Private Alexander Cunningham

Ancestor Details

Name of Ancestor: Alexander Beveridge Cunningham
Ancestor's date of birth: 12/07/1877
Ancestor's date of death: 12/09/1974
Cause of Death: At 97 years old, Alex failed to survive an operation to repair a broken hip, after a well lived life.
Service and Life Before the Boer War: Alex was born in Haddington, Scotland and migrated with his family (father William and stepmother Mina Turnbull and siblings Marion Jane ("May"), John Beveridge, and Anne Winifred on the "Australasian", arriving early September 1889 to Sydney). He was a store assistant at Clifton, Darling Downs, Queensland where his father William operated a general store.
Service Number: 344
Colony or State of enlistment: QLD, Place of Enlistment: Possibly Toowoomba
Unit: 4^th Queensland Imperial Bushmen
Rank attained in Boer War: PTE, Date Effective: 1900
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War service.
Murray Page: 486
Contingent: Fourth Queensland
Ship: Manchester Port, Date of Sailing: 18/05/1900
Memorial details: Alex is buried in the Toowoomba Garden of Remembrance, Qld
Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Queen's South Africa Medal Ribbon, with clasps for Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal.
Personal Characteristics: A man of excellent self discipline for the 97 years of his life. He played the violin till well in his 90's; loved to read Robert Burns poetry; read to his family every Sunday night, and enjoyed a daily walk. as enteric fever during his South African service had effected one leg
Reasons to go and fight: Unknown, but Alex obviously fulfilled the criteria in the Queensland Government Gazette Proclamation of 19 October 1899 of being "21 to 38 years, unmarried, a good shot, good rider and practical bushman".
Details of service in war: June 1900 - June 1901 in Free State, and Transvaal, including battle of Rhenosterkop (29 November 1900), great De Wet hunt and advance on Pietersburg and into east Transvaal.
Service and life after the Boer War: Returned to Australia: 5 August 1901 on the Britannic. Alex then returned to the town of Clifton following his South African service, and became with his wife, Vi (nee Lillian Violet Slaughter) fully involved in the community there. He and his family operated the Downs Store for many years before retiring to Alexandra Headland, Dalby and Toowoomba.

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Mary Metcalfe, Sumner Park QLD
Relationship to Ancestor: Granddaughter

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