TOPIC:

John
Go to the "Contacts tab on the site heading for a researcher. You would have to ask re cost. I missed Frank's info re "scout" on his post so I supplied it again! Sorry about that.
Regards
IL.

Deffo a Scout!

LinneyI wrote: John
Go to the "Contacts tab on the site heading for a researcher. You would have to ask re cost. I missed Frank's info re "scout" on his post so I supplied it again! Sorry about that.
Regards
IL.

Linneyl/Frank:
Thanks for the researching suggestions, and the Field Intelligence Department medal roll entitlement. Interesting to see that there is no apparent service number on the FID document. Was this normal to see that, especially in light of him being referred to a "Scout", which does not seem like a regular military rank, if that is what it is supposed to be.
Cheers,
John S

John
"Scout" was a very important rank in the FID. Earlier I referred to the publication by David Buxton titled "Field Intelligence Department 1899-1902, Honours and Awards and casualties and Medal rolls". The author has done a breakup of the different ranks on the rolls for a particular subset of FID medals and "scout" featured 138 times, "guide" 185 times and "agent" 118 times. The FID did not have regimental numbers; its ranks included officers, guides, agents, scouts, civilians, interpreters and clerks. Some were called Agents/Guides and one of the chaps in my FID collection was noted as a Chief Guide as well as an interpreter. Make no mistake, the FID was a very effective and wide ranging unit.
Getting back to the Bodyguard, the book "The Colonials in South Africa" by Stirling has a chapter on that unit.
Enjoy your research. I find it the most interesting part of medal collecting.
Regards
IL

Hello John,
The FID used their own ranks, although, it's officers were and NCO's were normally addressed by their particular military rank, however that was not always what appeared on their when medals issued from the FID, so a medal that was awarded to a subaltern might be engraved or impressed, for example, AGENT OR GUIDE, indeed, Lord Kitchener's own Military Intelligence Officer Northern Transvaal had his medal issued from the FID and the rank on the medal is INTELL (intelligence) AGENT, this particular gentleman was accorded all the trappings of an officer of field rank.
In general any given rank on a medal is the particular trade for the given man whilst serving in the FID, so a Scout was exactly that.
Kind regards Frank

John S wrote: Linneyl/Frank:
Thanks for the researching suggestions, and the Field Intelligence Department medal roll entitlement. Interesting to see that there is no apparent service number on the FID document. Was this normal to see that, especially in light of him being referred to a "Scout", which does not seem like a regular military rank, if that is what it is supposed to be.
Cheers,
John S

Linneyl/Frank:
Thanks for explaining the importance of the rank "Scout" in the FID.
Your explanations do seem to suggest a person who had special skills that were of great use within the FID. Furthet research on this aspect, if it is still out there, might yield an interesting story.
Is there any info out there that might indicate when my man left the Cape Colony
Cyclist Corps, or when he might have joined/left the FID, or would this only be available to an on site researcher?
T%he documentation seems to indicate that he received his ABW medal in 1906, along with only two of his bar entitlements. Is it unusual to have gotten his medal several years after the end of the war, and would he have gotten the other bar entitlements at a later date?
Thanks!
Cheers,
John S