TOPIC:

Trusler was born into a military family, his father was with the R.H.A. He was also with one of the last I.Y companies to see service in South Africa - the 138th - about which little is known.

Frederick Alma Trusler

Trooper, 138th Company, Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War
Sergeant, Midlands Scouts – WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony and South Africa 1902 to 40544 Tpr. F. Trusler, 138th Coy. Imp. Yeo.
- 1914/15 Star to Sjt. F. Trusler, Midlands Scouts
- British War Medal to Sjt. F. Trusler, Midlands Scouts
- Victory Medal to Sjt. F. Trusler, Midlands Scouts

Frederick Trusler was an “army brat” in that he was born in to a family where his father was a serving member of the armed forces. The first insight we have into him comes courtesy of the Register of Marriages, Births and Baptisms of “C” Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery. Herein is stated that James Trusler married Mary Clark at Pokesdown, Hampshire on 14 April 1879 and that an unnamed (at that time) male child was born of their union on 16 July 1882. Ominously there is an additional note stating that child was “not yet baptised, the mother being a Baptist.”

From these inauspicious beginnings emerged Frederick Alma Trusler, a man who was to do duty in both the Anglo Boer War and the Great War. He was born in Marylebone, London on the date mentioned above. His father, James, a Riding Master who in 1888 had the honorary rank of Lieutenant and who was a career soldier.

Quite where the family was at the time of the 1891 England census is unclear as there is no record of their whereabouts although it is suspected that they may have been abroad as part of Trusler seniors military commitments and as part of the R.H.A.’s marital establishment. Certainly from 1893 onwards Trusler was based in India with his outfit.

In October 1899 the Empire was plunged into what was thought to be a swiftly resolvable conflict with two recalcitrant Boer Republics in South Africa. Initially there were several reversals and disappointments faced by the Imperial army and those colonial regiments that supported them. Then came the fall of the two Boer capitals, Bloemfontein and Pretoria, renewing hopes that a speedy end to the war was in sight. The Boers had, however, other ideas and phase two, or the guerrilla phase, of the war started to emerge. This was where small and highly mobile Commandos would engage in “hit and run” tactics sniping at the British extended lines of communication and targeting small pockets of Imperial troops catching them napping and stealing their clothes and supplies.

It was into this scenario that Trusler was pitched as a Trooper with the 138th Company of the 30th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, one of the last to enter the war. The 30th Battalion had been formed in 1901 but, according to a Hansard transcript of a Parliamentary debate in the House of Commons which featured no less a worthy than Winston Churchill, they were not to be sent immediately to South Africa. The debate went as follows,

House of Commons Debate 15 April 1902 vol 106 cc272-3272

§MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL (Oldham)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been drawn to the position of the 30th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry, who were enlisted in January on the understanding that they would proceed to South Africa after two months training, but who are still at Bulford camp, without any immediate prospect of being moved; and whether, in view of the fact that the men of this battalion were enlisted at 5s. a day for special war purposes, and that the period of engagement was for only twelve months (three and a quarter of which are already consumed), he will endeavour to make use of a force raised at such cost to the public.

LORD STANLEY

This battalion is being retained at home until it is thoroughly trained, in accordance with Lord Kitchener's request that the Imperial Yeomanry should be well trained at home prior to despatch. The period of service is for twelve months or the war.

§MR. FLYNN (Cork County, N.)

And are these men receiving 5s. a day, although they are not in the sphere of operations?

§MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)

Don't embarrass the Government!

As can be seen from the above the matter was a thorny one with paid volunteers lying idle (unless they were being trained) at the cost of 5 shillings per man per day to the already encumbered British taxpayer.

Irregardless of what was transpiring in the hallowed halls of power the day finally arrived for the 138th Company to reach South Africa and they were put to work in the Cape Colony which is where the Boers, in a last ditch attempt to resurrect their campaign, were trying desperately to enlist the help and support of pro-Boer locals to their cause.

For his short service, the war ended on 31 May 1902, Trusler was awarded the Queens Medal with clasps Cape Colony and South Africa 1902. He seems, post-war, to have elected to stay behind in South Africa and ventured north to a remote and arid part of the Cape Colony known as Buisvlei in the Division of Prieska. Here, amidst the dust, heat and flies he found romance marrying Katherine Georgina Wilson on 12 March 1907. He was a Clerk employed by the Nitrates Company in Prieska residing at Blaauwhoogte and she was a Forwarding Agent living in the same area.

Sadly strife was the order of the day and, in or about the month of November 1913 Trusler “refused to cohabit with his wife” and having deserted her refused to return to her or provide for her.

It was here, in the employ of the mines, and amidst his personal problems that he found himself at the time the Great War broke out in 1914. Now 32 years of age Trusler enlisted with the Midlands Scouts for service in German South West Africa and was awarded the rank of Sergeant, no doubt as a result of his age and experience. The Scouts were attached to one of the Mounted Brigades that entered the German territory and helped chase the Germans into the northern reaches of it where they capitulated at Otavi on 9 July 1915 thereby bringing that theatre of the war to an end.

With his regiment disbanded Trusler returned to civilian pursuits and, in August 1921 was on the receiving end of summons wherein he was required to either restore conjugal rights to his estranged wife or face the consequence which, in this case, was divorce. After some seven years of alienation divorce was always going to be the outcome and the couple, who had no children, parted ways.

Trusler was involved in yet another failed marriage, that to a Johanna Petronella Paulina Nel which ended in 1940. Neither of these marriages yielded any children and it would seem that Trusler led a rather unhappy and unfulfilled life.

In his Last Will and Testament, signed on 20 March 1943 he appointed his niece, Barbara Warren, the daughter of his only sibling, Winifred Mary Warren, as his heir this was, however later revoked. This was probably at the instigation of his second wife who had come back to haunt him - court papers in his estate file show that there was a legal tussle over the paternity of a child this wife gave birth to with the Judge finding, in F.A. Trusler vs. J.P. Trusler, the following:

- The presumption in law is that Plaintiff is the father of the child born in Bloemfontein on 10 February 1940. According to his story he has not cohabited with his wife for many years, This bare statement would of course not be sufficient to discharge the onus of proving adultery. He is on firmer ground when or if he proves that from 20 April 1939 to 10 June 1939 he did not see his wife. If the period of gestation was normal then the child must almost certainly have been conceived during this period. From 20 April to 10 February is a period of 296 days. There are recorded cases of 300 days or even a few days over 300 days - of gestation. Consequently it cannot be said with certainty that conception took place between 20 April and 10 June. I think however that Dr Connan will be able to throw further light on the question. She probably told him when the child was expected and gave reasons for her calculations. It may also be significant that she consulted him on 10 October and thereafter almost every visit to him took place at regular intervals of a month. She probably went the normal course and gave Dr Connan full information.

- If the other witnesses are to be believed then i think there will be sufficient evidence to establish adultery. e.g. She told Lettie Fourie that she and her husband had not cohabited since 1934. She told her mother she had to leave in order to give birth to a child of which Pressly was the father. It is significant that she induced her husband to enter into a Deed of Separation when she must have known that she was pregnant, and that she told him nothing about it then or later. Apparently she did not even tell him of the birth of the child until after he had written to enquire.

- Her letter can be construed as an admission of guilt and taken with the other evidence would tell heavily against her. At the same time it can be explained away.

The letter to Lettie Fourie speaks of a weekend visit from a man in Kimberley. She will find it difficult to explain this away. Some effort should be made to obtain information at the boarding-house at which she was staying at that time. I am of the opinion that if the evidence of Plaintiff and his witnesses is to be believed he would succeed in proving that defendant committed adultery (most probably with Pressly). There is sufficient evidence to establish that Pressly is the father of the child.

In conclusion - obviously it would save money to try the case at Kimberley. If that is decided upon I suggest that Plaintiff should have conference with Counsel in Kimberley before a declaration is drafted and filed. Counsel would then be able to obtain information on points such as what led to the Deed of Separation, did correspondence continue after she left him - why did h take her to Kimberley - with whom did he leave her there. Counsel would also be able to form some sort of idea as to how he would shape under cross-examination. Furthermore his Kimberley attorney could start enquiries about Pressly and in a small place like Kimberley it might not be difficult to obtain information about the period 19 April to 9 June 1940.




At the time of his death on 9 November 1943 at the age of 61 Trusler was the Manager of an Asbestos Mine in Prieska. The cause of death was multitudinous – he suffered from both chronic hepatitis and chronic cystitis. A small note in a the obituaries of an English newspaper read that,

“On November 9, 1943, at Prieska, Cape Province, Frederick, only son of the late Major James and Mrs Trusler and brother of Winifred Warren of Shotesham, Norfolk.[/size]