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Good Morning Everyone.......

Here is one of my latest auction finds......

CONDUCTOR WALTER CHARLES RALFE, NATAL TRANSPORT

Mike

Very nice, Mike! The Ralfe's were, and perhaps still are a Natal Midlands farming family, so your man may well be easily researchable.

Regards
Brett

Brett Hendey wrote: Very nice, Mike! The Ralfe's were, and perhaps still are a Natal Midlands farming family, so your man may well be easily researchable.

Regards
Brett

Thank You Brett......

The roll / sheet that came with it gives the names of the towns they came from, at least I think it is the towns name......

Found in the same auction was the following that I listed under the Relief of Ladysmith single bar thread.....

339 PRIVATE J. BORLAND, NATAL ROYAL RIFLES, RELIEF IF LADYSMITH

The name Borland for some reason seems familiar.....

Mike

I thought that name was familiar. My brother and I bought Ralfe's medal back in 2001.

Quite frankly, I bet you wished you had kept it, not easy medals to find these days, although, to be quite honest, I don't think they ever have been.

djb wrote: I thought that name was familiar. My brother and I bought Ralfe's medal back in 2001.

As I suspected, there are many files in the Maritzburg Archives that deal with matters relating to the Ralfe family. Unfortunately, there are only two that refer Walter Charles Ralfe. The first is dated 1893 when he was a "candidate for post of Acting Student Interpreter". The second is his Death Notice which is dated 1935. The name of his surviving spouse was Dora Louisa. Death Notices often contain useful biographical information and are worth copying.

There are many more files on a Charles Ralfe, who coincidentally also died in 1935.

Members of the Ralfe family served as public servants in Weenen and Estcourt, which were once my home towns, and farmed at nearby Frere, so General Buller's Natal Campaign would have had a major impact on their lives.

Brett