TOPIC:

Seen on the Southern wall of St.James' Anglican Church, Queens Square, Sydney is a stained glass Memorial window to the Second Regiment, NSW MR. The main window shows St.Michael defeating the dragon with a dedication at the lower edge of the window. Underneath the window is a brass memorial plaque; listing those of the 2/NSWMR who did not return from active service.
The window was, frankly, rather difficult to photograph and IL (and his trusty SONY cyber-shot) did their best. He fears it is not up to Berenice's standard.




The names on the brass memorial plaque were virtually impossible to photograph - given the low light. IL took the liberty of transcribing those names as follows:
Lt. G.B.Forster
2Lt. E.A.Lamb
Far Sgt. A.W.Sisley
653 Pte S.Ahrens
494 Pte T.E. Barker
1307 Pte M Bastick
1418 Pte A.Brown
908 Pte W.E.Clancy
1760 Pte G.F.Coyle
412 Pte W.Harker
3487 Pte J.T.Hay
468 Pte G.Johnson
849 Pte W.H.Kohler
455 Pte T.McKay
1812 Pte S.S.Mayo
1518 Pte J.Richardson
622 Pte J.E.Rowe
1016 Pte. H. Spiers
1015 Pte. H.S.Walsh
664 Pte D.R.Chrichton|

To continue
3499 Pte M.J.Farrell
897 Pte R.Foran
921 Pte J.F.Foreman
396 Pte E.W.Green.
Stirling (The Colonials in South Africa) given 2/NSWMR a quite close write-up; Murray expands a little. 2/NSWMR was a crack outfit.
Regards to all who have read this far
IL.

Hello Ian,
A very impressive window, I should not worry too much about your photo, it's seldom easy to ever do them the justice they deserve, it is often very hard to get into the position needed to take a really good photograph and almost impossible to ever be able to show the fine detail.
Kind regards Frank

Thanks for posting Ian - good to see a nice piece of Victorian stained glass.

Cause of death for those named:
Disease: 18
KiA: 5 (three at Korannafontein 10-05-1901)
DoW: 1 (Korannafontein 10-05-1901)

For the period they were in the field 1901-1902 it is interesting that disease still accounted for so many deaths, one wonders why was nothing learnt from the Bloemfontein epidemic in 1900? Or was it simply the hardship of the guerrilla war weakening the constitution of the soldiers?

There is one man missing from the memorial:

L-Cpl 257 R Weeks KIA Witbank 02-04-1902

Regards
Meurig

Meurig
Yes, disease was a real problem; not only for those from the UK. I was doing some preliminary work for an interesting chap in 1st NSWMR (post to come reasonably soon!) when I read in Laurie Field's "The Forgotten War" that the invalid rate for 1st NSWMR was really high; of the 130 officers and men, 50 were invalided. Some of that unit were sent to England for treatment and convalescence. I have not done an analysis of the casualties for the Aust. contingents; would be an interesting project. Doubtless the hard lying, short rations and problematic water sources took it's toll - as it had done in previous Colonial wars.
Regards
IL.

Ian

Do you know if troops from Australia were offered the typhoid vaccine? It was given to many/most(?) troops sent from England.

Regards
Meurig