Research by a family member has unveiled interesting facts on my Grandfather.
From a newspaper article in the English Widnes Weekly News dated November 10, 1933 my Grandfather Pat Sinnott details some of his life events. In this published article he relates his experiences which are engraved in past history.
Click on images to enlarge.
Interesting to note he was involved as a Sergeant-Instructor in the Irish Free State Army (Saorstát Eireann) circa 1922-1924. In this capacity he trained some 500 men for various athletic tournaments in that army.
Prior to that period he was the second man to enlist in the newly formed Irish Guards in England in March 1900. The Irish Guards regiment was born at the request of H.M. Queen Victoria.
Soon after its formation in 1901 the Irish Guards regiment was in South Africa for active service in what is commonly known as the Boer-British War. My Grandfather, Pat Sinnott, was with the Irish Guards mounted infantry (horseback) under the commanding officer (CO) the then Lieutenant Lord Herbert Scott (later promoted to Captain in 1902).
The CO Lieutenant Lord Herbert Scott kept a diary in the form of diary letters of his time and experiences in South Africa with the Irish Guards. The diary letters were later published around 1924 these letters covered the period from 1901 to 1902. In Lord Herbert’s diary there is documented that my Grandfather won the boxing championship in Cape Colony South Africa. A sport he excelled in and later was also involved as a boxing writer for a town newspaper column. Unfortunately I have no access to those letters copies of which went for auction or kept at the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division.
Pat Sinnott relates that he was also on the Irish Guards football team in Cape Colony (renamed Cape of Good Hope South Africa) which played against the team of the “Armoured Train” team which was captained by the Right Hon. Winston Churchill. As a sportsman he was into boxing, rugby league and football.
It is mentioned in the newspaper article of 1933 that Pat Sinnott (my Grandfather, (I have to make the distinction because my Father had the same name), was one of the few survivors of the regiment in the Boer War and the First World War. During World War 2 he was a recruitment sergeant.
See/click title of my previous blog article : Grandfather the Boxing Champ
In Memory of his flamboyant lifestyle.
Research link source : Ebook of South Africa and the Boer-British War.
I love tootling around family history for friends, although it can be time consuming. Just for the sake of it I put “Sinnott” into an Australian newspaper search and came up with a Herb Sinnott who was also a boxer. Here is his 1890s bouts.
https://boxerlist.com/boxer/herbert-sinnott/47464/
There are many articles about him in the newspapers, and he went to South Africa also. Apparently, that was the “centre” of the boxing universe at one time. Although you’ll have to skip read a lot, you’ll find some interesting material in this article; which reveals Herb died in England in 1903.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/120666408?searchTerm=%22sinnot%22
And while I’m on a roll, I read “Falling Blossoms” which is all about this Hart-Synnot who also fought in the South African wars. (I won’t say he covered himself in glory with his later affair with a Japanese woman, which is the subject of the book). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Henry_Seton_Hart-Synnot
Thanks. Interesting to find all this information and the South Africa connection.
I have to get serious about locating my ancestors. You’re doing great.