TOPIC:

You very welcome, anytime.

A few comments which may or may not be helpful.

The Town Guards weren't 'army' as such. They were part-time units made up of local volunteers, so not conscripted, or recruited in the UK.

Some companies were made up of staff from specific businesses, e.g. Stuttafords and Cleghorn & Harris (big department stores), some from municipal departments, some from ethnic communities e.g. Caledonian and Hellenic. There were so many companies in and around Cape Town that they were organised into battalions and collectively named the 'Cape Peninsula Regiment'. The CPR were disbanded in 1902, and revived, as a unit of the Volunteer Force, under the name 'Cape Peninsula Rifles', in 1903.

There are photos of many of the companies in the following thread :
www.angloboerwar.com/forum/11-research/1...own-town-guard#63870 . None of 28 (Plein Street) Company, unfortunately.

As the TGs were units of the Colonial Defence Force, and later the Cape Colonial Forces, their records -- if any survive -- may be in the Western Cape Archives in Cape Town.

FWIW, the Western Cape Archives have deceased estate files for a Samuel Morris who died in 1909, and a John Henry Hayes who died in 1922.

If Hayes was in the town guards in 1900-01, then it suggests that he was a civilian. However, as he was stationed at the Castle in 1910, and living in married quarters in Wynberg Camp in 1921, it suggests that he joined the British Army after the war. Those were both British Army properties at the time. They were handed over to the SA government when the British military command closed down in December 1921.

Hi Arthur
Thank you for all that information really helpful. John Henry Hayes came out to SA to fight in 2nd Boer war so the family says. He was born in the UK. I have a pic of the unit he was with and his name in the pic below. He died in 1936 in Wynberg, maybe another John Hayes?
I will follow up to see if I can find his attention papers at the archives. Thank you kindly for taking the time to fill me in on how things were structured and his possible moves after 1903. Much appreciated.

Hi Arthur thank you for all this useful background - at least I now know that my grandfather didn't travel out to join up/fight. He chose to go and my next step is to try and find him on a passenger list of some sort. The Samuel Morris you have found who died in 1909 is definitely him. I will also look at the pix and see if I can identify him. I am at the very early stages of research so I have work to do!

Best wishes
J S

kimbo1962 wrote: Hi Arthur
Thank you for all that information really helpful. John Henry Hayes came out to SA to fight in 2nd Boer war so the family says. He was born in the UK. I have a pic of the unit he was with and his name in the pic below. He died in 1936 in Wynberg, maybe another John Hayes?
I will follow up to see if I can find his attention papers at the archives. Thank you kindly for taking the time to fill me in on how things were structured and his possible moves after 1903. Much appreciated.

You're welcome, Kim.

Was the unit where he was serving at the time of the photo perhaps Kitchener's Horse? Elsewhere on this site are images of the unit's nominal roll, which includes an entry for one 9500 Sergeant J.H. Hayes, who was discharged on 12 June 1901 as time-expired, i.e. the period for which he'd signed up had come to an end. That would have left him free to join the town guard.

Kitchener's Horse was a local unit, raised in January 1900. You can read something about it on this page : www.angloboerwar.com/unit-information/so...352-kitcheners-horse .

JSharples wrote: Hi Arthur thank you for all this useful background - at least I now know that my grandfather didn't travel out to join up/fight. He chose to go and my next step is to try and find him on a passenger list of some sort. The Samuel Morris you have found who died in 1909 is definitely him. I will also look at the pix and see if I can identify him. I am at the very early stages of research so I have work to do!

You're welcome.

Is it possible that the family moved to the Cape before the war? To judge from the info on the death notices, he would have been 35 years old at the time the war began in October 1899, with a wife and a 6-year-old son. He's not listed in the 1894 directory, which is available online, but he could have arrived between 1894 and 1900. He would then have 'had a stake' in Cape Town, hence joining the town guard when it was formed in January 1901, as a result of the Boer invasion.

There's an image of 23 Prince Street on Google View. The house has obviously been altered at various times, but it looks as though it's well over 100 years old, so it must be the same building.
www.google.com/maps/place/23+Prince+St,+...9377672!4d18.4170034