Occupation

[Treetotal]

Well I'm pleased I didn't wade in earlier as I thought it was a shortened "Minister"  as all the others ending in er are joined 
Carol

[wilcoxon]

I find it a bit odd that me was a presumably  a miner whem he left, not at  all in keeping with the family. Father was William  Snape died in  Wrexham, 

[wilcoxon]

1891 he was in St Oswald's College,  Ellesmere.  .  It just doesn't  seem to fit he would be a miner,

[Maiden Stone]

1891 he was in St Oswald's College,  Ellesmere.  .  It just doesn't  seem to fit he would be a miner,

Perhaps he was in search of excitement. A tad drastic.
I think clerical error more likely.
Was he travelling with anyone or to anyone?

[Gadget]

Are you sure that it is the correct Rupert?  I've found another listing, which was probably the original, where some of the ages are given as 'a'.  The listing shown in the first post shows that the a has been rubbed out at ages added.

The death records  him as being 30 - i.e. b 1876.

These might well be just approximations but I think worth mentioning.

Gadget

Added - he is shown as having fought in the Boer Wars and dying in Mozambique though 

[wilcoxon]

On BMD I've only found mine , 1879, Wrexham. Headstone reads died July 15 1903 aged 23.
 At Lorenco,Marques,Africa.

[Gadget]

I see that his father is recorded as a Tailor and Auctioneer on the 1881 census. Have you traced a will for him? There is one for his mother on the same page as the probate.

[bbart]

The Findmypast index of his time in the infantry has a small bio taken from the records which states he was a storekeeper by trade when he enlisted  30-11-1899 at Pietermaritzburg into the Colonial Scouts at age 22.

The source noted was WO126/30, 63 which is held at National Archives in Kew:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3322681  It is not yet digitized, but perhaps they can do a lookup.

The bio also states that he died at Lourenco Marques in 1903 and his next of kin was his mother,  Mrs Snape, residing at Ruabon Road, Wrexham, North Wales.

I am wondering if a mining company was opening up a new area and enticing workers with cheap passage, so regardless of what job they would do, the men were just generically listed as miners if their ticket had been subsidized by the mining company.

There is a minor mention of R. Snape in a diary of another Colonial Scout here:
http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/thn2264.pdf   scroll to image page 15 (which should be page 11 of the actual diary)
This gives no genealogical value but if you read a bit of it, you can "relive" a bit of his life.

[wilcoxon]

Thank you all very much. I was thinking about the fact that they were all miners, and that perhaps they had signed up while still  at home, that does seem likely.
The diary looks to be very interesting.