South African Overseas Expeditionary Force (SAOEF)

[JustinL]

Interesting.

Was Frederick travelling as a private passenger when he returned in Jan. '16?

Do the passenger manifests report his occupation?

Do you know where he was heading?

It would appear that he enlisted with the SAHA in England.

The eight monthly reports prepared by the SAHA between Aug. '15 and Mar. '16 report the arrival of reinforcements from Cape Town. But these men had already enlisted in SA.

Justin

[jen5525]

It is interesting; a real mystery to me.  He traveled back as a private passenger in 1916 from what it seems under the name Frederick Forbes Stewart.  There is no other Frederick Forbes Stewart (other than his nephew who died at age 2 in 1914).  It lists his occupation as clerk (consistent with his 1901 Scotland Census and earlier passenger manifests that I think are him).  It lists his intended future residence as Scotland.  So I can only assume he enlisted after this date.

Name   Mr Fdk Forbes Stewart
Birth Date   abt 1882
Age   34
Port of Departure   Durban, South Africa
Arrival Date   17 Jan 1916
Port of Arrival   London, England
Ports of Voyage   Plymouth
Ship Name   Galway Castle
Search Ship Database   Galway Castle Galway Castle
Shipping Line   Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd
Official Number   132616

I'm not certain the picture is him (it could be one of the other 2 brothers, but I can find no records for them: James Stewart b. 1892, Invekeilor, Angus, Scotland) or Norman William Anderson Stewart (b. 1898, same place). 

The time frame would be correct for it to be Frederick (and he's the only one I know for sure served in the military); right before his brother Murray's unit (40th Siege Battery, as part of the Clyde RGA) would have left for the Western Front (he left in Feb 1916 and then was on leave for a month in Aug. to Sept).  So the picture is either that time frame when Murray was on leave or between Feb 1915 and Feb 1916.

I've written for Frederick's record in S. Africa but they are moving the archives and probably won't be able to respond until the end of April.

[jim1]

Certainly both men are from mounted Regt. which the RGA was. A Bombardier is equivalent to a Cpl.
As you can see the seated man has 1 stripe.

[JustinL]

Thanks for that, Jim. I hadn't realised that artillerymen also wore bandoliers.

The artillery had corporals and bombadiers; the latter being the lower rank, thus being more equivalent to a lance-corporal. There were initially 6 bombadiers per battery, increasing to 8 as the number of guns was increased (see below).

The SA siege batteries weren't mounted in the sense of using horses; they were actually tractor-drawn units. They were also amongst the first batteries to be equipped with the new 6-inch 26 cwt howitzer (initially 4-off, increased to 6 in Dec. '16)

Jennifer - that's most unfortunate that the archive is re-locating.

I wonder if Frederick was accosted by the SAHA recruiters as he came off the boat in Plymouth. I could imagine them waiting for ships to arrive from SA. I certainly can't imagine that they went recruiting in Scotland. In fact, the South Africans found the weather in Catterick (Yorkshire) so unpleasant, the Reserve depot had to be re-located back to south coast in Set. '17.

Justin

[jen5525]

Justin and Jim, thanks again!  Jim, yes, Murray (the man seated) was a bombardier - which I've been told was equivalent to a Lance Corporal at that time.  He was eventually promoted to Corporal and then to Sergeant.   

I've been able to acquire a ton of info on him, but the man standing is still a bit elusive...though you have both helped tremendously in narrowing down that it has a high degree of likelihood that it is his brother Frederick.

As for recruiting them off the boats coming from S. Africa...that actually makes quite a bit of sense, and I think that is certainly plausible as to how he wound up enlisting.  When I finally get his military information from S. Africa I'll be sure to update

[jen5525]

Hi Justin and Jim,

Hopefully you see this!  I have JUST received Frederick's military records from South Africa...finally!  and it does solve some of the mystery below.  There appears to be different types of paperwork in the documents I received (about 17 pages, many of them near duplicates of each other.).  The initial pages are all South African documents, but toward the end, there are some UK documents, specifically the Short Form enlistment forms which I was extremely surprised to find.  I doubt I can upload all of the pages due to their size, but will try and upload a few if you would perhaps take a look. 

thanks so much!
Jennifer

[jen5525]

here's page 1 from the South African records

[jen5525]

page 2 south africa record

[jen5525]

page 3 south africa document