British Forces in Australia

[familysearcher]

I have an ancestor who was said to have served in the British Defense Forces in Australia at some point between 1887 and 1907. Does anyone know how I can find and search through records of such personnel?

[peterd]

mark might be your best bet on this topic or poss stick it in the military section ?

[Fatman]

ancestry has good miliatry records??

[MarkCDodd]

Find My Past is indexing the Chelsea Pensioner Records.

They have yet to do the 1900-1913 records which are expected in August this year.

If your relative did not participate in WW1 then his records will be in that August batch and you can then download his service record.

Meantime you can search for him at the National Archives and that will give you an idea of what unit he was with.

If he is an officer you will find him listed in the Army lists on TheGenealogist or Find My Past but they generally do not give much detail.

If he was married and/or had children whilst serving overseas you will find those records on TheGenealogist.

[grangers14]

Would you like this post moving over to the Military section?
May be if you gave what you know about the person someone may help.
Jo

[familysearcher]

Thank you everyone for taking your time to respond.

1. I have searched ancestry.com's military records and have not found anything on him.

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2. He did not serve in World War I and was already living as a naturalized citizen in the US by that time.

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3. More info on relative:

His name is Ernest Davis and he was born in Beechworth, Australia in 1871. He was of mixed English (or possibly Irish???) and Chinese ancestry, which complicates things a bit because the community there was legally segregated at the time. Most likely for related reasons, I have no birth record for him and could not find one via Australian birth records.

The military history of the region is also particularly complex, as the British very gradually transferred military authority of the region to an increasingly independent Australia.

I do know that he had British citizenship, despite being born and growing up in Australia, because he traveled and emigrated to the US in 1908 listed as a British citizen, because of a variety of other documents that I have obtained that state that he was British and had a father with British citizenship, because of him saying so under legal oath and repeatedly talking about it with his children across their lives, etc. (It also would have been very difficult to come to the US, otherwise, at the time because of Chinese exclusion laws.)

He was said to serve in the British Defense force while in Australia and had a sharp shooters award that he received during service, which may reveal something about his service. I don't have much more that relates to his service.

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4. I don't mind at all if this topic is moved to the military section. I could also re-post there if you prefer.

[MarkCDodd]

All people born in Australia were regarded as British Citizens until Federation in 1901.

Australian Citizenship only came into being in 1948.

Up until 1969 you still had to declare your nationaility as British on any passport , visa and ship/plane manifest.

Australians were officially "British Subjects" till 1984.

After 1984 you no longer had to swear allegiance to the Monarch of the UK no longer regarded as a British Subject.

If he was born in 1871 then he would have been in one of the Volunteer Militia.

There were dozens of those around Australia and some of them were converted to Australian Army Units after Federation.

He would most likely have been involved in the Boer war as the colonies organised troops under a central command for that conflict.

Let me see if I can find anything about him....

[MarkCDodd]

A Henry Ernest Davis is on the Australian Boer War nominal role.

I should be able to find him on one of the contigent lists.....

Unfortuantely the National Archives search engine is dead at the moment....

There is a Joseph Davis born to George Davis and Mary Connors in Beechworth in 1871.