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From the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, Wednesday, October 25, 1899

Hello David,
Here we are again, another 21st of October, I cannot help but think that this remains your favourite day of the whole war?
As far as I am concerned, the pursuit of the enemy by the 5th Lancers and the single squadron of the 5th Dragoon Guards, make this rather special for me!
Kind regards Frank (closet donkey walloper! )

Hi everybody

I append a photo of the QSA's to two of the ILH men in my "Battle" collection who were wounded at Elandslaagte





When I made an enquiry about Captain Orr overseas I received the following reply:

I am replying to your e-mail to our website, The Gallant Pioneers.

Your name and e-mail address suggest you are South African. By football, I assumed you meant the game of the oval ball. In Scotland, football is the round ball game. The fact J E Orr was a commissioned officer, a professional soldier, suggested to mean he would more likely be a rugby union internationalist, the amateur game rather than the professional one. Fortunately, I am a big rugby fan as well, so tracking down your man was not too difficult. I have the briefest of information on him, this is what I have.

John Ernest Orr was born on 20 August, 1865. He made twelve international appearances for Scotland in the Four Nations (as it was then) Championship.

16 February, 1889 Ireland v Scotland Belfast W 2-0
1 February, 1890 Wales v Scotland Cardiff W 8-2
22 February, 1890 Scotland v Ireland Edinburgh W 5-0 (2 pts, 1try)
1 March, 1890 Scotland v England Edinburgh L 0-6
7 February, 1891 Scotland v Wales Edinburgh W 15-0 (1 pt, 1 try)
21 February, 1891 Ireland v Scotland Belfast W 14-0
7 March, 1891 England v Scotland Richmond W 9-3 (1 pt, 1 try)
6 February, 1892 Wales v Scotland Swansea W 7-2
20 February, 1892 Scotland v Ireland Edinburgh W 2-0
5 March, 1892 Scotland v England Edinburgh L 0-5
18 February, 1893 Ireland v Scotland Belfast D 0-0
4 March, 1893 England v Scotland Leeds W 8-0

Orr’s position was given as “forward”. This was in the days of “first up”, so the defined positions of today, eg prop, second row, etc, were unknown. John Orr died in Cape Town on 5 November, 1935.



It is clear that Orr was a very keen sportsman.

In addition he was Lt Col and C/O of the 2nd ILH in 1908 during the very short period when it replaced the West Rand Mounted Rifles.



Al I know about Hamel is in the above entry from the 1908 SA Who's Who and that he died in the Transvaal in 1924

Henk

Henk

Thank you for another interesting post.

It seems that rugby was a sport favoured by men of the ILH. Trooper "Dicky" Gorton, who has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, played rugby for South Africa against the visiting British Isles team in 1896. This British team included Thomas Crean and Robert Johnston, who both went on to become ILH officers and to be awarded VC's during the war.

Regards
Brett

Frank,

Yes, I confess. Trafalgar Day is probably my favourite day of the year!

Henk,

I am going to have a find another adjective other than 'wonderful' and 'fabulous' to describe your posts!

Best wishes
David