The Australian Boer War Memorial
Anzac Parade Canberra

 
 
Sergeant Major Thomas Hurley

Ancestor Details

Ancestor's Name: Michael Thomas Thomas - Thos Hurley

Ancestor's date of birth: 01/02/1872

Ancestor's date of death: 01/01/1946

Cause of Death: I have to look into it. It was somehow complicated in the end for him as he had asthma. My father was 24 years old at the time of his death. He died in Viña del Mar, Chile

Service and Life Before the Boer War: Would like to know!

Service Number: 114

Colony or State of enlistment: NSW, Place of Enlistment: Broken Hill

Unit: D Squadron NSW Citizens Bushmen

Rank attained in Boer War: SMAJ, Date Effective: 1901

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

Murray Page: 83

Contingent: Third New South Wales

Ship: Atlantian or Maplemore, Date of Sailing: 28/02/1900

Other Boer War Service: Stayed on in South Africa, serving as a sergeant major in the South African Constabulary until December 1902

Memorial details: Buried in Chile

Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Queen's South Africa Medal with Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal clasps, King's South Africa Medal with South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 clasps. S.A.C badge by Baden-Powell.

Personal Characteristics: Good health, good physics and good conduct (says his discharge).

Reasons to go and fight: Good shooter and rider plus the fact that he was a Sergeant already. He must have been with a Regiment in NSW. Perhaps Broken Hill I wonder. I have identified him in a photo taken in Broken Hill see below.

Details of service in war: April 1900 - April 1901 in Rhodesia under Carington, west Transvaal including defence of Elands River Post (4-16 August 1900), and under Plumer in northern Transvaal, great De Wet hunt (February - March 1901) and advance on Petersburg. He must have been at Elands River. He was with Granville Thomas Cooper, as it is said, at the time of his Granville's death. My father, Thomas Hurley, used to say his father (Sergeant Thomas Hurley) was at the Relief of Mafeking.

 

Service and life after the Boer War: He came to Argentina, over the Andes Mountains on mule and settled in Valparaíso, Chile.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Patrick John Hurley, Santiago, Chile
Relationship to Ancestor: Grandson

 


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