TOPIC:

A friend of mine asked me to see if I could find any information about a clock he has. The inscription plate at the bottom of the clock says: Presented to Trooper J.F. Nielsen in recognition of patriotic service in the South African Campaign. Helensburgh, June 1901. At the top of the clock it shows South Africa on the left side and 1900-1901 on the right. I checked the Medal Roll on Ancestry for Trooper J.F. Nielsen and it shows: (no trace) Served later in W.M.T. Victoria West. If anyone has any information about Trooper J.F. Nielson or his clock I would be most grateful. Thank you.

Ann Hentschel,Ontario,Canada.

Hello Ann,
Welcome to this forum, are you quite sure about this man and his name, if it were Neilson there would be rather more possibles.
A look at WO100/286 page 107 shows that he appears to have served in the Victoria West District Mounted Troops, but, he is not on their roll.
Some Town Guard and DMT papers have survived in WO126 at Kew, I am sure that the Victoria West TG and DMT have not, from memory, I think, a very few of the Victoria East DMT have, though, this does not help you.
Check the name and please do come back and let us know, I say this because of the use of the word "Helensburgh" on the clock you mentioned, I am thinking this is not the man we are talking about on here right now.
Again Welcome Ann,
Regards Frank

Hello Frank,

Yes, his name is J.F. NIELSON on the clock but the Medal Roll entry on Ancestry shows J.F. NIELSEN so I thought they'd made a mistake on the clock.

Many thanks.

Ann

Hello Ann,
I think a mistake on the clock is very unlikely, it was to be presented to him as a gift after all, but, this does rather bring us back to square one.
I just feel that a fellow is less likely to travel to the war and join a Town Guard or DMT all the way from Helensburgh, I was thinking SAMIF or IY, but, I could be wrong, the fact is the name does present a problem, with the rolls in WO100, you can often forget about a mans second initial.
Regards again Frank

Hello Frank,

Yes, I see what you mean about the name. I just checked Google for Helensburgh and it's a place in Scotland. I thought it referred to a campaign in the Boer War in South Africa.

Ann

Hello Ann,
Yes, back to the name, if it were Neilson or Nelson, there would be very many more possibles, perhaps too many.
Nielson could be the man in question, who we had discussed, though, I really doubt it, moreover, don't forget when using digitized records, there are always errors in transcription and ommissions with the actual material.

However, a clock remains, it was not so unusual to make a gift of a piece of silver or a watch, to a returning member of the Volunteers, Regular Army, IY, SAMIF etc but, you would expect the name to be correct on the same.
So many left these shores to get stuck in to Kruger and "Jonny Boer" the press here was under the influence of Lord Milner and both he and "Pushful" Joseph Chamberlain wanted a war, whilst to the British public, it was just unfinshed business.
Kruger was painted by the press and the government and it is very easy to "just go with it" even today.
To me, Kruger was a complex man of very many faces, but, the one I always think of, was that of the brave young veld cornet, who exposed himself to very considerable personal risk more than once in his earlier life.

Is there anything else your friend can tell you, does she have Scottish ancesters for example?
Kind regards Frank