Trooper Thomas Roberts

Ancestor Details

Ancestor's Name: Thomas Roberts

Ancestor's date of birth: 20/05/1870

Ancestor's date of death: 20/12/1949

Cause of Death: Cancer

Service Number: 1557

Colony or State of enlistment: NSW, Place of Enlistment: Sydney

Unit: 3 Bn Australian Commonwealth Horse

Rank attained in Boer War: TPR, Date Effective: 01/01/19

Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War service

Murray Page: 182

Contingent: Second Australian

Ship: Manhattan, Date of Sailing: 01/04/1902

Memorial details: Buried in New Zealand

Awards/Decorations: Queen's South Africa Medal with SA 1902 clasp.

Personal Characteristics: Height - 170 cm; Complexion - dark; Eyes - blue; Hair - brown; Distinguishing Marks - tattoo of anchor on right fore arm.

Reasons to go and fight: Detail not provided

Details of service in war: Did not see action, his unit got as far as Newcastle in Natal before peace was declared.

Service and life after the Boer War: Returned to Australia on Drayton Grange Date of Sailing 12 July 1902. Born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland on 20 May 1870, he immifrates with his family to Brisbane in 1873. Thomas Roberts married in 1891 at Brisbane to Mary Jane Hennessey, however, on his return from the Boer War he surfaces in 1903 in Auckland, New Zealand as a tram driver. He establishes a relationship with Ruth Myrtle Smith and fathers three sons Thomas Frederick George 1908, Frederick John 1913 and Harry 1914 at Waitare, New Plymouth. In the 1920s he is living back in Auckland and establishes a relationship with Nellie Laing to whom he has twin daughters, Kate Daphne and Elizabeth Dorothea in 1924. On the death of his wife in 1920 and her husband William Phillips in 1929, they marry in 1930. He died at Auckland in 1949.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Wayne Rodney Roberts, Lutwyche QLD
Relationship to Ancestor: great-great nephew

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