Frederick William Alexander ¹

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military: Served on Commando, 1899-1901. ^{2 3} From Paul Roland Alexander (RIN: 3684): In Susan Helena Norval's (RIN: 297) book on pages 49-50 she describes how after the Boers had occupied Colesburg she travelled by wagon from Norvalspont to Colesburg. She says : "All went well till we reached a place where the grass grew thick and high..we came across a large party of Boers. They rose from the gound holding their guns in a threatening manner." As Susan Helena Norval could speak fluent Dutch they soon relaxed and she spoke to them.

She says: "One of them caught my eye. I called to him by his name. I had recognised him at once. (years before this, just after my dear brother's death, who had been the father of this very same man, I had seen him, then a tiny child, just beginning to toddle.) He had now grown to manhood, and his features strongly resembled those of my brother's. You know me?, he queried. I do, I am your fathers sister." As he had been residing in the Free State since babyhood, he had joined the Boers."

I think this person she describes was Frederick William Alexander b1862. His father Frederick Augustus Alexander was a son of William Watkin Alexander, and therefore sister of Susan Helena Norval. Frederick Augustus Alexander died in 1864 ("after my dear brother's death") and Frederick William Alexander was born in 1862, so by 1864/5 he would have been ("a tiny child, just beginning to toddle"). We know that he lived in the OFS, and would have been 38 at the time of the ABW- it was not unsual for people of that age to sign up for Commando. There is no other father/son combination that fits this description, and therefore I think the person she describes was Frederick William Alexander b1862.

Many of my other ancestors including Fraser Frederick Alexander fought with distinction on the British side in Colonial regiments like the Imperial Light Horse, but this is the first evidence any Alexanders fought with the boers.