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Okay, I find it rather odd that he did not state that particular prior service on his original attestation page, he has just stated the Fortress Company Australian Engineers.
To be quite honest, I would think that he has simply used that term, in a generic way, to say that he had served, for that period of time, within the Transvaal Volunteer Force, which was formed after Vereeniging as a defence force .
Some of the regiments deliberately took the names of the recently disbanded SAMIF, most infamously, Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, which only remained extant for a very short period, because, it's name was too contentious.
The actual Transvaal Mounted Rifles was a composite regiment raised for service in Natal during the insurrection of 1906.
It had been recruited across the regiments/corps of the whole Transvaal Volunteer Force and because your fellow is not on their medal roll, I cannot imagine that he had ever served within it's ranks, notwithstanding, he could certainly have served in a regiment of the Transvaal Volunteer Force and I would suggest that he did, there would be little point fibbing on such a tiny detail in order to be commissioned, then as now, you either had it or you did not

Blackblue wrote: Thanks Frank,
Any views appreciated. Page 50 here:
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/...Image.aspx?B=3181307

Tim

Many thanks Frank,
This is great. I agree and also thought the Attestation omission odd.

I also note that 'Transvaal' was added later on his application form, so wondered if he may have served with a unit of another name...perhaps even during the Boer War. Certainly I can't find his name on Commonwealth QSA/KSA Rolls. You would think he certainly would have mentioned this service if he did.

Are there any other medals he might have been awarded as a consequence of TVF service?

Tim

No, there were no campaigns for medals to actually be awarded, it was merely a defence force that had been raised because of the situation in the Transvaal after Vereeniging, the end game had been played out on the veldt and there were certainly many issues left to resolve, the whole country had been left in tatters.
The major issue was that everyone was armed, you can think of the Transvaal as a powder keg about to explode, with so many isolated groups of Boers and Natives quite literally at each others throats, the Northern part of the country was particularly dangerous, with the SAMIF disbanded and so very few members of the South African Constabulary to take their place.

Lord Milner was not trusted as an administrator by a great many people here in Great Britain and was, quite understandably, far less trusted in South Africa, in particular by the average Boer, simply because he had been instrumental in starting the war and bringing it to a successful conclusion for Great Britain.
He was replaced by Lord Selborne who was rather more sympathetic towards the Boers and his methods and certainly his policies were far more wise, for example, he introduced a dual language system in schools in the Transvaal and I should think just that one simple act did more than anything else to tell the average Boer that Great Britain's intention was to live on equal terms as long as the ever present racial issues were kept in check.

So you can see that there was a need for a part time defence force recruited locally, particularly as the act of disarmament had been so time consuming and there was also a fear of a nasty insurrection breaking out, moreover, I dare say it's creation was a very real saviour to so many men who had fought during the war.

Thanks Frank,
Brilliant. I may need to cast the net wider. Incidentally I had two GG Uncle's who served with the SAC. Alexander and George Smart. Alex went home to Scotland and later emigrated to America - fighting with the Canadians in the Great War. George stayed on and was in and out of the Police in Johannesburg and the Railways...went away twice in WW1 with Smuts and was in no less than 9 x different units. In 1927 he made his way to America to visit Alex and then to Australia to visit my Grandfather John, but fell overboard in Sydney Harbour and drowned after a harrowing journey on a square rigger. I'll send you a PM.

Rgds

Tim