The Australian Boer War Memorial
Anzac Parade Canberra

 
 
Trooper Miles Swan

Ancestor Details

Ancestor's Name: Miles Fletcher Taylor Whitehead Cameron Swan

Ancestor's date of birth: 09/01/1875

Ancestor's date of death: 01/01/1968

Cause of Death: Natural Causes

Service Number: 9

Colony or State of enlistment: SA, Place of Enlistment: Penola

Unit: South Australian Citizens' Bushmen

Rank attained in Boer War: TPR, Date Effective: On enlistment

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

Murray Page: 355

Contingent: Third South Australian Contingent

Ship: Maplemore, Date of Sailing: 07/01/19

Memorial details: Buried in South Australia

Decorations: Queens' South Africa Medal with Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Rhodesia and SA 1901 clasps.

Personal Characteristics: Born at Oakfield, Woodford near Warrnambool where his father was an overseer. The recruiting officer, while enrolling Trooper Swan's full name Miles Fletcher Whitehead Cameron Campbell Swan which had been given him at birth by his over jubilant father in memory of various worthy antecedents,wryly commented that 'The war might be over before he completed his task'

Reasons to go and fight: Difficulties in finding farm work, the country was in drought. He had four brothers in South Africa.

Details of service in war: April 1900 - April 1901 in Rhodesia and west Transvaal. Miles was Invalided home on the SS Tongariro on the 31 May 1901 a month later than his unit, having contracted fever in Mafeking, and was discharged in Adelaide after exactly one year's service.

Service and life after the Boer War:  He had returned to Nangwarry by February 1902, when his uncle, Abram Gardiner was killed in a riding accident. In 1903 he married Eleanor Florence Burton, the daughter of a Mt Gambier solicitor. They had two children: Miles Stanley Hope 1904 and Elizabeth Campbell. He made a career in Station Management at Mullagh, Harrrow, Ardgarton (Branxholme), Wooriwyrite (Darlington), Ulsewate, Kangatong (Maccarther) and died in 1968. Information supplied by his niece and nephew June Ring and Arch Swan.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Jim Walker, Point Lonsdale VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: Grandson

 


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