TOPIC:

I was lucky to win the group to William Mitchell with the silver O'Okiep at the recent City Coins auction. I am now piecing together his story and wanted to share what I had so far, and ask for help if anyone can find any further puzzle pieces please.

This is either a group to a man with incredible long service, or two men. The facts I have so far don't rule either out.

The group seems to be:
Victoria LSGC 5630 William Mitchel RE
Edward MSM to the RE
QSA but I don't have the roll yet and the medal is missing
KSA I suspect but not sure
Silver O'Okiep which is named W Mitchell CTH and is actually nicer naming than the catalogue suggested.
1914/15 Start to Major in 6th Infantry
BMW to Major in 6th Infantry. I have his papers from the Pretoria Archives but they don't have anything about his CTH time or a date of birth!
Victory Medal but this is missing
Colonial Auxiliary Volunteer Medal issued in 1906 but this is missing.
Colonial Auxiliary Decoration issued in 1914 but this is missing however I have been told that is does exist in a collection somewhere.

If this is to one man it's incredible.

What I know is this:

William Mitchell enlisted at age 16 into the Royal Engineers in 1858.His papers are on Findmypast and the number 5630 is on his Victoria Long Service Good Conduct Medal and his attestation paper.

He is listed as home service till 1876. Then he is in the Cape from 1876 to 1881. Then home from 1881 to 1892.

He has his last promotion to Warrant Officer in 1881. At this point his RE file ends. He had served for 33 years by then.

A William Mitchell was the RSM of the Cape Town highlanders from 1897 to 1900 then again from 1902 to 1903. I can't find anything on this man as I don't know where to look. Could it be the same man?

The name matches but it's not an uncommon name. The dates do actually line up, and did he earlier stay at the Cape lead him to retire to the Cape after he left the RE and then join the volunteer unit the Cape Town Highlanders? Given he had been a senior NCO/Warrant Officer did he slot into the CTH as their RSM? It makes sense to use experience instead of making him a Private?

He then shows up in Neil Orpen's history of the CTH (which I don't have but found some references to so am not sure of the dates) as RSM being promoted to LT and then to Captain.

He is at O'Okiep as a Captain and shows in a couple of pictures in Burke's book. I suspect there are more pictures out there but I don't know who has them. It is hard to tell his age from the pictures but he would have been about 60. Interestingly he is described as young looking on his attestation papers.

Now it gets complicated. He is on the 1901 census in the UK as being in the UK. This Mitchell has the same wife and children as the RE Mitchell.

Did he go back for a holiday? There is a reference to a William Mitchell on a passenger ship in 1901 from the UK to the Cape but I don't have an Ancestry subscription so can't see the details.

He shows on the Namaqualand Border Scouts register from 1/7/1901 to 31/7/1902. This puts him in the right place for the siege.

In 1906 he gets the Colonial Auxiliary Medal. This means he was serving from 1886 if I take off 20 years. I don't know if war service counted for more. This date is post his RE service, and before he was the RSM of the CTH. This means he spent time in the CTH as something before being the RSM.

He serves in WW1 in the 6th Infantry (basically the CTH).

In 1914 he gets the Colonial Auxiliary Decoration.

In 1914/15 he gets MID for his work as Quarter Master at Wynberg. Is specifically says "This officer who has long previous service...". He served in GSWA.

In 1921 he is placed on the retired list.

So, are these the same man? The only counter arguments are:
He would have been about 75 in WW1. If he looked young as there is some evidence of, and he lied about his age and was used as the QM, it is not impossible just unlikely.
Is it a father/son? On the RE papers are a list of children and there is no other William listed.
He was in the UK in 1901 for the census. This is the difficult point. But did he go there and come back? I don't know.

If the same man this is 4 long service medals!

If anyone could help or ideally tell me where the missing medals are I would be very grateful. If anyone knows a researcher who could get more than the RE papers or the Pretoria Archives papers I am very happy to pay for services. I suspect he would have death notices etc. in Cape Town but I can't make sense of the online search.

Thanks
Ryan

Ryan
You have set yourself quite a task, there. The book "War Services of Officers" in the section Colonial Forces, Cape of Good Hope, shows "W.Mitchell, SA war 1899-1902, Kings medal with two clasps", and the section "Colonial Contingents, etc in South Africa" under the heading "Cape Town Highlanders" shows "Capt. Mitchell, W. (With Namaqualand Field Force).
The Kieran book "O'okiep" (ISBN 976-8136-31-6) has several references to a Mitchell -
P11: 2nd Lt. Mitchell of CTH's C coy was sent to O'okiep around 23/3/1900
P14: Captain Mitchell plus twelve men were transferred to the NBS during July, 1901
P113:Captain Mitchell of the CTH is mentioned favourably concerning the siege.
Perhaps there might be a marginal note on one or either of the medal rolls re Capt. Mitchell's previous service. I had a look on the NA site - but it was experiencing "an error".
Are we indeed looking at two separate men here? The first being Sapper to WO William Mitchell, RE (Victorian LSGC and EVII MSM) and the other being RSM-to Capt. W.Mitchell CTH, 6th Inf., etc? After all, no matter appearance, seventy five does appear to be a bit long in the tooth for WW1 service.
Is it possible to ascertain when WO William Mitchell was awarded his MSM? They were not awarded automatically - the issue was dependant upon the availability of money in the annuity fund. There must be papers somewhere in the NA over that. Was the MSM sent to the Cape?
I realise I have just posed a number of questions you have doubtless considered.
Several times, I have been faced with problems over NA records and my saviour has been Kevin Asplin.
Best wishes for your search.
Regards
IL.

Thanks. You have given me a new angle on the MSM. I don’t know when it was awarded or where.

I am hoping to prove it is one man but you are right he would have been long in the tooth. But as a QM maybe he just sat and slept at a desk.

And yes Kevin is looking needed. What I also need is someone who can get into the Cape archives but not sure who can get in there.

Thanks for your help. Ryan

Ryan,

That's quite a research conundrum. On the face of it, it does look like two men but it would be amazing if it was the same man.

I say Kevin yesterday in the Archives. I would agree with IL that he could certainly help you with this.

Best wishes
David

It certainly looks to me as though these are two men who happen to have the same name, for the following reasons :

~ The fact that the sapper was in the RE in the UK between 1881 and 1892, whereas the CTH officer must have joined the volunteers at the Cape circa 1886 in order to qualify for the CAF LSM in 1906 and the CAFOD in 1914. Service in the regular army did not count towards the CAFLSM or CAFOD, nor was war service counted double at that time.

~ While plenty of ex-Regulars settled at the Cape and joined the local volunteer forces, it seems very unlikely to me that the ex-sapper who was born in 1842 would have been accepted for active service in 1914 at the age of 72, and allowed to serve until the age of 79 in 1921.

~ Would someone have been allowed to take leave in 1901, in the middle of the war?

~ AFAIK, the usual age for placement on the Retired List was 60. If Major Mitchell of the CTH was 60 in 1921, that would mean he was born in 1861, and would have been 25 when he joined the volunteers, 36 when he became RSM and 39 when commissioned as an officer.

The Western Cape Archives apparently have deceased estate files for six different William Mitchells, who died in 1935, 1938, 1944, 1945, 1953 and 1954 respectively. However, unless the family member who completed the death notice thought to add that he had been a major in the CTH or that he had been awarded the CAFOD (or unless he mentioned it in his Will), it would be difficult to identify the correct Mitchell without a date of birth to match up.

Mitchell of the CTH was evidently related to a Mr W. Mitchell of Selbourne House, Goldsmiths Avenue, Portsmouth, to judge from this letter posted from the Cape in 1900. Is that the address in the 1901 UK census record?

Hello Ryan,

I found this page in the 1897 Attendance Register for the CTH. It shows R.S.M W. Mitchell as having enlisted on the 03/03/1886

Not sure as to how this effects your research from a time line point of view....

Regards