Ancestor Details
Name of Ancestor: Herbert Bail
Ancestor's date of birth: 23/05/1876
Ancestor's date of death: 15/06/1935
Cause of Death: Heart atack
Service Number: SAMR 97; CMP 1091
Colony or State of enlistment: SA Place of Enlistment: Adelaide
Unit: 2 SAMR; Cape Mounted Police
Rank attained in Boer War: L/CPL, Date Effective: Not Known
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): CPL, Date Effective: 28/09/1916
Murray Page: 350
Contingent: 2 (MTD RIFLES)
Ship: Surrey, Date of Sailing: 26/01/1900
Memorial details: Not provided
Decorations: Not provided
Personal Characteristics: His discharge certificate from the Cape Mounted Police, dated 6 February 1905, indicates that his education was "fair, and sobriety, zeal and efficiency "v. good"
Reasons to go and fight: Not known
Details of service in war: Details of his South African service were recorded by him in diaries covering the period December 1900 to December 1903 which I have published as "Diaries of Cpl Herbert Bail 2nd Contingent South Australian Mounted Rifles 1900 to 1903", ISBN 0 646 38263 2
Service and life after the Boer War: Herbert Bail stayed in South Africa with the CMP until 1905 and then returned to Australia and served with the 16th ALH until March 1906. He re-enlisted on 19 February 1916, qualified as a corporal on 28 September 1916 and joined the 25th Reinforcements for the 3rd ALH, disembarking at Suez on 11 March 1917. He transferred to the 1st ALH MG Squadron in April 1917 and was severely wounded near Beersheba on 8 November 1917. He was discharged from the army on 14 February 1918.
Herbert Bail's service certificates.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Trevor Lindsay Bail, Fisher ACT
Relationship to Ancestor: Grandson
