TOPIC:

A pretty puzzle
The medal roll for the FMR (WO100/247) for your man "438 J. Hinds" has a marginal note "Cyphergat TG". Does that ring a bell anywhere?
Regards
IL.

Medal roll reference WO 100 / 280 records a J Hindes of the Cyphergat Town Guard.



Dave....

I think a search iro one Jesse Hinds, one time owner of a mine at Cyphergat, could be rewarding Rob.

If you lose the "s" in Hinds then you get this. I'm not saying it's 100% your man and you will have to develop the link with William Jennings Hind(s) but the reference to Cyphergat/Mine/Town Guard and your FMR man cannot be ignored.

I assume you have this photo of "Willie"

A very interesting discussion and thanks to all contributors.
To add a little information: Sutherland returned to South Africa, leaving the UK on 28 March 1896 - on board the Harlech Castle with a group of 20 or so other Raiders: they must have loved that ship! If he fought with the MDF, then presumably he qualified for a BSACM but there is no mention of this. Am I correct in recalling Rory that you are a 'hunter' of these medals - have your researches found any trace of Sutherland's?
Now onto more controversial issues!
If Sutherland were born in 1877, then at the time of the Raid he would have been 18 or 19. I remember reading that the minimum entry age for the BSAC Police was 20 - this fits with my own grandfather who was 20 in August 1895 and who I think travelled to South Africa arriving in September in time for the December Raid. Of course, Sutherland would not be the first to sign up under age.
One of the posts above mentions the Harlech Castle dropping off Raiders at their home South African ports after it left Durban. In fact, the Harlech Castle was asked specifically by the British Government not to call into Cape Town, and sailed non-stop to the Canaries/Madeira where the Raiders were subject to mass arrest by an Inspector sent out from Scotland Yard. The Roslin Castle was contracted (at a cost of £314 1s 0d)) to take 3 Officers and 100 ORs domilcied in the Cape to their home ports. The bill for the Harlech Castle was £5,851 8s 9d!
My final point concerns the parent unit of the bulk of the raiders. While the text of the first post here notes that only a couple of score men were left in Matabeland, the unit losing the men is named as the Mashonaland Mounted Police. I know this is normally the unit cited, but the contemporaneous accounts (e.g. a despatch from the Governor of Natal on 28 Jan 1896, letters to the Times from Raiders dismissing Capt Thatcher's claims to have 'ridden with Jameson') all give the unit as the Matebeleland Mounted Police. I did set out the arguments in full in a post here a couple of years ago and there have been no responses challenging my points. In any event, the world will keep turning whatever the unit was named!