Boer War Injured

[ficam]

Hi everyone - does anyone know how I can confirm ( or otherwise!) the family story that my great grandfather , Robert Singer Innes ( about whom I have asked for help here before) lost a leg in the Boer War (1899-1902) ?

He was supposed to be only 16 when it happened and as he was born in 1882 ( and allowing for family embellishment making him younger to make the story more poignant) he must have been injured very early in the war. He was born in Drumblade, so I presume he was in the Gordon Highlanders ( all other Innes men joined the Gordons in WW1)

Ancestry has some Boer War records but they only show names and date and place of injury which would be great if I knew where and when he was injured! - and anyway there are none which look likely....

He did have a wooden leg, and this was the explanation as to why he needed it...I know for certain in 1901 he was in Glasgow staying with a brother and his occupation was Commissionnaire. So he was definitely home by 1901. He was then married in Fraserburgh in 1904, so he did not stay too long in Glasgow.

Any help as always will be greatly appreciated.

[Montrose Budie]

Hi ficam

www.findmypast.co.uk has a full listing of those who served in South Africa which may assist your search.

There is indeed an R INNES shown as having served in SA with the 1st Bn The Gordon Highlanders.

TNA at Kew may or may not have further info of interest.

If you Google on "Boer War Casualties" you will find a good number of sites listing those killed, but I'd doubt if any will show those wounded.

mb

[ficam]

A cheeky question ...does anyone have a subscription to Findmypast who can check out this entry for me and see if it has any more detail, other than the regimental number 6472 which shows up in the high level search?

Don't want anyone to use up their valuable credits - only if you have a subscription anyway...

Thanks

[AndrewP]

Hi Ficam,

The details are few - see below.

• Boer War 1899-1902 - Soldier details
  
  Name: INNES, R
  Rank: Private
  Soldier number: 6472
  Unit: 1 Battalion The Gordon Highlanders
  Notes:
  Age:
  Literary references:
  
  
  Medal roll (from National Archives WO100 series):
  Roll . Page
  203 . . 0

All the best,

AndrewP

[ficam]

Thanks Andrew

[Currie]

Hello Ficam,

Go to the 19C British Library Newspaper site and search for this - INNES AND GORDON HIGHLANDERS viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15443

The Morning Post (London), Saturday, March 03, 1900
Sick and Wounded. From the General of Communications, to the Secretary of State for War. Capetown, March 1. All sick and wounded progressing favourably except the following who are seriously ill:
……………..
1st BATT. GORDON HIGHLANDERS.
6472 Pt. R. Innes.

The Glasgow Herald, Saturday, March 17, 1900, has identical info about him in a despatch from Cape Town dated March 15.

This page has a history of the exploits of the 1st Battalion and it seems likely this soldier was wounded at Paardeberg. http://www.boer-war.com/Military/Britis ... nders.html

Alan

[SarahND]

Hi all,
Using the soldier number 6472, one can locate R Innes in the UK, Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949 database. This is a roll of "Individuals entitled to the South Africa Medal and Clasps, under the Army Order granting the Medal, issued on 1st April, 1901."

Regimental number: 6472
Rank: Private
Name: Innes R.
Whether entitled to Clasp: Cape Colony
Remarks: (none)

Signature and Rank of Officer personally cognizant of the Claimants' services: F. Washburn, Lieut. Col. Comdg: 1st Gordon Highlanders
Place: Pretoria
Date: 23rd August 1901

In the Remarks column are such things as "Invalided" "Time Expired" or "Vol: Serv: Coy." There is nothing in that column for R. Innes.

In the "Whether entitled to Clasp" column there are a list of places, Paardeberg being one of them, but R. Innes has a line through all except "Cape Colony" which is ticked. According to the link Alan has given, this would appear to have been in January and February of 1901.

Regards,
Sarah

[Currie]

Thanks Sarah,

I checked the London Times and it seems he may have missed Paardeberg because of his illness. If he was seriously ill for that length of time and continued to serve it is possible his illness was caused by some sort of disease.

According to the Wiki 22,000 British soldiers died during the war, 7,792 killed in battle, the rest through disease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War

The Times, Friday, Feb 23, 1900
Telegram dated February 21 from Cape Town.
6472 Pte. R. Innes, 1st Gordon Highlanders, is on the seriously ill list.

The Times, Saturday, Mar 03, 1900
Telegram dated 1st March, still on seriously ill list.

The Times, Saturday, Mar 10, 1900
Telegram dated 8th March, still on seriously ill list.

The Times, Saturday, Mar 17, 1900
Report dated 15th March, still on seriously ill list.

Alan

[ficam]

Thank you so much - once again you have found more in a couple of days than I have found in months!!

If he was wounded rather than ill, would he have been likely to have been kept in Africa ? I would have thought they possibly would keep him there until he was stable enough to be shipped home ( or is that a bit naive?!)

if he was shipped home would he still show on the lists or would they only record his name for as long as he was there? And once shipped home and presumably discharged if he was minus a leg; they would stop to show his name in the lists?

And finally, we are working on the assumption that he lost his leg through injury rather than disease, but I suppose it could be possible that it was disease?

I don't know now how I can prove that this is actually him?

[Currie]

Hello Ficam,

The newspaper lists are only dispatches from South Africa. I don’t know how reliable they would be for tracking the medical progress of an individual soldier.

This page will give you a good idea of the sorts of diseases that impacted on the British Army during the Boer War. It’s mainly about the Ladysmith siege but there’s general information there about treatment of wounded. http://www.ladysmithhistory.com/a-to-z/medical/

Here’s some information about the Queen’s South Africa Medal http://www.angloboerwar.com/abwfp/abw/i ... &Itemid=33

A clasp inscribed “Cape Colony” will be granted to all troops in Cape Colony at any time between 11th October, 1899, and 15th July, 1901, who received no clasp for an action already specified in the Cape Colony nor the ”Natal” clasp.

I guess that means that a soldier who was seriously ill didn’t have to recover and return to duty to be eligible for the clasp. Just landing in Cape Colony with his battalion on 28th November, 1899, was good enough.

Could a wounded soldier have ended up with just the QSAM? Possibly he was wounded in an action which didn’t warrant its own clasp or which wasn’t covered by one of the other clasps.

As mb previously mentioned the National Archives at Kew may have information on this soldier. Perhaps his discharge papers would have enough information to identify him as yours. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/reco ... 0-1913.htm

If he lost a leg during the war he may have been a Chelsea Pensioner. Those records are on FMP http://www.findmypast.co.uk/chelsea-pen ... art.action

There’s a 14 part documentary about the Boer War on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcqbA7uncfE

All the best,
Alan