GILHAM, Atherly
| Service Number: | 50 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Tasmanian Mounted Infantry Contingent |
| Born: | Stawell, Victoria, Australia, 7 May 1855 |
| Home Town: | Launceston, Launceston, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Mill Worker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Jasfontein, South Africa, 9 February 1900, aged 44 years |
| Cemetery: |
Colesberg Cemetery, South Africa |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Hobart Boer War Memorial, Launceston Boer War Memorial, Ulverstone Boer War Memorial |
Boer War Service
| 27 Oct 1889: | Embarked Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Private, 50, 1st Tasmanian Mounted Infantry Contingent, ex Launceston per SS Coogee | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct 1899: | Involvement Private, 50 | |
| 1 Oct 1899: | Involvement Private, 50 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Private Atherley Gilham (Service No:50) enlisted in the Colonial Military Forces on 1 October 1899 and served in South Africa with 1st Tasmanian Mounted Infantry. Private Gilham was KiA when he was shot through the shoulder and then heart on 9 February 1900 in the Jasfontein District, South Africa.
Born Albert Thomas in 1855 in Stawell Victoria, he was the second of thirteen children of Albert Gilham (nee McCoy; b1830 in Hobart, Tasmania) and Maria McGuire (b1836 in Hobart, Tasmania). Albert Snr and Maria married in 1852 in Melbourne, Victoria and lived in Stawell, Bunninyong, and Wimmera before returning to Tasmania.
Albert was a Mill Worker in Stawell Victoria and in 1876 married Ann (Annie Coles (b1858 at Mt Cole nr Stawell, Victoria). Albert and Annie had ten children, and lived in Pleasant Creek and Fyans Creek in Stawell Victoria, and Wellington and Bordertown in South Australia. Albert left Annie with seven children and no means of support when he travelled to Launceston in 1899 to enlist in the Colonial Military Forces - he enlisted as a single man using the name Atherly, and following discussions with the Army he agreed to enable Annie to receive 10 shillings weekly. Following his death in South Africa, Annie walked with her children and some other families from Stawell, Victoria to the goldfields in WA where she ran an Eating and Boarding House in Coolgardie before remarrying in 1905.
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