Ancestor Details
Ancestor's Name: John Lane
Ancestor's date of birth: 24/10/1867
Ancestor's date of death: 16/02/1952
Cause of Death: Illness
Service and Life Before the Boer War: Market gardener. Served with British Regular Army in India and Burma from 1889.
Service Number: Not known
Colony or State of enlistment: Not Australia Place of Enlistment: Woolwich, England
Unit: Not known
Rank attained in Boer War: GNR, Date Effective: Not known
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War Service
Murray Page: Not applicable did not serve in an Australian unit
Contingent: Not applicable
Ship: Canada, Date of Sailing: Not known
Memorial details: Buried in Armidale cemetery NSW.
Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps, and others.
Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided.
Reasons to go and fight: Called up after earlier British Regular Army service in India and Burma.
Details of service in war: From Capetown, South Africa sent up Cape Colony to Touws River. Brought down again to help relieve Ladysmith, but unit arrived too late. Involved in collision of two trains. Sailed on tramp steamer to Durban. At Ladysmith took over the Naval 4.7 guns to remove them. In a unit of 10,000 soldiers under General Hilliard.
Service and life after the Boer War: Market Gardener in England. Lived at 146 Bensham Lane, Croydon, Surrey. Emigrated to Australia in 1912 under a scheme for old soldiers headed up by Lord Roberts. Worked on Wongwibinda Sheep and Cattle Station, 40 miles east of Armidale, NSW. From 1922 worked a small farm and orchard near what is now University of New England at Armidale, NSW.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: John Herbert Lane, Glen Innes NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: grandson
