Person from Cape Mounted Rifles

This is a request for your expert advice.

There are two people in a medal roll record I found on ancestry.co.uk. Both may have lived in Kimberley in 1877, one definitely did.

The medal roll is WO 100/48 pages 194 and 195 (War Office: Campaign Medal and Award Rolls 1793-1949) stored at Kew.

These pages cover 22 people in the Cape Mounted Rifles, No. 8 Troop. The entry was signed at King Williams Town on 16 June 1881.

The people are Pvt David George Healey and and Pvt Samuel John Terrill. Both were engaged against 1) Gaikas, Galekas, and other tibes 1877-'8 and 2) The Griquas, 1878. Both were marked as Discharged.

Samuel John Terrill (1857 Cornwall-1883 Kimberley) I know to be a brother of my great-grandmother. I know his origin, a Cornish mining family, which been in Brazil.

My great grandfather was David George Healey (abt 1843 - 1898 Kimberley), hence, the likelihood that Pvt George Healey is the same person. But we have no information about where he was born, or date of birth.

According to a family source, accuracy not known, he fought in the First Boer War (1880-81).

Although he is known from the time of his marriage, his origins are generally a mystery. Death certificate gives age as 55 in 1998, therefore born about 1843. Marriage record gives age as 30 in 1883, therfore born 1853! A correspondent in SA kindly inspected his meagre estate papers in Cape Town, but they give no clues about where he came from. At the time of his marriage in Kimberley, 1883, his occupation was given as Governor of Gaol; on the baptism record for one of his children, Superintendent of HM Prison.

I think the question I would ask the experts is:

Given one military record (medal roll), is it possible there are others, even if they are not on-line?
Where might they be stored?

And just in case you simply know absolutely everything, he had a pension. Where might pension records for a Superintendant of Kimberley Gaol be, if they exist?

Siege of Kimberley, yes. Boer War, yes. But no direct connection with Zulu wars that I know of. In England in about 1974, it was watching Zulu on TV one day, hearing the approach of the unseen impis, that I realised how much I had grown up with the sounds and rhythms of Zulu in my ears.

Best wishes for a happy New year to all at zuluwars.

Martin Notcutt
Oxford

Hi Martin
There are two books which feature Medal Rolls where the CMR are listed by their Troop , Healey and Terrill are on both Rolls and in both books.
' Forgotten Heroes ; Zulu & Basuto Wars , Including Complete Medal Roll 1877-78-79 ' by Roy Dutton ,
' South African War Medal 1877-78-79 ; The Medal Roll ' by D.R.Forsyth .
Healey and Terrill are entitled to the Medal with Clasp 1877-78 .
90th

Hi 90th
Thank you for your quick response. I see my question is not clear. Do you think there will be other kinds of military record? I am not sure what to expect - sign-up papers, service records, Something that might indicate date and place of birth? I realize this may be unlikely, but 1879zuluwars just has to be the right place to ask.

Hi Martin
I very much doubt it , many of the records regarding the Colonial troops during the Zulu War were actually pulped in 1915 , in an attempt to help the war effort ! , possibly your only chance will be Sth Africa itself , but good luck with that , basically mission impossible from what I can gather... in regard to getting answers from Museums and Archives from over there . The only people that can help you are those which have helped you so far , as they know how it works over there . Someone here might have a an idea , but I doubt Enlistment Records exist for the CMR , especially in the UK .
90th

Martin
One rider - be wary of Forsyth's roll - it contains many inaccuracies and cannot be taken as Gospel - you would need to double-check its inclusions against a primary source.
Julian