According to my sister, my mother has at least one of his medals. There's some confusion because my mother also possesses my father's and other family members medals. My sister will check if it's the South Africa medal. It's going to take time because my mother is in a home and the medals are a safety deposit box at a bank. My mother had two brothers and a sister and their families may have this South Africa medal but my sister feels my mother posses it.
From his attestation and service records:
First Name: Walter
Last name: Pearce
He never had any middle initial or middle name on any document related to him I have ever seen. Among those other records, I have seen are: his death certificate, marriage certificate, Canadian military records and a number of his census records.
That's been a problem because there are more than one Walter Pearce born during that time and from the area he was born.
However, I'm positive it's him. His Canadian military records are extensive, in part, because of his wounds and they tie to where he lived with my mother. I matched the following from his Royal Engineers attestation with his Canadian and other records:
-Physical description: height, weight, color of hair & eyes
-Handwriting and signatures on the forms
-Name and address of his father (& address for himself)
-Date of wedding, location, Church, spouse's name and maiden name, brother's name, brother-in-law's name
-Religion and trade
-date and place of birth
-Canadian attestation mentions 12 years with Royal Engineers and service in South Africa
And I found no discrepancies in information between the two forms. His attestation with the Royal Fusiliers militia also lined up with those two forms. Again, from the above, I have no doubt this is the correct record for my grandfather.
Royal Engineers Number: 3743
That is the number recorded when you look him up on the computer records.
The only number in question might be the 7 from the written records. The 3s and 4s are definite. The 7 almost looks like a Y and it looks that way more than once - it was the style of the person who wrote it. Because there are fours, nines and ones on the document and no other sevens, and those other fours, nines and ones don't look anything like the "seven", I strongly suspect the seven is correct.
Dated Nov 22, 1899
Corps in which he served: R.E.
Battalion or Depot: (empty)
Promotion (etc): Attested (Joined at London)
Rank: looks like a "D" with double quotes after it (maybe for driver? I'm not sure)
Then there's an entry with no Corp or Battalion that says stamped "TRANSFERRED TO ARMY RESERVE" with a date stamp 20 NOV 1903 and a hand written Rank "D"
Dated Nov 21, 1903
Corps in which he served: 1st Class A.R.R.E.
Battalion or Depot: Sec B.
Rank: (same, again): looks like a "D" with double quotes after it
The last entry doesn't have any Corps or Battalion noted. It's dated 21 Nov 1911. Under promotions (etc) it looks like "Discharged as " and then beside it, hand written rank looks like "Driver". On the next line, "termination of 1st period of engagt" and is signed of by captain of R.E. Records
Military History Sheet says:
Home from 22-11-99 to 15-11-01
South Africa 16-11-01 to 19-11-03
Home 20-11-03 to 21-11-11
He listed his trade as "Plumber". He was also a pipe fitter (but that was not noted in those records). My sister said that she found him in the 1901 census, not living with his family (with the army), and his occupation listed was something like driver.
Hopefully, that helps. It may take weeks or months before I'll get to see and confirm what's on that medal (and if we posses the South African service medal).
