan, who was a prisoner at that stage, with food. Another line of the story is that he was on the very last boat of POWs to Ceylon but that peace was declared when en route, so the ship docked at Mauritius and then returned to SA. I have been unable to substantiate any of this 'verbal history' with researched facts. If anyone can shed any light on any aspect of what I have recorded above, I shall be most grateful.

Mark, are you aware of this website:
ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LYNJ-3LG/c...ida-whelan-1885-1981

Thanks Elmarie - yes those are my grandmother's details! Interesting times she lived in - unfortunately there was not much recorded about her father's Anglo-Boer War experiences. So I am trying to fill in some background (to the family verbal history.)
Kind regards