Private William Verner
Number: 9487
Company: 54th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 10 January 1900
Place: Belfast
Age: 26 years stated on enlistment. (Born 22 April 1873 at Stragane, Aghaloo, Caledon, County Tyrone.)
Trade or calling: Traveller
Place of birth: In the Parish of Tynan, in or near the Town of Caledon, in the County of Tyrone.
Address: 63 Kimberley Street, Belfast
Family: Single. Father George Verner, retired farmer, of 63 Kimberley Street, Belfast. Mother Eliza Verner (nee Watt) (dec. 1886).
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 6' 0 1/4". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown. Scar over right eye.
Religion: 'Other Protestant' recorded on enlistment. Family recorded as Methodist in 1901 Census.
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900
Date home: __
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 31 October 1900
Place: South Africa
Reason for discharge: At his own request
Intended place of residence: C/o Goods Department, Imperial Railways, Johannesburg.
Verner was among the 400 men of the 13th Battalion captured by Boer forces at Lindley on 31 May 1900. He was mentioned in the diary of Private James Barriskill, describing the fighting at Lindley:
I am writing now behind a stone wall on a hill at the rere [sic] of our position, Verner is beside me & at present we dare not raise our heads as a party on a hill about 800 yds away have got our range & the bullets are whistling close to our heads.
He was released in mid-July with seventeen others of the Battalion. From 17 August until his discharge on 31 October 1900 he served in the Provisional Transvaal Constabulary. He subsequently worked for the Imperial Railways in Johannesburg.
This page last updated 1 September 2026.