TOPIC:

My wife's grandfather John Powning Stark 1868-1950 was born in New Zealand and arrived in Johannesburg around 1896. He settled in Springs where be became a leading businessman/ landowner and Mayor 1914/15. He served in the Imperial Transport Company based in Newcastle. Natal and according to a testimonial from Major C S Dodgsay(?)dated 15.12.1902 "served throughout the whole of the SA War the last two years as Head Conductor(?)". A Springs MOTH certificate gives his rank as 'Lieutenant'. Can anyone throw any light on Stark or The Imperial Transport Company - or where to look. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Hello and welcome to this forum,
I got excited when I first read your post, Imperial Transport Company, so I thought okay, maybe we are talking about the Imperial Transport Service, but no, I had been thinking about Mr Crosbie and the Weil brothers!

He appears to have served as Number 90 Head Conductor J P Stark in Number 6 Company, Army Service Corps, Newcastle Sub District.
His no clasp medals are verified in WO100/216 page 202 "A" this being rather unusual and hand written, for his Queens South Africa medal.
His Kings South Africa medal without clasps was issued from WO100/350 page 382.

I'll have to sleep on it, perhaps, we can come up with something else.
Kind regards Frank

Thank you Frank for the interesting input. Any other info that may come to light would be greatly appreciated. Should you post any more info please dont think me rude if I dont reply immediately as I am away until 15 April Regards Mike Blizzard

Thank you for the recent input Frank on John Powning Stark. Are you aware of anything that has been written about the Army Service Corps, what they did and what role Stark may have played. He seems to have been involved for some time. Many thanks. Mike Blizzard

Hello Mike,
The only contempary book I can think of is Richardson's "With the Army Service Corps in South Africa" but I don't know if it was ever a bestseller, so actually getting hold of a copy might be difficult.
If you are here, then I'd be very tempted to contact the RLC Museum, they are down at Deepcut in Surrey, I don't know how far their ASC records go back, you would have to ask them.
Buller had cause to thank the ASC for keeping the Natal Field Force going and without their efforts, the awful seige would not have been lifted.
Kind regards Frank