Mary Alice Thomson

Phyllis Hope Thomson was fathered during the Siege of Ladysmith in 1899. Her unmarried mother Mary Alice Taylor was given a pass to leave Ladysmith by the Boers when she was 4 months' pregnant and she went to Durban.

Thanks to DNA matching of a granddaughter of Phyllis, D.I. M nee B and her niece C G nee B, and old notes written by her late son, it can be safely assumed that her father was Abraham Harris alias Sydney 'Syd' Fillis born in Aldgate, London in 1870, who died unmarried in 1915 in nearby Pietermaritzburg, and was awarded a medal for his service in the Relief of Ladysmith, as recorded in 1901, having served with the Colonial Scouts 'F' Squadron, of the Colonial Light Horse (2nd Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh's Own Volunteer Rifles) Regiment.