James BACON

BACON, James

Service Number: 246
Enlisted: 1 May 1902
Last Rank: Corporal
Last Unit: 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse
Born: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 12 May 1873
Home Town: Pittsworth, Toowoomba, Queensland
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Drover
Died: Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, 5 February 1943, aged 69 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: North Rockhampton Cemetery, Qld
Plot: ROMAN CATHOLIC Sec 6 Row 10 Grave No 50
Memorials:
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Boer War Service

1 Oct 1899: Involvement Corporal, 246, 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse
1 May 1902: Enlisted Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Corporal, 246, 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse
19 May 1902: Embarked Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Corporal, 246, 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse, AWM Boer War Unit Details, Murray p. 530 notes 7th BACH embarked at Pinkenba 19 May 1902 aboard Custodian arriving Durban 22 Jun 1902 after peace had been declared.
9 Aug 1902: Discharged Australian and Colonial Military Forces - Boer War Contingents, Corporal, 246, 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse, AWM Boer War Unit Details, Murray p. 530 notes 7th BACH embarked at Durban 28 Jun 1902 aboard Manchester Merchant returning to Australia arriving Brisbane 2 Aug 1902, disbanded 9 Aug 1902.

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Biography contributed by Claude McKelvey

James Rudkin Bacon served twice in the South African (Boer) War. The nominal roll collated by P L Murray lists him as James Rudkin Bacon when he first served as a Private (rising to Corporal) S.N. 35 in the 3rd Queensland Mounted Infantry. For his second service the nominal roll records him as James Bacon, however, the Boer War Dossier Attestation Paper held by the National Archives Australia includes his middle name of Rudkin for this service. Hi second service was as a Corporal S.N. 246 in the 7th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse.

James was born 12 May 1873 in Toowoomba, Qld, a son to John Ward Bacon and Julia Jane Bacon (nee Chambers). He married Laura Maud Ezzy in Qld on 11 Oct 1904 and James passed away in Rockhampton on 5 Feb 1943. During his first Boer War service he wrote several letters to home from South Africa which are held as a manuscript by the State Library of Qld (see links).

(sources: AWM Boer War Nominal Roll, Murray p. 467 & 536; National Archves Australia - Boer War Dossier).

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