First, let me thank those who built and maintain this site. It's been excellent.
My grandfather was in the militia with the 5th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers for a year. From there, he served 12 years with the Royal Engineers including service in South Africa from Nov 1901 until Nov 1903. He then signed on with the 26th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the start of the First World War. In 1916, he was seriously wounded at St Eloi Craters in France by a blast during an exchange of mortar fire and due to the first use of phosgene gas by the Germans.
At the field hospital while trying to recover from those wounds, the Germans bombed it, as was their strategy at that time. When the hospital walls collapsed on him, his back was broken. Those wounds ended his active military service and eventually his life. After a number of years of suffering with his broken body, he eventually wheezed to death from the gassing.
One good thing he accomplished after the war was fathering my mother. Tragically, my grandmother died of cancer while my mother was a still young child. My mother helped to nurse my grandfather until he also passed while she was a child. His disability was between 20 and 30 cents per day plus medical. He did have some pension from the Royal Engineers service but that was curtailed significantly because he had to buy his way out and then back in to marry my grandmother - they docked him 8 years service towards his pension. And then the great depression followed. It was a very tough time for them financially.
My father has passed away and my mother is in a home, still in pretty good health. In 2010, as she was reflecting on her life, she mentioned that she had no picture of her parents. Since that time, we've been trying to find one working our way through the family tree without luck yet - but we're still working on it.
As a consolation if we're not successful (and it doesn't look likely), I thought my mother might appreciate seeing a pictures themed "this was his and her life".
As so much of my grandfather's life was in the Royal Engineers, I'm looking into that period of his life. His attestation and discharge papers show he was not an officer and I haven't been able to find him in the Hart's type war lists or on any medals lists or anywhere else yet. He did receive a Queens South Africa medal with clasps for Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony so that gives me a clue where he served in the Boer War and I know when he was in South Africa: Nov 1901-Nov 1903.
I've been trying to find a good history specifically on the Royal Engineers during that period for Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony. I've found plenty in general on the Boer War. I'm assuming that I won't be likely find him on a particular listing with a company or regiment - though I'm game to search if someone can point me in the right direction. And therefore, I'm operating on the basis that if I can find out what the Royal Engineers did in Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony (ie build a bridge for the rail service), I could find some Boer War images of those activities that would have to suffice (ie an image of the Royal Engineers working on building a bridge for a rail line).
For those that took the time to read this lengthy post, thanks. Thanks again, for the great site.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
