Watnall Troop S.N.Y.C. local history

 Shorthose's Queen's South Africa medal along with the five bars he was entitled to, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, and South Africa 1902. His medal records his rank of Corporal, and his number, 20299.  One of the local volunteers taken to the South African campaign by Captain Rolleston William Belfield Shorthouse was born in Cotmanhay Derbyshire 5th July 1878. In the 1881 census, at the age of 2 he is shown as living with his family in 4 Church Street Ilkeston along with his parents and several siblings. After his schooling, William went to work for his father, a successful local timber and coal merchant and Colliery proprietor.  William had been serving with the 1/3rd Sherwood Foresters Militia Battalion. With the outbreak of the Boer War, and the following early setbacks on the front, the call went out for volunteers to join local yeomanry units to bolster numbers in the campaign. William completed his attestation forms for the Imperial Yeoman