I was sent the following information by Michelle Batchelor, great-grandaughter of Fred Bini. From the little information we have he seems to have been the epitome of the regular soldier of the British Army in the first decades of the twentieth century.

I am indebted to Richard Holmes for answering some of my questions relating to Fred’s uniform, allowing us to make some statements about his career.

This first photo shows Fred in the uniform of the Mounted Infantry (MI) in South Africa, where he served with the Hallamshire Rifles; part of the York & Lancaster Regiment.  He has the ammunition bandolier and the spurs which mark him out as MI.  In the detail photo below we can see that he has clasps on his South Africa medals for Transvaal, Orange Free State and Cape Colony.  I have no detail on what part the Hallamshires, or Fred, took in the war in South Africa. Maybe a later project.

Michelle says that Fred was born 10 July 1880 in Sheffield. In 1904 he married Florence Bingham and they had two children; Florence in 1905 and John in 1908.  Michelle believes he died in 1931 of Pernicious Anaemia, and in 1911 they lived in Woodseats where he was a Tram Car conductor.  At some point the family moved to Shireoaks in Nottinghamshire.

I was unable to find his service record in the National Archives at Kew; presumably his was one of the ‘burnt’ records like that of my grandfather. Fred went on to become an Acting Warrant Officer Class 1.

In this photo Fred is a Sergeant, seated front row on the left with his trademark moustache. At this point we see him in the 1/4 Battalion of the York & Lancs. As they are all sergeants they are probably all from the same company in the battalion before leaving England.  No date unfortunately.

This photo shows Fred at the back left, and the Colour Sergeant Major seated.  These are the senior NCOs in Fred’s company. All the sergeants behind the CSM are sporting SA medals, but not the CSM. Richard Holmes has given me the benefit of his experience as a military historian, and as a Brigadier in the TA. Although this is a black and white photo he believes it shows the Sergeants wearing their scarlet jackets with regimental facings on the collar and cuffs; while the sergeants all wear their sash he finds it interesting that the CSM has no sash, and appears to be wearing his blue tunic without regimental facings. The photo is probably very early in the war, maybe a training camp in the UK.  They certainly look like solid regular army NCOs of their day.  Richard also remarks that they are wearing their forage caps, blue with black peak, instead of blue home service spiked helmets.

Another photo of the NCOs, this time Fred is seated on the right.  In this shot the CSM is now wearing the same tunic as the rest of them.

This photo shows all of Fred’s medals, Michelle also has Fred’s swagger stick which has a silver tip and top, and also has the Hallamshire Rifle’s insignia imprinted on it.

I thanks Michelle for sending me the information, it’s a pity we don’t have more information on his service record.

Maybe someone out there recognises the other 1/4 Battalion SNCOs.