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Husband of Martina Hermina Gildea. of Barkly West, Cape Province. Michael left Australia about 1900 on board a ship which was taking horses for the mounted infantry to South Africa for the Boer War. He was part of a group of young Australian & NZ men who were skilled horsemen, farriers, blacksmiths and whose job it was to care for the horses on their long sea voyage. Unfortunately, these young men were not actually enlisted as soldiers in the army and when they arrived in SA they were "let go" i.e. they were paid off and left in South Africa to make their own way - either back to their homeland or to set up a new life. There was too much paper work involved in discharging them all and too much expense in returning them so they were technically considered deserters - a rather appalling thing to do to them. Michael never wrote home to his family and so he was assumed KIA in the Boer War. Amazingly he was found to be alive in 1936 when the Australian cricket team toured South Africa. They were taken to a diamond mine and the owner 'salted' the area they were prospecting so there was much excitement and big stories in Australian newspapers about the team, the mine and the owner who turned out to be one Michael Gildea from Australia! His sister wrote to him and received a reply but I don't think it went any further than that. Michael joined the Cape Police in 1902. |
