Private Richard Williamson
Number: 9436
Company: 46th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 16 January 1900
Place: Belfast
Age: 22 years
Trade or calling: Groom
Place of birth: In the Parish of Shankill, in or near the Town of Lurgan, in the County of Armagh
Address: 79 Queen Street, Lurgan
Family: Single. Father James [or Richard] Williamson, warper, mother Esther Williamson (nee McDowell), of Queen Street, Armagh. Uncle F. McDowell, of Athol Street, Belfast.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 8". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown. Tattoo clasped hands, female head, right forearm; scar right hand.
Religion: Presbyterian
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900
Date home: 5 March 1901
Actions: Lindley
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, 1901 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 16 April 1901
Place: __
Reason for discharge: At his own request
Williamson was among the 400 men captured by Boer forces at Lindley in May 1900. He was released on 30 August with the other members of the 13th Battalion when the British captured Nooitgedacht.
At the time of the 1901 Census he was living in Queen Street, Armagh, with his parents and four siblings. On 18 April 1903 he married Isabella Uprichard in St Anne's Church of Ireland Parish Church, Belfast. At the time he was living at 15 Athol Street and working as a groom. The couple had seven children over the next fifteen years. They later lived at 31 Palestine Street, Richard working as a coachman, then a car inspector.
Image from The Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 3 March 1900.
This page last updated 22 December 2024.