The Australian Boer War Memorial
Anzac Parade Canberra

 
 
Trooper Phillip Brew

Ancestor Details

Name of Ancestor: Phillip Carvell Brew

Ancestor's date of birth: 1874

Ancestor's date of death: 1952

Cause of Death: Age related

Service and Life Before the Boer War: Phillip was born at Wellingrove NSW the son of an emigrant from the Isle of Man. He was a blacksmith by trade and took up residence in the Camden area of NSW. He was a member of the West Camden Half Squadron of the NSW Lancers and went to England in March 1899 as part of the Lancer squadron to train with British Regular Cavalry at Aldershot.

Service Number: 629

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

Unit: New South Wales Lancers

Rank attained in Boer War: TPR, Date Effective: 01/03/1899

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

Murray Page: 10

Contingent: First New South Wales

Ship: SS Nineveh, Date of Sailing: 02/10/1899 (from the UK)

Memorial details: Comemorated at the New South Wales Lancers Memorial Museum, Parramatta. Buried at Katikati, New Zealand

Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Queen's South Africa Medal with Belmont, Modder River, Paardeburg, Dreifontein, Diamond Hill and Relief of Kimberley clasps.

Personal Characteristics: A Lancer.

Reasons to go and fight: He was part of the Lancer squadron training in the UK

Details of service in war: After the NSW Lancers disembarked at Cape Town they were given ten days at Stellenbosch base camp nearby. From there they were transported by train to De Aar junction arriving on 15 November 1899. It was at this point that 44 Lancers under the command of Captain Cox, were attached to General John Denton's column.

The remaining 28 Lancers including Trooper Brew under Lieutenant Septimus Osborne, making a total of 29 men, were quickly equipped and attached to the 9th Lancers, as part of Lord Methuen Force.

This troop of Lancers was referred to as The Fighting 29. On 22 November 1899, they had their first contact with the Boers at Thomas' Farm near Belmont Station some 160 km north west of Colesberg.

Lancer squadron saw service from November 1899 to December 1900 in northern Cape Colony, Free State, and east Transvaal; with French's cavalry division from relief of Kimberley (February 1900) to sweep to Heidelberg (October 1900); Aldershot component was the first Australian unit to arrive in South Africa (2 November 1899).

Service and life after the Boer War: After the war he married Lily L. Lindsay in Robertson, NSW, in 1901. There was also a child, Lindsay R., born in Leichhardt, NS.in 1902. He moved to New Zealand where he settled in Katikati near Auckland as a blacksmith. A son, Alfred Carvell Brew was born in New Zealand in 1904.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: John Brew, Loftus NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: great Nephew

Name of Descendant: Robert Brew, Loftus NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Nephew

 


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RUSI of NSW Boer War Battlefields