Hi all,
So a member of my family kindly shared quite an interesting document with me recently, much of it lists the military activities of the above Thomas Theophilus Seller b abt 1855, Australia, written by one of his daughters (spelling errors in "" hers not mine, all others, mine!)
I find it interesting for a few reasons, one of which being that, thanks to others researching this family I have quite a lot of background information about him, which puts the military activity into more context; another being of course that it fleshes out the dry list of names and dates that family history can become and puts a bit of flesh on the bones so to speak.
However, I'm battling to find evidence of some of the military stuff, and was wondering if anyone could point me in a direction of verifying it ...
Here are the excerpts to do with military history, there is a bunch of other stuff there which is quite interesting, but the gist of the stuff I'm trying to verify is here:
"... Thomas Theophilus Seller came out to South Africa as a member of the Australian Expeditionary Force and landed at East London in 1879 to take part in the Native War of that period, he obtained his discharge from the A.E.F. at the termination of hostilities ... Dad was a member of the Australian Brigade formed in Johannesburg to go to the relief of Sir Star Jamieson at the time of the ill fated Jamieson Raid in 1896/7. He was also a member of the Trade Council Relief Committee to negotiate with President Kruger for the release of the Raiders & Sir Star Jamieson (a photograph of the committee taken on the stoep of President Krugers residence in Church Street Pretoria is still in the [bottom line of scanned document cut off therefore illegible]…arose after the Jamieson Raid, the Family moved down to East London and Dad joined up with the Kaffrarian Rifles and saw much service in the Eastern Cape and was present at the Siege of Wepner in the Free State. After Wepener Dad joined Govinge’s Flying Column and saw much service in the Cape, Free State and Transvall until hostilities ceased in 1902 ... On the outbreak of the First World War in September 1914, Dad was again in the Forces, he served throughout the German West Africa Campaign, after which he applied for further service overseas but on account of age could not enlist ..."
A few questions:
1) "Thomas Theophilus Seller came out to South Africa as a member of the Australian Expeditionary Force and landed at East London in 1879"
I cannot find any information abut the Australian Expeditionary Force prior to 1900 - did it actually exist, and would I be able to find any information about who served in it and what they did?2) "Dad was a member of the Australian Brigade formed in Johannesburg to go to the relief of Sir Star Jamieson at the time of the ill fated Jamieson Raid in 1896/7."
I cannot find a reference to an Australian Brigade in relation to the Jamieson Raid - does anyone know anything about this?3) "Trade Council Relief Committee to negotiate with President Kruger"
Another thing I can't find anything about - little is said in the articles I've read about the negotiations for Jamieson's release, and nothing about a body called the Trade Council Relief Committee...?4) "Dad joined up with the Kaffrarian Rifles and saw much service in the Eastern Cape and was present at the Siege of Wepner in the Free State. After Wepener Dad joined Govinge’s Flying Column and saw much service in the Cape, Free State and Transvall until hostilities ceased in 1902."
I've been able to find records of T Seller and TT Seller in both the Kaffrarian Rifles and Govinge's Flying Column, so that I have been able to verify.
Kaffrarian Rifles (Service # 962)
Gorringe's Flying Column, LOL, not Govinge's (Service # 35193)5) "On the outbreak of the First World War in September 1914, Dad was again in the Forces, he served throughout the German West Africa Campaign, after which he applied for further service overseas but on account of age could not enlist"
I've searched for any records of a T or TT, Thomas or Theophilus Seller in WW1, but not found anything. He would have been over 60 at the time though, which makes me wonder if he wasn't doing something a bit more colourful (from what I know of him, this is quite possible) than serving in the war between 1914 and 1916 when he left his South African family and decamped back to Australia.
Can anyone point me in the direction of service records for the German West Africa Campaign 
Thanks in advance!
Patricia
