Description
Queen’s South Africa, bar Cape Colony, 208 Serjt H.J. Haycock, Duke of Edinburgh’s Volunteer Rifles.
The rolls show he served as a Sergeant of both the Cape Infantry and Cape Railway Sharpshooters during the Boer War.
Henry James “Harry” Haycock was born during 1867 in Coventry, Warwickshire. At the age of 18 he left home to enlist with the British Army, joining the East Yorkshire Regiment on 5th October 1885.
He would not return back home again, serving overseas in Gibraltar from 13th January 1886 until 12th November 1886, followed by the West Indies 13th November 1886 until 22nd October 1888 seeing service in Jamaica. His last stop was in South Africa from 22nd October 1888 until 5th May 1893, when he chose to end his service and join the Army Reserve locally in South Africa, with whom he served until 4th October 1897.
Whilst with the army reserve he got caught up in the Matebele war of 1893, joining the Bechuanaland Border Police as 1937 Trooper H.J. Haycock, earning the British South Africa Company medal, reverse Matabeleland 1893.
He would be a Sergeant of the Cape Infantry, Cape Railway Sharpshooters and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Volunteer Rifles, who he earned his medal with during the Boer War.
Following the war he got back to work as a Sawyer until his untimely death in Cape Town on 11th June 1904 when an incident occurred when he slipped off a circular saw causing his accidental death.
