TOPIC:

This was the memorial that was destroyed in 1941. From the description of the unveiling the memorial seems to have been on the front exterior of the synagogue.


....A special service was held yesterday afternoon at the Central Synagogue, Great Portland-street, London, at which Field Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G., accompanied by General Mackinnon, attended for the purpose of unveiling a memorial to the Jewish soldiers who fell in the South African campaign. During the service a procession was formed to the exterior of the synagogue, where a platform and awning, beautifully decorated, had been specially erected, and here the memorial was unveiled. The tablet bore the inscription, followed by a hundred and fourteen names:
........"To the glory of God and in loyal and patriotic memory of the soldiers of the Jewish race and faith who lost their lives in the service of their country during the South African war 1899-1902."
....The procession then returned to the synagogue, the "Last Post" was sounded on bugles, and an address was then given by the Chief Rabbi. The service, which was well attended, was brought to a conclusion with the singing of the National Anthem.

Manchester Courier, Monday 20th March 1905

Just spotted this string. I have the QSA to Corpl Joseph Tobias, 2nd Essex Regiment who was killed in March 1902. I will add a pic. He was the only member of the Bn killed in action (two others died of wounds, from memory).

exyeoman wrote: Just spotted this string. I have the QSA to Corpl Joseph Tobias, 2nd Essex Regiment who was killed in March 1902. I will add a pic. He was the only member of the Bn killed in action (two others died of wounds, from memory).

He's named on the Essex Regimental memorial in Chelmsford - www.angloboerwar.com/forum/17-memorials-...essex-regiment#66407

"In regard to the death of Corpl. Joseph Tobias, 2nd Essex, son of the late Mr. J. Tobias, of Upminster, at Tweekopjes, on March 9, Captain Chawner writes that the gallant Corporal was in command of a blockhouse with a garrison of six men, with whom he worked hard and well. Hearing firing at night, he got up and went into the trench, but was shot through the heart. Deceased had been in India for five years, and was in Africa only a few weeks before his death."
Essex Newsman, Saturday 12th April 1902


A couple of possibles -
Joseph Tobias, born 1869 in the St. Giles in the Fields & St. George Bloomsbury parish, London, and Joseph Tobias, born 1872 at Halstead, Essex.

Thanks, Berenice - I'd spotted that article before but good to see it again. Here are some pics of Joseph Tobias' medal, which is in good condition and the ribbon may be the original. He was the one born in Halstead district in 1872. Do we know whether the names on the memorial are the totality of those of the Jewish faith from the UK who died with British forces?
The main body of 2nd Bn Essex Regiment arrived in December 1901 and suffered only three fatal casualties at the hands of the Boers: Tobias k in a and 2 died of wounds. The Bn also supplied the Essex Company of the Burma Mounted Infantry which arrived in January 1900: one of its members was k in a, but Tobias was the only member of the 2nd Bn to be k in a while serving with the Bn.
It was a Christmas present from my uncle almost 40 years ago. He'd paid £40 for the medal from Spink's Numismatic Circular - which naturally hadn't spotted what makes the medal interesting and rare!

Ian

....When the news of the death of Herbert Abraham Solomon, of the 5th West Australian. Mounted Infantry Contingent, reached his family and friends at Northam, W.A., there was an initial proposal in the local newspaper that a marble tablet be erected in his memory. However, the following month, a second soldier from Northam died, with the result that, in June 1905, a memorial plaque to the two men was unveiled in the porch of Northam's Anglican church.
....Herbert is also remembered on the memorial in Kimberley synagogue.

VREDE CEMETERY