Which Website Index

Francis PW - South African Documents

The following documents represent the period 1899 to 1903 leading up to and following on from the time in 1900 when Francis (Frank) Powell Williams went to South Africa during the Second Boer War. He was a volunteer and one of the first batch of electrical engineers to the attached to the Army Royal Engineers.

The electrical engineers' duties in South Africa were initially to helping to set up and maintain the telephone communications system that was set up during the war. They were also responsible for installing and maintaining the arc lighting system that was used to illuminate the army hospital operating theatres. To generate electricity they had taken with them a number of steam traction engines. These also doubled up as transport and Francis spent some time in charge of a traction engine that hauled supplies to the front and brought prisoners back, all at the speed of 4 miles per hour.

The documents start with a cutting detailing a work based accident that occurred to Frank while he was working for the Ark Works in Chelmsford. This was, presumably, before he worked for Crompton’s Electrical Works in Chelmsford (see document 8). It was Colonel Crompton who became Honorary Colonel to the Corps of Electrical Engineers with which Frank went to South Africa.

Documents continue with odd bits and pieces to do with his joining up and medical for the Royal Engineers (documents 2 to 8), followed by a newspaper cutting detailing his departure with the RE to South Africa with document 9 detailing a send-off dinner.

The next section involves a variety of documents including a series of letter from family members. More detail of this is shown in his Military Diary which reveals the length of time taken to get to South Africa (about 3 weeks) and that shortly after he arrived he went down with enteric (typhoid) fever. There is quite a lot of detail in the diary of the impact that this, often fatal, disease had on soldiers serving in the Boer War, something not revealed in the letters.

In the central section from document 24 onwards there are a series of move orders and telegrams which document Frank’s work in South Africa. Either side are a variety of family news documents and souvenirs from his journey to and from South Africa including a number of social events around the sending of the corps to the war. For more details of this see his Military Diary .

Frank is then shown on the passenger list of the ship Norham Castle returning from South Africa on the 19th November 1900 (document 48). What follows are documents concerning two dinners for the returning Royal Engineers (documents 55 and 56). This is followed by a gap of almost a year before document 57 which is a letter from the Electrical Engineers Volunteers inviting Frank back to South Africa.

Frank’s return to the service with the Royal Engineers was not greeted with much enthusiasm by his father who had hoped he would get a more stable career outside the army (see document 37 and other family letters). Despite this, however, Frank registering for a second tour of duty in South Africa with the Electrical engineers in 1901 as a Second Lieutenant (see document 60). There are no documents from this second tour of duty but the final document is a Standing Pass from India in October 1903 giving Capt. F Powell Williams a permit to visit ‘all forts’. Francis did go back and the final document shows him, as a Captain in the Royal Engineers, in India in 1903. He was to stay in India where my father, John Francis Powell Williams, was born in 1917 in the military hospital Dum Dum, just outside Calcutta. Francis became Secretary to the Indian Electrical Society in the 1920's, retiring through ill-health in 1929, when he returned to England.

The other people in the documents are - Family Members: father (Joseph); mother (Anne), Dodo (Dorothy, sister); Tommy (sister); Rowly (Rowland brother); Juliette (French friend of family) - Military: Colonel Crompton (Commanding officer of RE Electrical Engineers); Captain Leaf (a friend in the RE)

See also the full transcription of Francis' military diary in a separate document The Military Diary of Francis PW which fills in a lot of the details around these other documents.

The following Documents have been found which relate to Frank in the period 1900-1903:
Document Date

Image File Name

Image of original document

Transcription Document Name

When documents are too long or difficult to read, transcriptions are provided in this column

N.B. Documents are sorted by date, however, those that are undated are placed logically based on their content
Fri 28 Apr 1899 B01-Membership Card RE.JPG
Sat 2 Dec 1899 B03-Post Cards re Active Service List.JPG
Wed 12 Dec 1900 M03-Reception.JPG
Fri 2 Feb 1900 B02-Invite to Medical.jpg
Sat 17 Feb 1900 B04-Final Attestation and Medical.JPG
B05-Description Card.JPG
Tue 27 Feb 1900 M08-News Cutting re FPW departure to SA.jpg M08-News Cutting re FPW departure to SA.pdf
Mon 5 Mar 1900 M04-Send Off Dinner.JPG
Wed 28 Mar 1900 P02-Mother and Tommy1.jpg P02-Mother and Tommy1.pdf
Mon 2 Apr 1900 B07-Small Book.JPG
B08-List of kit for SA.JPG
Tue 17 Apr 1900 M11-Smoking Concert.JPG
Thu 10 May 1900 P04-Dodo1.jpg P04-Dodo1.pdf
Thu 15 Feb 1900 M09-News Cutting re troops.JPG M09-News Cutting re troops.pdf
Thu 24 May 1900 P05-Mother3.jpg P05-Mother3.pdf
Thu 17 May 1900 P03-Mother2.jpg P03-Mother2.pdf
Thu 17 May 1900 P03-Tommy2.jpg P03-Tommy2.pdf
Wed 30 May 1900 M10-2nd Lieutenant.JPG
Wed 30 May 1900 B11-Missing Order 994.jpg
Sun 3 Jun 1900 B12-Repeated Order 994.JPG
P06-Mother4.jpg P06-Mother4.pdf
B13-Request for Move Order.JPG
B14-Note re Staff.JPG
Wed 27 Jun 1900 B15-Responce to 26a48.JPG
Wed 27 Jun 1900 B16-Reiteration of 49 et al.JPG
Fri 29 Jun 1900 B17-How Sapper Thompson is.JPG
Sat 30 Jun 1900 B18-Move to Pretoria.JPG
B19-Engines move off.JPG
B20-Missing order 51.JPG
B21-Orders to Pretoria.JPG
B21a-Orders to Pretoria.JPG
Mon 2 Jul 1900 B22-Letter from Leaf.JPG
Tue 24 Jul 1900 P07-Mother5.jpg P07-Mother5.pdf
Thu 19 Jul 1900 P07-Dodo2.jpg P07-Dodo2.pdf
Tue 24 Jul 1900 P08-Mother6.jpg P08-Mother6.pdf
Thu 8 Nov 1900 P09-Father1.jpg P09-Father1.pdf
Wed 19 Sep 1900 B23-Orders to Reitfontein.jpg
Thu 20 Sep 1900 B24-Case of Binoculars.jpg
Thu 20 Sep 1900 B25-Orders 2 to Reitfontein.JPG
Thu 20 Sep 1900 B26-Memo re comforts.JPG
Sun 23 Sep 1900 B27-Orders to Reitfontein.JPG
Sun 23 Sep 1900 B28-Receipt for POW.JPG
Tue 9 Oct 1900 B29-Receipt for POW.JPG
Wed 10 Oct 1900 B30-Traction Train left.JPG
Wed 10 Oct 1900 B31-Repair working party.JPG
Fri 12 Oct 1900 B32-Note on transported items.JPG
Mon 19 Nov 1900 B33-Ship Passenger List.JPG
Thu 18 Oct 1900 P10-Father2.jpg P10-Father2.pdf
Fri 12 Oct 1900 P11-Juliette1.jpg P11-Juliette1.pdf
Thu 18 Oct 1900 B34-Note from Lowther.JPG
15/12//1900 P12-Dodo3.jpg P12-Dodo3.pdf
Mon 17 Dec 1900 P15-Rowly1.jpg P15-Rowly1.pdf
Thu 22 Nov 1900 P13-Mother7.jpg P13-Mother7.pdf
Fri 7 Dec 1900 M38-Welcome-Home Dinner.JPG
Sat 15 Dec 1900 M37-Dinner&Smoking.jpg
Mon 17 Dec 1900 M37a-Dinner&Smoking.jpg
Fri 15 Mar 1901 P01-Accident to FPW.jpg P01-Accident to FPW.pdf
Fri 22 Nov 1901 B35-Recruiting Letter.JPG B35-Recuitment Letter.pdf
Sat 7 Dec 1901 P14-Father-Rejoin SA.jpg P14-Father-Rejoin SA.pdf
Fri 13 Dec 1901 P15-Father-Rejoin SA.jpg P15-Father-Rejoin SA.pdf
Fri 6 Dec 1901 M36-Letter re returning to SA.jpg M36-Letter re returning to SA.pdf
Tue 13 Oct 1903 I40-Indian Pass.jpg