Police Guard?

[IAFC55]

Hi

I'm trying to help my wife's elderly aunt with some research. She has told me that:

'His name was William Kennedy and he was a Police Guard.  And, if I remember
correctly, that part of the Guards came under the British, he was sent out
to Kimberley in South Africa.'

This was C1898, has anyone heard of this sort of thing?

Regards

IanC

[Romilly]

Possibly connected to the Boer War?

Romilly.

[Cwellan CoDown]

The Irish police force since 1923 are Garda Síochána, commonly referred to as the Guards, so you aunt referring to police guard - may just be referring to the police
 
Here is an old rootschat topic on Irish immigration to South Africa
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=128541.0

The article, "The Irish in South Africa - The Police, A Case Study: Notes" was written by Donal P. McCracken, University of Durban-Westville. The first part starts by saying: "Nineteenth-century South Africa did not attract mass Irish migration, but Irish communities were to be found in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, and Johannesburg, with smaller communities in Pretoria, Barberton, Durban and East London." A reasonable number of those who worked in the British Colonial Service in the African continent were from Ireland.

[eadaoin]

Thomas Gray was in the R.I.C. (Royal Irish Constabulary).
When he left he went to Montserrat to the Police Force there.
This was in the late 1890s (can't look just now!)

His R.I.C. record says that he resigned in 1899.
In the column "observations" , the record says "Appt Sergt Major in the Leeward Islands Police"
Incidentally, he decided to go - he wasn't "sent".
After Montserrat, he went to Kenya to work in the Prison Service.

Have you checked William's R.I.C. records - the records are fascinating, giving some marriage details, postings etc.
Of course William could have been in Dublin City, which had its own Police Forsc - the D.M.P. (Dublin Metropolitan Police). I think the records may be fairly similar.