William Mead. Was he in a Devon Volunteer Unit? Family lore says that William Mead was a senior NCO in the Boer War. I have not found him in the 1881 or 1901 censuses so I do not know where he was born but it was possibly London. All I know of him from the public record comes from his marriage in 1891 at Dunkeswell to Elizabeth Hannah Pulman. Then he was listed as age 33 a widowed Bricklayer with a father George also a Bricklayer. It seems likely that this was the George Mead, bricklayer living at Honiton (East Devon) age 50 in 1881 and 62 in 1891, born Hackney, London, with his wife Mary Ann born Whetstone, London. William and Elizabeth had 5 children born in Honiton/Dunkeswell including one born in about February 1901. They emigrated to South Africa in about 1903 and had three more children. For William to have combined being a bricklayer in England, fathering a child in early 1901 and being an NCO in the Boer War of 1899-1902 he would most probably have been in a Militia or other Volunteer Unit that formed part of the Imperial Yeomanry and joined the later reinforcements. Is there anywhere I can seek relevant information on Devon Volunteer Units and William Mead in particular? Tom Barry