TOPIC:

He died of enteric according to Dooner (p.165) and Watt (p.292).

Justin

Hi Adrian,

the plaque didn't mention a cause of death, but did mention that he had fought gallantly in several actions. I think his family, understandably, found it hard that after going all the way to SA to fight for the Empire that he should sadly die of Typhoid / Enteric in a Bloemfontein hospital.

Thanks Justin, for verifying the fact.

regards, Iain

capepolice wrote: Hello Iain,

I am not to sure. The casualties list only mentions "Died of Disease". I would however, suspect that this would have been the cause. Typhoid took a terrible toll on the troops in the field.

Regards
Adrian

Hello Iain,

Yes, I think you are quite right.

It must have been the same for thousands of other family's as well consideing that disease was the major cause of death during the ABW. All very sad really.

Regards
Adrian

Gentlemen,
The danger of typhoid and enteric was known of in both the rank and file and the officer corps in the British army, but, was unwisely forgotten about, if they had been on the march or in the saddle for many hours, sadly, when it came to having a drink and filling the water bottle, actually taking the time to boil the water beforehand was not uppermost in their minds.
For many soldiers, it proved to be the last mistake they would ever make.

capepolice wrote: Hello Iain,

Yes, I think you are quite right.

It must have been the same for thousands of other family's as well consideing that disease was the major cause of death during the ABW. All very sad really.

Regards
Adrian

I suspect that disease and illness were the major causes of death in the majority of wars (as opposed to battles) up to and including the ABW. Come the Great War, technology made it easier to kill larger numbers of men on the battlefield and at sea. I'm not forgetting the Spanish Flu epidemic but that wasn't specific to the combatting armies. A review of Clive Ponting's 'The Crimean War' includes "On the Franco-British side, the French lost 95,000 men, the British 22,000, but of these just 4,000 died in action or from wounds received in battle. The majority of deaths on both sides were as a direct result of cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, frostbite, malaria and scurvy."

The Crimean War should have been a steep learning curb, but, much of what was learned seemed to have been forgotten, yet again, if disease did not get you , the winter certainly would, not a problem for many officers of course, you just handed in your papers and went back to your London club, not so good if you were in the ranks.
The famous view of one senior officer who did actually winter in the Crimea, "The Artillery Horses seem to be insufficently clad"
I hope he had time to reflect on that.


I suspect that disease and illness were the major causes of death in the majority of wars (as opposed to battles) up to and including the ABW. Come the Great War, technology made it easier to kill larger numbers of men on the battlefield and at sea. I'm not forgetting the Spanish Flu epidemic but that wasn't specific to the combatting armies. A review of Clive Ponting's 'The Crimean War' includes "On the Franco-British side, the French lost 95,000 men, the British 22,000, but of these just 4,000 died in action or from wounds received in battle. The majority of deaths on both sides were as a direct result of cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid, frostbite, malaria and scurvy."[/quote]