9. Ellen Jennings married Rev James Henry Sedgwick - Her son Harold Jennings Sedgwick morphed into Claude Harold Annesley

Harold Jennings Sedgwick.

Undoubtedly one of the most difficult things that I have had to reveal, as a result of my Family History researching affected my in-laws and their families.  That was to reveal to them that they were not who they thought they were!

For all their lives, they had believed they were from the Annesley lineage.  

Now they had to get used to being a Sedgwick!

Our own business in Hervey Bay was named in honour of my father-in-law - Annesley Haus at the Bay.

In reality it should be known as Sedgwick Haus at the Bay, but somehow that just doesn't have the same "ring" to it. 

There is one side to this story though, and that is, while it was Dale's wish throughout his life to find his father, how would he have coped knowing that he was nothing short of a pathological liar!  

Some missing pieces were starting to fall into place, in this jigsaw puzzle.

Harold morphed into Claude.  Why?  There had to be a reason.  And there was!

A huge reason, and one that was totally unexpected.

I searched the Boer War records, and anything else I could think of.

I found that he was promoted to a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Prince of Wales Light Horse in 1901.


As the following will attest.


This is the nominal roll of the Prince of Wales' Light Horse, a colonial unit of the Boer War of 1899-1902. The index was compiled from WO 127 at the National Archives, Kew by Bill Wilson. The index is in an A-Z form and in the following order..

Sedgewick    Harold Jennings    Cpl. / Lieut.    20333 

16 Aug 1902 • South Africa

Nominated by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief in South Africa, to be Second Lieutenant. Reported in The London Gazette, August 15, 1902 pp 5333-4

Then an article in The London Gazette of January 27^th 1903 shocked me.  My Harold Jennings Sedgwick had been Court Martial from the Boer War!

What had he done that resulted in a Court Martial?

Trying to locate information on the London Archives was almost impossible.  I then sought help from an Army researcher, Roger Nixon.

It was worth the effort, and the cost.  Within two days Roger had been to the Archives, and found the details of the Court Martial, and then later a Service Record which was completed when Harold joined the forces in November 1900.

Roger advised also that the Service Records of people who were court martial were destroyed, so getting copies of his war service records  might not be possible.

Roger provided copies direct from the Archives of the Court Martial, and the charge.

Harold was found guilty of embezzlement, stealing over £2000, and he was stripped of his medals and cashiered out of the Army.

The Court Martial answered many questions including why Harold would change his name.

Roger Nixon my researcher provided the following information:

From Roger Nixon, Researcher in London:

Good News!  Far better than I expected.

See attaché with this email four images taken from WO 90/6 which clearly indicate that HJS was court martialed in Pretoria, South Africa on 19 November 1902 (not 1903) whilst serving as a 2Lt with the Army Service Corps. He was found guilty on embezzling public money and was cashier as a result and all his Boer War Medals were forfeited as well. 

The outcome of the trial was entered into the register on December 15 1902 and the matter was also laid before the king as it would have been the monarch who had granted his commission in the first place.

See also two other emails.

WO 92/3 is effectively a copy of WO 90/6 but WO 91/51 is the actual Report of the trial and contains a lot of detail which I will let you savour in your own time. One thing is certain, though. Your description of him was bang-on.

Found the attached today in WO 16/104 Enrolments of the Prince of Wales Light Horse on 27 November 1900.  

He seems to have enrolled firstly in Brabant’s Horse but this may not have materialized. I think the Welsh Regiment bit is an error. The clerk might have made an assumption based on the Prince of Wales bit. He is shown to have been commissioned on 18 March 1901 and to have resigned on 30 September 1901.

I can only think that he was made an officer with the Prince of Wales Light Horse and then resigned six months after he was commissioned to possibly obtain a commission in the Army Service Corps.

Army Service Corp in Boer War

So while the general population were rejoicing on the steps of the Colonial buildings in Pretoria, Harold had been arrested and was biding time inside one of the prisons, awaiting trial.

The forts around Pretoria were systematically disarmed long before the British forces occupied Pretoria, as both men and artillery were needed in the field.Both Fort Klapperkop and Fort Schanskop were fired upon on 3 June 1900 by British artillery, but the fire wasn't returned and Pretoria was occupied without resistance on 5 June 1900.

 The forts thus never fulfilled their intended role in the defence of Pretoria. The British forces subsequently armed and manned the forts. Other smaller fortifications were also erected by them to strengthen Pretoria's defences.

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So here is a young 19 years old, with a commission, and what did he do in South Africa?  

Was he responsible for leading any men into battle? 

That question will never be answered.

But the biggest question of all Why?

How on earth did he think he would get away with the theft of over 2000 pounds?



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This extract from "The Guardian" newspaper gives an insight into how many fatalities

Soldiers who fought in the Boer war died from dysentery, typhoid fever and even a crocodile attack, according to records published online for the first time yesterday.

Details of the fates of 65,000 soldiers, who were killed, wounded or captured, can be explored at ancestry.co.uk. The database has each soldier's name, rank, regiment, and date and place of the injury or death, as well as the details of the 78 soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour.

Altogether, 7,582 British soldiers were killed in action or died of wounds, while 13,139 died of disease. Another 40,000 were wounded.

Dan Jones, the international content director of the website, said: "These records are a stark reminder of the atrocities of a conflict that is often eclipsed by wars that took place closer to home. They detail a dark and regrettable period of history, but one that should never be forgotten.

"These records will be of great significance to anyone trying to find out more about an ancestor or soldier who fought in the second Boer war, particularly as British soldiers who fought in the conflict won't appear in the 1901 England and Wales census because they were fighting in South Africa."

That is of course unless the soldier was court martialed.

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