Hi, Missing Lincs,     For the next two weeks, let's focus on the Boer War veterans.  Often they didn't get memorials built to them, but the Boer War was, perhaps, one of the first wars where the news correspondents got to report the reality of war, not the glorified, re-edited versions of the past.  It was a war where some families had members serving on both sides.     My grandfather, who was not from Lincolnshire, served there in the Royal Field Artillery.  He never talked to me about the details of his service.  I know that he handled the horses that drew the caissons and that he didn't go there until near the end of the war.     So tell us about your Lincolnshire relative who served.  What village was he from, what unit, where did her serve, did he survive?         Lou

Whilst born in Yorkshire (Doncaster), like all the MEANWELL family Robert Henry MEANWELL's roots are in Lincolnshire. Born in 1883 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, his father was Thomas MEANWELL (born Mareham Le Hill, Lincolnshire 26/12/1860) and his mother was Elizabeth MEANWELL (nee MARSDEN) born in 1860 in South Carlton, near Worksop. Robert Henry served in the Boar War in the Imperial Yeomanry and was, along with other local veterans, made a Freeman of Doncaster on 19 November 1902. His medal record shows his entitlement to the clasps for the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Laing's Nek & Natal. He went on to serve in the 1^st Yorkshire Dragoons (Doncaster) in the Great War and was Gazetted on 29 March 1919 as being awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.His rank is given as corporal. His younger brother Frederick also had a long career in the army including fighting alongside his elder sibling in the Boer War. Robert Henry married Minnie MEANWELL, nee HUBBARD in Doncaster in 1907.The 1911 census lists three children, all recorded as belonging to Robert Henry although the first is listed as Richard Kelly HUBBARD(born Doncaster 1906, died Doncaster 1971).Other children were Frederick (born Doncaster 28/12/1907), Leslie (born Doncaster 22/08/1909) and Reginald (born Doncaster 1916). Minnie died in Doncaster in 1919 aged 33 and Robert does not appear to have remarried.He diedin 1939 in Doncaster, aged 55. Regards, David Meanwell