TOPIC:

"The news of the death of Mr J R Brooker, of St Helens, at Beira, from dysentery has been received with regret by a large circle of friends at St Helens...…..His troop was despatched to Beira, and on Saturday his relatives at St Helens received a telegram from the authorities stating that he had there succumbed to dysentery on the 6th inst."

www.angloboerwar.com/forum/singleclaspqs...desia?start=42#56726

Berenice
Palmer shows "12071 Pte. J.Brookes of 17th I.Y." as Died of dIsease at Marendellas on 9/6/00. My IY CD shows him as John Roper BROOKER of the 65th Coy., 17th Bn., I.Y.
He had not much of a chance to do his bit. Hope his QSA went to a good home.
Regards
IL.

Found some more: -
"On Friday, the 14th inst., a War Office telegram brought the intelligence to Mr John Glendinning, of Allendale Town, that his son had been killed on the 7th March at Klip Drift."

"Mr William Anderson, shoemaker, Torry, has received a telegram conveying the melancholy information that his son, Trooper John Anderson, of Baden-Powell's Police, is reported to have died of enteric fever and failure of the heart's action at Naauwpoort on 2nd inst."

"Mr Thomas Greig, farmer, Wooden, has received a telegram intimating the death of his elder son, B. L. Greig, who went out to South Africa with the Scottish Sharpshooters."

"News was received at Hawick on Friday night of the death, at the front, of Corporal Thomas Wilmot, of the Northumberland Imperial Yeomanry. The telegram, received by a sister of deceased from the War Office, states that Corporal Wilmot "died of wounds" on 8th March."

Hello Ian,
I am sorry for the delay in a reply, things are getting rather sticky here, all my time is taken by an ever increasing workload, with regard to letters, in short, there was a period of time that elapsed between a casualty being confirmed and his next of kin being notified, both the Army and the War Office had no intranet.

Attached is a typical example from the Guards Brigade.


Coldstream Orderly Room
Horse Guards
London SW
2/12/99

Dear Sir.
I am very sorry to inform you that No 774 Private A Chambers 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards is reported as being wounded at the Modder River on 28th November 1899
I beg to express the sympathy and regret of Lord Landsdowne (the Secretary of State) and myself.
Immediately on receipt of any additional particulars you shall at once be communicated with.
Yours truly
Henry Corry
Colonel Commanding Coldstream Guards.

You should note these were simply typed out and left blank for the particular unfortunate Colonel concerned, to fill in the blank spaces.

Anyway Ian, I wish you and yours bon chance in these awful dark days,
Yours sincerely
Frank Kelley

LinneyI wrote: Frank
That form of notification is what I would I would have expected - and I can understand confusion during Black Week. As I said before, I had never seen an example or indeed heard of one.
Thanks for that confirmation.
Regards
IL.

Frank
Thanks for posing that notice. Unfortunately, at such times, the personal touch is completely lacking. However, I trust that in a close knit unit such as 2CG, his Company Commander and some of his immediate comrades would contact the family. In my time, it was a visit to relatives by a Padre and an MP.
These are indeed dark days - who would have thought events would go downhill so fast and so soon. I could say more - but I won't. I have to say that, in this time of Social Distancing, David's site is a splendid safety valve. As I have said previously, the regular Forum.contributors are without doubt the most helpful I have ever encountered. If any of them read this, I wish them well in this time of travail.
Best and truly Sincere Regards
IL.

Here is a letter from the office of Lord Kitchener in reply to a question from the Father or Sgt. S.W. Muncey...…

Along with a transcription...…

You can see the letter was sent May 29th, 1901 and Rec'd July 1st, 1901.....

Mike

Transcribed:



WAR OFFICE
CREST

Pretoria
May 29th 1901

Sir

In reply to your letter to Lord Kitchener, I am to inform you that Sergeant Muncey was wounded in the Eastern Transvaal on Feb. 4th 1901. He was sent down to hospital in Natal and left that about the middle of April in good health except that he had partly lost the use of his right hand. It is believed that he transferred to Netley Hospital England for treatment.

Yours Faithfully

W. N. Congreve
Major
Pt. Sec.
C. In C.


Letter Rec'd: July 1st 1901