TOPIC:

British soldiers who died at the General Military Hospital Wynberg from sickness and wounds during 1899 - 1902

Pte WHITAKER, T. [7517]
Pte OAKES, S.K. [2819]
Pte LOFTHOUSE, G. [4854]
Pte WHIPP, A. [4855]
Pte RICHARDSON, W.R. [51]
Pte WILLIS, H. [5744]
Pte CUNLIFFE, E. [5603]
Pte SHAW, E.W. [3663]
Pte THORNLEY, O [1334] - see also his grave
Pte SHORTLAND, W.A. [2395]
Tpr BENNETT, W.D. [173] - see also his grave
Pte DAVEY, J.B. [29409]
Tpr HARTLEY, R. [25792]
Civ GUY, R.
L/Cpl CROKER, J.E. [7079
Pte WOOD, A.
Pte KITCHING, J.G.

Only one Imperial Yeomanry man. Did sick or wounded IY men tend to be sent to IY hospitals, if possible?

Hi Berenice

Most of the IY men were send to Deelfontein Hospital in the Karoo.

SOURCE: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deelfontein

Deelfontein is a village in the Great Karoo, Northern Cape, region of South Africa on the route of the Pretoria to Cape Town railway. It primarily developed to service the railway due to its good water supply for steam locomotives, and is currently the location of a passing loop on the single-track line.

In 1900 a British military field hospital, the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, was constructed for casualties from the Second Boer War. The location was chosen for its communications and dry climate, and its proximity to De Aar, then the centre of hostilities. Alfred Downing Fripp[1] was Chief Medical Officer.

The hospital was unusual in pioneering the use of x-ray diagnosis. The surgeon-radiographer in charge, Major John Hall-Edwards, achieved eminence in this field, though he subsequently lost an arm through x-ray damage.

The hospital, with a capacity for some 800 patients, largely comprised tents and prefabricated huts; at the cease of hostilities, materials from the latter were used for housing at Red Location, a township for Africans outside Port Elizabeth.[2]

Little remains of the complex except a cemetery with around 130 graves and the remains of the Yeomanry Hotel, built after the war to accommodate soldiers' relatives visiting the site.

See also an article by Steve Watt : samilitaryhistory.org/vol074sa.html

The December issue of the KwaZulu-Natal Branch of the SA Military History Society included an attachment advertising the following book:
Yeoman of the Karoo. The Story of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein.
By Rose Willis, Dr Arnold van Dyk & Prof J C de Villiers.

I tried copying the advertisement to post here, but one evidently needs to be a teenager to know how to do that. Ms Willis was said to have a popular.newsletter, 'Rose's Roundup', so presumably that is easily accessed on the Internet and the book may be advertised there.

Brett

These men must be only those claimed by the Methodists who provided the distinctive headstones - I have 280 men died at Wynberg, most, if not all, died at the hospital.

YEOMAN OF THE KAROO: The Story of the Imperial Hospital at Deelfontein by Rose Willis, Arnold van Dyk and JC ‘Kay’ de Villiers. Published by Firefly Publications, Brandfort, Free State, 2016



The story of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein has never really been told. It is much more than a story of an Anglo-Boer War hospital. It is a tale of bravery, sacrifice, medical advances, adventure, camaraderie and love.
Yeomen of the Karoo is a powerful story of real people. It is a tale of men (and women) who stood up and got counted, people who unquestioningly gave without counting the cost. Today there’s nothing but memories left, but the place surprises people when they first see it and visions taunt them long after they’ve gone. It poses far more questions than it answers. This hospital accomplished more than its creators ever envisioned, but once it was gone, it was almost as if it had never been.
About the authors:
The story of the establishment of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein in the Karoo was researched and written by
Rose Willis,
an authority on the history of the Karoo, and editor of the popular e.newsletter, Roses’s Round-up;
Dr Arnold van Dyk,
a widely respected authority on the Anglo-Boer War, who has a vast private library on the subject, and much original documentation as well as photographs pertaining to the IYH, and
Professor J C (Kay) de Villiers,
an eminent Cape Town neuro-surgeon and expert on the medical history of the Anglo-Boer War and on the effects of typhoid.
The story of this fascinating place has been fully researched and some excellent photographs, never published before, have been selected to illustrate the work.
Yeomen of the Karoo sells at R570.00

SOURCE: PROTEA BOOKSHOP