TOPIC:

Smethwick, very helpful, thanks. Most of the information you dug up conforms with the contents of the notebook. He gives his service number as 7024 though but that doesn't seem correct. With regard to his profession as a mason, there are various pages dedicated to work he carried out at the "White Lion", this must have been after the war. Is there any info about why he died so young?

EFV - 7024 is entirely correct and he was among the 91 men of the West Riding Regiment on board the Roslin Castle - here are his attestation papers and service records:

EFV - and here he is on Medal rolls for the 2nd Volunteer Active Service Company attached to 1st Battalion West Riding Regiment - you can see his mate Dennison, who went sick, listed just above him.

EFV - just done a search of 1907 newspapers in case there was an inquest into his death but all I found was:



The only recourse is having a look at his death certificate. If you are ever in London you can make an appointment with The National Archives telling them at the same time what you want to have a look at. Alternatively you can order a copy via the likes of Ancestry - the last time I did that (pre-pandemic) it cost about £25.

Incidentally the paperwork regarding 7084 Private Arthur Dennison can be found on Find-My-Past. He was born in Bradford but also attested in Halifax. He was a couple of years younger than Harry Dyson and working as a "wool sorter" when he attested. The last page is identical to Harry's, except the details of his wife are different, meaning he was also amongst the 91 men on the Roslin Castle.

Smethwick, thanks for all the work putting Dyson Bintcliffe into context. I have written an email to the Vicar of st. Matthews church in Rastrick for info. If she replies I will post it.

My small contribution to this thread; a series of photographs from the book "After Pretoria: The Guerrilla War", published 1902, that I came across last week; apologies for the poor reproductions:



The Inventor of the Blockhouse Major Spring Robert Rice, R.E., who entered the Royal Engineers in 1877. He is the inventor of the "Rice Blockhouse" the inexpensive and comparatively portable corrugated iron blockhouse with circular walls filled with shingle.

He is shown in the picture with his company the 23rd who served in Ladysmith during the siege and blew up 3 of the enemies guns in December 1899.



The following pictures are not great; however, the top picture is of the foundations being laid, the middle of the walls and finally the lower picture of the corrugated iron roof being constructed.





Now I understand how depressing it must have been inside one of them; note the comment below the picture:



The storming of a Blockhouse:



One of the odd ones:



This is still the best reference to blockhouses:
samilitaryhistory.org/vol106rt.html

This is an extract from that article:

"Major Rice introduced an octagonal corrugated design in February 1901 and only invented his circular corrugated blockhouse later. By this time the Boers had lost most of their artillery and the double-skin corrugated iron wall with the shingle filling provided sufficient protection against rifle fire. The high cost and long construction period of the masonry blockhouses also probably swayed opinion in favour of the corrugated design. In spite of this, the advantage of the additional height of the three-storeyed masonry structure may have allowed further examples of this type of blockhouse to be built at a later date in flatter terrain."