Papers Past is a brilliant resource for all those interested in history in general, or in family history, for the life and times of one's ancestors are often very well documented in real time in contemporary newspapers. A number of years ago I found an image of one Francis Arthur Baron in the pages of the Dunedin based publication called the "Otago Witness". This newspaper has 3056 issues online from 11 January 1851 - 24 November 1909. According to Papers Past the Witness began in Dunedin in January 1851 as a four page, fortnightly newspaper. It became a weekly in August that year. At this time illustrated weekly newspapers were a popular and important form of publication in New Zealand and the paper continued to be published until 1932. I sincerely appreciate that this was the nature of the way some newspapers operated back then, as it became the source of a significant find some years back when I located a grainy and rather indistinct image of one of Henry William's sons, Francis Arthur Baron. Francis Arthur Baron is recorded as having been born on 3 May 1877 in North East Valley in Dunedin. His birth entry, which I accessed in March 1993, reveals that his parents were Henry William Baron and Ellen McQuillan and that it was his Dad who registered his birth on 13 June 1877. There is nothing more to be found, as yet, about this, the eighth child and third son, in the family until he appears in the local paper the "Otago Daily Times" of 2 January 1900 as having made a donation to the Patriotic Fund of one pound. A couple of weeks later, on January 19, he is recorded as heading off from Dunedin for the south on a through train. 
The next thing that the local newspapers reveal about Francis, whom everyone called Frank, is his death in South Africa during the Boer War and it is the obituary image of him that I decided to pursue to see if I could locate a better one than the one digitised on Papers Past. I wrote to the Otago Daily Times, who hold the archive material of the Witness requesting a better copy of the image that appeared in the Otago Witness, just two years after he was on that train for the south, on January 22, 1902. The resulting digital image is a very much crisper and clearer image and I am indebted to the staff of the Otago Daily Times who worked so hard to provide this for me. Francis had succumbed to enteric fever in Kroonstadt on December 16, 1901. Even though he had enlisted out of Dunedin, New Zealand for the Boer War, he was not a member of the local contingents established here in New Zealand. Rather, he travelled up to South Africa and joined the South African Light Horse as a Sergeant. He lies in the Kroonstadt Garden of Remembrance in the Orange Free State, far from his family and friends in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is of passing interest that his name is spelled incorrectly on the metal monument at this cemetery and the date of his death is recorded as 17 December when all other records indicate that he died on 16 December 1901.
The next thing that the local newspapers reveal about Francis, whom everyone called Frank, is his death in South Africa during the Boer War and it is the obituary image of him that I decided to pursue to see if I could locate a better one than the one digitised on Papers Past. I wrote to the Otago Daily Times, who hold the archive material of the Witness requesting a better copy of the image that appeared in the Otago Witness, just two years after he was on that train for the south, on January 22, 1902. The resulting digital image is a very much crisper and clearer image and I am indebted to the staff of the Otago Daily Times who worked so hard to provide this for me. Francis had succumbed to enteric fever in Kroonstadt on December 16, 1901. Even though he had enlisted out of Dunedin, New Zealand for the Boer War, he was not a member of the local contingents established here in New Zealand. Rather, he travelled up to South Africa and joined the South African Light Horse as a Sergeant. He lies in the Kroonstadt Garden of Remembrance in the Orange Free State, far from his family and friends in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is of passing interest that his name is spelled incorrectly on the metal monument at this cemetery and the date of his death is recorded as 17 December when all other records indicate that he died on 16 December 1901.
His name and sacrifice is also commemorated in at least three places around New Zealand. One is at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland where his name is carved in the granite slabs in the special Boer War Memorial there:
Another is in Timaru where his name is on the Boer War Memorial there:
And the third place where he is confirmed as being immortalised is at the Ranfurly Veterans' Home in Three King's, Auckland. 
One can only imagine the sense of loss that Henry William and Ellen must have experienced upon the death of their precious son so far from his home and a peek at the official record for Frank on his military record on Archway indicates that Henry William spent many years trying to locate the War medals and clasps that were due to Frank for his war service. It took at least two years for these to be forwarded to the family after their initial request.
My research indicates that the image below is what they were seeking as their final tribute to a son lost in what we now refer to as the South African War 1899-1902. The New Zealand History Online website defines this war thus:"The South African War (or Second Anglo-Boer War) was the first overseas conflict to involve New Zealand troops. Fought between the British Empire and the Boer South African Republic (Transvaal) and its Orange Free State ally, it was the culmination of longstanding tensions in southern Africa."
The image of Francis Arthur Baron, now in the hands of his family 100 years after his untimely death, is uncanny for the resemblance he bears to living descendants. When I asked Trevor last night who he thought the photograph looked like, he agreed with me immediately! I wonder if others in the family can see the likeness also?
