TOPIC:

There are several accounts of the attack by the Boers on Fort Prospect on 26th September 1901. Needless to say, the accounts vary in the detail and the numbers involved on both sides. The most commonly stated is that it was 400 Boers against just over 80 British Troops and the latter managed to repel the attackers because Fort Prospect was defensively strong. One thing is consistent that the British casualties were one man killed and nine wounded. Fiddling around on Ancestry looking to add to my suspiciously low count of only three Smethwickians having being killed in action in the Boer War of 1899-1902 led me to the belief that the man who died at Fort Prospect was a Smethwickian.

Some time later, and with the help of other members of this Forum, I have been able to assemble the proof. His name was Private 4167 George Duckworth of the South Lancashire Regiment:



Another piece of proof is that in early October 1899 a syndicated report of the casualties at Fort Prospect was published in many of the British newspapers – the list was headed by “4167 Private George Duckworth – killed”.

As you can see the three documents shown above were not easy to find due to the variation in perceived service number. In fact, his service record was doubly difficult as the FMP transcriber not only understandably misread a 6 for a 4 but compounded the issue by logging his service number as 7147 and the document as a WW1 “burnt” document. There are two other military documents for George – his attestation papers when he joined a local militia as Private 3040, and an earlier medal roll drawn up a fortnight before he was killed - this time the officer who completed the form got his service number correct.

So, now I need to provide the proof that he was a Smethwickian. His June 1893 Militia attestation form gives his place of birth as the parish of Smethwick in the town of Smethwick. His six weeks later Short Service attestation form gives his place of birth as the parish of West Bromwich in the town of Smethwick. Smethwick nestles between Birmingham and the Black Country (which includes the neighbouring borough of West Bromwich) has always had an identity problem. I suspect on the second occasion the Lancastrian recruiting officer was a football (soccer) fan and felt more comfortable with a place he knew of appearing on the form – five years earlier West Bromwich Albion won the FA Cup at the third time of asking when they beat the favourites Preston North End 2-1. The 1881 and 1891 census returns also give his place of birth as Smethwick – I think I can say that is game, set and match.

Although the registration of his birth has gone AWOL a record survives for his baptism on 23rd June 1875 in Smethwick. His age on the 1881 and 1891 census returns is given as 5 and 15 respectively, from which can be deduced he was born between early April and late June 1875. This fits with his June & July 1893 attestation forms which both give his age as 18 years with a dash in the space for the months.

So why did a man born in Smethwick join the South Lancashire Regiment? His father, Thomas, was a Lancastrian born in Bolton who in the 1860’s moved south and married Elizabeth French, a Birmingham lass, in 1869. The 1871 census shows them living at 112 Rolfe Street in Smethwick with their first born son John and Thomas working as a “glass grinder”. This almost certainly means he was working at the Chance Glassworks in Smethwick helping to make optical lenses and possibly some of the first Fresnel lenses to be installed in lighthouses around the world.

By the time of the 1881 census the family had moved to St Helens in Lancashire the home of another glass manufacturer – Pilkingtons. However, Thomas was working as a “general labourer” which seems a step down from the skilled job of “glass grinder” so perhaps the return to his home county did not go as Thomas had planned. Again, we see evidence of Smethwick’s identity problem as somebody has written “Ches” against George’s birthplace of Smethwick – Smethwick Green in Cheshire (a neighbouring county to Lancashire) was at that time a registration district.

The 1891 census shows the family still living in St Helens. Thomas is now working as a “chemical labourer” and 15 year old George as a “labourer glassworks”. George’s older brother, John, had passed away in 1887 aged 16 but George now had two younger sisters aged 9 and 6.

On 13th June 1893 George attested to enlist in the County of Lancaster Militia attached to the Liverpool Regiment. He gave his occupation as “labourer” and his place of work as Henry Baxter Alkali Works in St Helens. Henry Baxter Ltd had recently become part of United Alkali which in 1926 was one of the companies which merged to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).

Six weeks later George decided to go the whole hog and become a full time solider and attested to a Short Service commission (7 years active service followed by 5 years in the Army Reserve) in the South Lancashire Regiment. He was 5 feet 6¼inches tall (just above average height) and weighed in at a healthy 9 stone 4 pounds. He had blue eyes and brown hair and no distinguishing marks or tattoos. He was given the Regimental number of 4167 and, after training at Warrington assigned to the 1st Battalion. His first two years of service were spent at home but, on 2nd May 1896, he and his battalion left the UK for service in South Africa. Just over a year later they returned home and the period from June 1897 to November 1899 was again spent on home service.

The record of George’s “Deceased Soldiers Effects” shows that at the time of his death he was married as it states his widow, Mary A Duckworth, received War Gratuity payments totalling £18 4s 5d. This seems to have escaped the compilers of public family trees on Ancestry who were aware of his death in South Africa. There is a record of a George Duckworth marrying a Mary Ann Pilkington in the last quarter of 1898 and it being registered in Haslingden, Lancashire, about 30 miles NE of St Helens. It should be noted both Pilkington & Duckworth are quite common surnames in Lancashire.

On 30th November 1899 the 1st Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment embarked at Liverpool on Transport Ship No.69, the SS Canada, for South Africa and the Boer War. George’s battalion saw lots of action in South Africa and suffered heavy losses as shown by the 125 names on their Boer War Memorial in Warrington. They were involved at Spion Kop, Tugela Heights & Laing’s Nek but it is not possible to say George was always there. During the Boer War he was seconded to the 5th Division of the Mounted Infantry as evidenced by his “Deceased Soldiers’ Effects” record (shown above).

He was buried at Fort Prospect in a lone and these days apparently uncared for grave. Perhaps the Commonwealth War Graves Commission will address the matter along with the 22 apparently uncared for graves at Fort Itala. These other graves include 7 members of George’s Battalion and all of them, along with George, are commemorated on the South Lancashire Regiment’s Boer War Memorial in Queen’s Gardens, Warrington.



George was posthumously awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with four clasps – “Orange Free State”, “Transvaal”, “Laing’s Nek” and “South Africa 1901”.

George’s mother, Elizabeth, passed away in 1923 and 3 years later his father, Thomas died. The older of his two younger sisters, Mary Ann or “Polly” as the family called her, emigrated to the USA in October 1910 as a 28 year old, single, unaccompanied, young lady. In 1918 she married and 20 years later married again following the death of her first husband. She passed away in Cottonwood, Arizona in 1983 a month shy of her 102nd birthday.