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In Troqueer Parish Church, Dumfries, Scotland.



....Another of our county families has, we regret to say, been sorely stricken. On Tuesday evening, about six o'clock, Colonel and Mrs Dudgeon of Cargen were apprised by telegram from the War Office that their eldest son , Lieutenant Patrick Wellwood Dudgeon, of the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, was reported in a despatch of Sabbath's date to be lying dangerously ill of enteric fever at Krugersdorp, in the Transvaal. A later message, received soon after noon on the following day, bore the sad tidings that his illness had terminated fatally on Monday. The blow was all the more severe, as Mr Dudgeon had enjoyed good health throughout the campaign, and letters received from him up till within a few days of his death were uniformly bright and cheery.
....The deceased officer was in his twenty-fourth year. His heart was set on a military career. He held a omission for some time in the militia battalion of the Borderers. Soon after the outbreak of the war he sought a transfer to one of the regiments under orders for the seat of war, and in the beginning of 1900 his wish was gratified, when he was gazetted to the first battalion of the Borderers and sailed to join them in South Africa. On arrival in that country he served for short periods with other detachments. Since May, 1900, he had been with his own regiment, and passed with it through much of the most arduous work of the campaign, bearing himself gallantly in the long and arduous marches of the flying column, in the numerous brushes with the enemy which the operations entailed, and latterly in the more monotonous but scarcely less trying work of guarding the blockhouses. He was for a considerable time on the line of blockhouses near Frederickstad, where the Volunteer company of the battalion were also stationed. More recently he was in charge of the garrison of one of those houses near Krugersdorp, which lies further to the north and nearer to Johannesburg. He was an officer highly and deservedly popular, his sunny nature making him the life of the regiment. The deepest sympathy is left with his parents and their household in the very sad blow which has fallen so unexpectedly. A younger son, Lieutenant Robert Dudgeon, of the Cameron Highlanders, proceeded to the front several months ago, and is now with his regiment in the neighbourhood of Pretoria. The two brothers had never met during the campaign.
....Our Kirkcudbright correspondent writes: The news of the death of this estimable young officer was received in Kirkcudbright with feeling of the deepest regret. Nowhere in the Stewartry was Lieutenant Dudgeon better known or more beloved than in the Kirkcudbright district. He was quite a boy when his parents came to The Grange, and it was there that the late Lieutenant was principally brought up. When war broke out none was more eager than he to take a share in it, and on leaving Kirkcudbright he was accorded a hearty send-off. All classes followed the fortunes of his regiment with keen interest, and his untimely end has evoked expressions of universal sorrow and of keen sympathy for Colonel and Mrs Dudgeon, than whom none are more highly respected in the district, as was evinced when they left for Cargen some month ago.
Dumfries and Galloway Saturday Standard, Saturday 4th January 1902
....On Sabbath forenoon a memorial service was held in Troqueer Parish Church in memory of the late Mrs M'Murdo, Mavisgrove, and the late Lieutenant P. W. Dudgeon, of the 1st King's Own Scottish Borderers, who died, while on active service, at Krugersdorp on the 30th ult. Referring to Lieutenant Dudgeon, the Rev. James A. Campbell, who occupied the pulpit, said: The uncertainty of life has within the last few days has been painfully brought home to us once more by the sudden death, in a far distant land, of one closely connected with this parish. Stricken with fever, he has died in South Africa. He was a young man of great promise, an officer in his Majesty's service, and one of the brightest and most cheerful spirits of the regiment to which he belonged. His untimely death is terribly sad. That is what everybody says, what everybody feels. We mourn his loss, and pray that his sorrowing parents may be comforted by our Heavenly Father under the bereavement which has fallen upon them. There was a large and reverent congregation and the service was very impressive, the hymns and devotional exercises being appropriate to the occasion. At the close the "Dead March" in Saul was played by the organist, Mr Wilson, the congregation standing.
Dumfries and Galloway Standard, Wednesday 8th January 1902

I have a negative image of Lieutenant Dudgeon but no way of creating a positive image. Does anyone have Photoshop?