The Shire of Heidelberg : Boer War Volunteers

Given the total number of Victorians that volunteered and were accepted for the Boer War was only
around 3,600, the enlistments from Heidelberg Shire were not great (volunteering and being accepted were two different things – most of the contingents raised had far more men offer their services than could
actually be fitted into the restricted number of places available.

There is far less material available on Boer War service than for the First World War, but around 25 volunteers have been identified as connected to the local Shire which at the time included Alphington, Fairfield, Greensborough and Diamond Creek.

The Australian War Memorial Honour Roll lists 589 as having died during the conflict, plus another 96 on the Commemorative Roll of those that served with forces of another country, predominantly British units based in South Africa when the conflict started.

Based on the total embarkations (17,280), the 589 casualties represent a death rate of about 3.4%. There were none from Heidelberg, although two that did volunteer died as a result as a result of serving in the later Great War of 1914-18.

Perhaps as a point for comparison, the casualty rate amongst those that embarked during the Great War
was roughly 18.3%, or slightly more than one in every six did not return.

Alphington

Bliss, Frederick

210, Private, 6th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria). Enlisted 26 April, 1902 as a 22 year-old farm labourer from Rushworth, but with his father Theodore in Grange Road, Alphington as next of kin. The 6th Horse arrived in South Africa after the cessation of hostilities and returned almost immediately. 

Diamond Creek

Allan, Frederick Humphrey

774, Private, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  Allan enlisted as a 24 year-old orchardist and was awarded the Queen’s South African Medal and three clasps. The 5th Rifles was the largest Victorian Contingent, embarking on 15 February, 1901 and returning on the 25 and 25 April, 1902.

Brabazon, Joseph Henry

Captain, 6th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria).  Brabazon was described as a “gentleman”
when he re-enlisted in the 6th Horse after serving previously with the 2nd Victorian Mounted Rifles (293, Lance Corporal, promoted to Lieutenant) and 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles (Lieutenant). He was connected with the Essendon district (where his name is recorded on the Boer War Memorial in Queen’s Park,
Moonee Ponds), but he nominated an unnamed next of kin in Diamond Creek – there are several references to a family of this name (the patriarch noted with the initial R), especially in reference to a fencing dispute, but these place them in Haley’s Gully Road which is in today’s Hurstbridge). Brabazon’s
almost continuous service saw him awarded the Queen’s Medal with six clasps and the King’s Medal with two clasps.

Finlay, John Gordon

708, Private, 3rd Victorian Bushmen (Cameron’s Scouts). Finlay was a 22 year-old station hand from Diamond Creek. He officially served with the the 3rd Victorian Bushmen’s Contingent, but was one of a party of 24 raised by Mr John McLeod Cameron for special service and for whom he supplied horses
(the 3rd was largely subscribed for by the public).   The Contingent left on 10 March, 1900 and returned 9 May, 1901.  Finlay was noted as a member of the Diamond Creek Rifle Club at a Welcome Home in his
honour on 12 June, 1901.

Michel, Andrew Norman

423, Private, 6th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria).  Michel was actually serving as a soldier with the permanent military forces at Victoria Barracks when he volunteered as a 20 year-old for the South African campaign in April, 1902, nominating a sister Alice at Diamond Creek as his next of kin (as in
the First World War, members of the regular military forces were required to resign and re-volunteer before they could be assigned to overseas service).   

Fairfield

Hehir, Timothy Edward    

2311, Private, 4th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria). Enlisted 11 February, 1902 as a labourer with his father Patrick in Fairfield listed as next of kin. The only Patrick listed around that time was shown as a grocer in Brighton Street, Richmond, but he may have lived in Fairfield.

Kimpton, Austin George

He enlisted in Durban and served around 16 months with the Canadian Rifles. Austin Kimpton also enlisted in the First World War at around 37 years of age and died of wounds in France on 9 August, 1918.   He
was a brother of Henry Edgar and Stephen William below – the family was one of the first to settle in Fairfield with their parents Thomas Robinson and May Eleanor (nee Anderson) grocers in Heidelberg Road.

A report in the Collingwood-based Mercury (22 September, 1899) on the death of his father Thomas reveals that there were eight sons and five daughters in the family, Thomas Kimpton migrating from England to Australia around 1850.

Kimpton, Henry Edgar

1359, Private, New South Wales Army Corps. He is shown in the few records that remain as KEMPTON, but
this should be KIMPTON.   He was a brother of Austin and Stephen.  He was a 26 year old clerk and noted as living in Perth – who he finished up with a New South Wales contingent is unknown.

Kimpton, Stephen William    

1854, 3rd Australian Commonwealth Horse (Queensland).  He enlisted in Brisbane, 4 February, 1902 as a 27
year-old labourer. No residential address was given, his next of kin was “Mrs M A Kimpton, Melboourne” (May Eleanor).

Rouse, William George    

3656, 6th New Zealand Contingent.   Rouse served with the New Zealand forces initially as a Farrier Sergeant, later promoted to Quarter-Master Sergeant. His father was John in Rathmines Street, Fairfield. Rouse was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for an action in which he captured twelve armed Boers.

Thurgood, Alfred George

993, Private, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  Born in 1876, he enlisted as a drover from Maffra with his next of kin in Fairfield. He was a son of Albert J. Thurgood, noted in Park Crescent.  The name of A. Thurgood appears in a few reports of officials and players of Fairfield Cricket Club – whether father, son or both is unclear. He was later promoted to Corporal and awarded the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. Thurgood died in 1945 at 70 years of age.

Weeding, Herbert

938, Private, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  He was 22 and farming at Werribee when he enlisted.  His next of kin was given as Joseph H. Weeding in Station Street, Fairfield.  Herbert Weeding was invalided wounded back to Australia, arriving 29 January, 1902 and was awarded the Queen’s Medal and three clasps.  Weeding also served with the Naval and Military Forces in the islands to the north of Australia during the First World War when he was married and living in Richmond. He was repatriated back to Australia late in 1915 suffering from malaria and died at 42 years of age in the Caulfield Military
Hospital from the effect of the disease in June, 1922.

Greensborough

There does not appear appears to have been any volunteer from Greensborough, although John
Alexander Malcom, listed under Heidelberg, is known to have lived in the area before shifting south.

Heidelberg

Andrews, Albert

77, Private, 6th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria).  Listed as a 22 year labourer from Heidelberg when he enlisted 26 April, 1902. His Attestation shows him born in New Zealand, his father (unnamed) as next of kin.  Andrews’ permanent address was also given as Heidelberg, but he enlisted at Warragul and served with 3 Troop which consisted of 29 volunteers from the Warragul district.  The only Andrews shown in directories was Edgar in Darebin Street near Cape Street.

Blanchard, Charles

446, Private, 3rd Victorian Bushmen.  Blanchard was listed as a 23 year-old stock rider from Heidelberg when he enlisted. One report suggests he was posted as Missing after a battle at Elands River, but there is no mention of this in the official history of the South African campaign. His father, John was shown in directories in Banyule Road and there appears to have been other branches of the family around Heidelberg and the Diamond Valley.  Charles Blanchard also served during the First World War, enlisting as a 35 year-old stock rider, married and living in Camperdown. He returned early in 1919 after being gassed and is noted as having died in May, 1946.

Hibberd, William Frederick

2201, Private, 4th Australian Light Horse. His Attestation shows him as a 30 year-old Bushman with
his father, Rueben in Heidelberg in Burgundy Street, Heidelberg as next of kin. The Fourth Light Horse arrived at Durban on 22 April, 1902 and with peace negotiations under way, the Battalionwas held behind the lines and saw no action.  Rueben Hibberd was the senior constable in Heidelberg for some years.

Holt, Thomas

1242, Lance Corporal, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  He enlisted as a labourer giving his address simply as c-o Post Office, Heidelberg with his next of kin in St. Kilda.  Holt embarked as a Private and was promoted to Lance Corporal, the date unknown; he was awarded the Queen’s Medal and three clasps. In later life he was a farmer with a wife and four children, dying in 1960 at 92 years of age.

Jones, William John

2319, Private, 4th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Victoria). He enlisted as a 30 year-old bushman,
noted as born in Heidelberg with his father as next of kin also in Heidelberg.  The latter appears to be also William John Jones, but directories place him in Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe near the corner of Park Street.

Malcolm, John Alexander

Captain, South African Constabulary. Originally from Greensborough, but residing in Main Street, Heidelberg
with his wife and two children when he volunteered, Malcolm was the stuff of Mills and Boon novels.

His activities with the First Victorian Contingent and later as a Major with South African Constabulary after
serving several years as a volunteer with the Victorian Mounted Rifles was extensively covered in the local newspapers with a number of his letters printed. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was
Mentioned In Despatches as well as earning a special commendation from Conan Doyle, later the author of the Sherlock Holmes series, but then a war correspondent in South Africa. 

Malcolm returned home in February, 1902 on furlough to a hero’s welcome, being presented with a
gold medal by the citizens of Heidelberg at a smoke night.

Things, however, went horribly wrong when in May his wife petitioned for divorce, claiming that that
Malcolm had been surly towards her since his return and that he had told her he had been unfaithful to her with many women in South Africa and had been regularly drinking heavily and visiting brothels in Melbourne, at one stage telling her “… you are a good Christian woman and I am everything that is bad … you need not care for me, I will get an old Kaffir woman“.

Malcolm did not contest the case; by the time it was heard, he had returned to the South African
Constabulary where he was promoted to Captain. The press continued to follow his exploits, noting he was dangerously ill with enteric fever in June of the same year. He had a brother, Lionel Frederick Malcolm that also served in South Africa with the 1st Scottish Regiment – his origins are unknown.

Pitches, James William

375, Private, 4th Imperial Bushmen.  If Malcolm attracted attention, Pitches was the opposite.  Official
records suggest he was born in 1868 and enlisted as a grazier, giving his address as Franxholme, Heidelberg. There is no trace in directories of a family of that name around the district, although there are references in the Mercury to a J. W. Pitches being a grazier in Heidelberg. Nothing is known of “Franxholme” – probably a property name.

Rank, Joseph George Wharton

380, Corporal, 8th Australian Commonwealth Horse (Western Australia). Rank was listed as a mill hand
working in Western Australia when he enlisted with his mother Katherine as next of kin in Heidelberg, directories showing her in Vine Street. The 8th Horse was another unit that arrived in South Africa too late to see action, but Rank had previously served (as service number 88) for a year and 145 days with the 4th
Western Australian Mounted Infantry.  The 4th embarked for South Africa on 8 May, 1900 and returned to Albany on 20 July, 1901

Rudduck, Harold Sugden   Veterinary Captain, 2nd Victorian Mounted Rifles.  A veterinary surgeon from
Heidelberg, son of Rev. J. S. Rudduck of the Congregationalist Church, Darebin Street, Northcote.

Prior to volunteering, he was a resident surgeon at the Melbourne Veterinary Hospital before establishing his own practice at Tattersall’s Horse Bazaar in Exhibition Street. Rudduck served as Chief Veterinary Officer for the Second Mounted Infantry under General Alderson and rather than returning to Australia with the unit in October, 1900, he remained in South Africa and became Officer in Charge of the Veterinary Hospital in Pretoria.

Just when he returned to Australia is uncertain; there are notes that he was released from a London hospital in late April, 1901 and therefore he must have returned by commercial shipping, but just when is unknown. One brief article on his service suggests that he had some 2,000 horses directly under his
care.   His mother was listed as dying in June, 1900 while Rudduck was serving in South Africa.

Ruddock was a regular contributor of letters to both the Collingwood-based Mercury and Weekly Courier and the Evelyn Observer which extended through Heidelberg and the Diamond Valley and he attracted considerable attention post-war when in a lecture he lambasted the organisation of the Veterinary Corps,
claiming thousands of horses had needlessly died because of a lack of trained staff.

Wilson, William

1130, Private, 2nd Commonwealth Light Horse (Western Australia). Wilson was born in Adelaide and enlisted as a 24 year-old coach driver while in Menzies, Western Australia, nominating his father, August Wilson in Heidelberg as his next of kin. The 2nd Commonwealth Horse embarked from Fremantle on 6 February, 1902 and arrived back in Western Australia on 5 July. Wilson’s father August was in
Buckland Street and was the mail contractor in Heidelberg for a number of years.

Although not connected to Heidelberg by birth or residence at the time of the war, two other volunteers also attracted attention.

Macdonald, Alexander Campbell

Lieutenant, 4th Victorian Imperial Bushmen.  He was from the Port Melbourne area and is commemorated on a Boer War Memorial there, but he was a brother of the Rev. George McDonald of the Scots Church in Heidelberg to whom a couple of his letters were published in the Mercury, a Collingwood based publication
which covered Heidelberg affairs at the time.

Verney, Albert James

Verney was born in 1864 in England and served with the 5th Royal Fusiliers in the British Forces before being invalided back to London in April, 1901 suffering from tuberculosis. He moved
to Australia in 1913 (there is a suggestion he left his wife and children in England) where he died of T.B. in 1916  and was interred in Heidelberg Cemetery. The brief entry for him in the main source for Australians who served suggested he had spent 18 years in the military, including time in Australia as well as in Gibraltar, Egypt, Cyprus, India and Afghanistan.

Ivanhoe

Duncan, William Gordon

1453, Private, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles.  Duncan was listed as having been born in 1870 and a driver from Ivanhoe when he enlisted. His unknown next of kin was listed as care of Berwick post office.  He
was awarded the Queen’s South African Medal with three clasps – there is no trace of a family named Duncan in Ivanhoe at the time.

The Queen’s South Africa Medal