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Indeed, moreover, Natal was not the Cape Colony either, you could not defend Ladysmith and actually fight on the wretched Modder at the same point in time.
I checked the index of both ADM159 and ADM171 for the name Colling, with the same result as before.

Frank and Berenice
There certainly were "Powerfuls" who earned clasps Belmont, Modder River, etc. Not all of them Marines, either. Refer to Fevyer and Wilson's roll. Probably a sign on the road to nowhere - BUT two who earned Belmont/Modder River were L/Cpls; Po 7.152 L/Cpl. J.Donaldson and Po4.726 L/Cp. F.B.White.
From my experience, RN personal details records were quite comprehensive. They may be accessible on a commercial site and could solve this little mystery.
Regards
IL..

Hello Ian,
I certainly think a road to nowhere is very appropriate, Admiralty records are, indeed, very comprehensive, you could spend weeks looking through ADM159 and ADM171 but, as mentioned, unless any alias is actually subsequently noted, it is pointless.

If you read the original post in this thread the phrase "three years ago, it will be remembered that" is used in an article published in 1900, so John Donaldson had actually enlisted into the Portsmouth Division in 1893, whilst Frederick Bertram White had enlisted in the same, somewhat earlier back in 1889, so very clearly neither could have faked suicide in Hollingworth Lake.
Regards Frank

LinneyI wrote: Frank and Berenice
There certainly were "Powerfuls" who earned clasps Belmont, Modder River, etc. Not all of them Marines, either. Refer to Fevyer and Wilson's roll. Probably a sign on the road to nowhere - BUT two who earned Belmont/Modder River were L/Cpls; Po 7.152 L/Cpl. J.Donaldson and Po4.726 L/Cp. F.B.White.
From my experience, RN personal details records were quite comprehensive. They may be accessible on a commercial site and could solve this little mystery.
Regards
IL..

Thank you, Frank and Ian. I think my best option will be to visit Rochdale Archives; they may have information on the Hirst Hollowell family, and the local Rochdale newspaper will hopefully have covered both the son's return and his fake suicide in fuller detail than the Manchester Courier did.

I used to love Hollingworth as a boy, the fair and of course, the lake itself, with it's gentile opportunity of boating, all too distant memories now, sadly.

To be quite honest, I think it is just one of those things, the way was it was worded in the newspaper seems rather odd, to me at least, you could not simply run away "abroad" and enlist as a marine on a cruiser, you would have joined at Portsmouth, Chatham or Deal and so forth and had a period of service at the particular Depot concerned, normally followed buy a period of duty ashore, within the ranks of the Division you had actually joined in the first place.

However, I am certainly not suggesting that it is, in anyway, whatsoever, fake news, it is much easier to know exactly who you are looking for, than it is to know who you are not looking for, certainly from a point of view of time spent anyway.

BereniceUK wrote: Thank you, Frank and Ian. I think my best option will be to visit Rochdale Archives; they may have information on the Hirst Hollowell family, and the local Rochdale newspaper will hopefully have covered both the son's return and his fake suicide in fuller detail than the Manchester Courier did.