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Thank you, Dave F. You have the right chap, Archie Cumberland Eyton, 1966-1954. The London Gazette and the Monthly Army List both place him with IY in March 1901, so I ASSUMED he was a holdover from the first MY draft. Linney1 says the one medal he is wearing is a British SA Co medal, so apparently he had been there before - something else for me to explore! I will take a look at Klerksdorp as a possibility: THAT was the kind of lead I was looking for, so I am enormously grateful for the wealth of information/leads the two of you actually provided. And he may well have invalided home due to sickness: he had no physical impairment I knew of and was active with the Montgomeryshires into WW1.
One curious question: when Capt Eyton died, his uniforms went to the local theatre company - and I remember them as red. When I colourized the picture of him in uniform it came out blue.
Who is the picture you posted? We all used to rough up our caps so we looked like we were veterans of Dien Bien Phu.
Anyway, here is the good Captain in the mid 40's, at Eyton Hall.

Thanks - everso!

Your Picture.....

Incredible amount of background to a previous enquiry and very interesting
Decided to investigate Eyton Hall as mentioned with the photo and found it recently ‘on the market’ with lovely photos of the inside
No doubt the family have also used WikiTree for research
Also did not know of the commercial sites for research - do they have detail info about the 1906 Natal Rebellion which is where my main interest lies in trying to trace my grandfather’s involvement with the Natal Carbineers
Thanks for all input from everybody
Clive

Using my enhanced membership of FMP which gives me limited access to the newspapers of yesterday, which I believe is the same as the coverage given by Newspapers.com, I have searched for said Gent using every conceivable variation of his name.
Starting at 1902, the year of main interest, I obtained 9 hits – 2 from April telling me he was on his way home with a lot of other officers; 4 from May telling me he had resigned his commission; 2 from June telling me his sister in her will, after various bequests to other relatives and a god-daughter, had left the residue of her estate to him; finally one from November telling me he was well enough to attend the Shrewsbury Hunt Ball.
Moving back to 1901 I received 6 hits all from April telling me on the 30th March he was one of several who had been promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to temporary Lieutenant and been attached to the 88th Company of the IY, which along with the 89th was one of two new companies formed about a month earlier. In a couple “Gent” is given after his name.
Finally, I checked out 1903 in case he had decided to donate his memoirs of South Africa to a local newspaper but he had not. I did get 8 hits – 2 in February to tell me he had re-joined the IY on 4th February as a 2nd Lieutenant; 3 from June telling me his recovery was going well and he was now up to playing cricket, in one match he was top scorer, carrying his bat for 25 runs; finally, he attended three more dances – Shropshire Hunt Ball, Oswestry Hunt Ball & the Shropshire Spinster’s Ball.
At this stage I felt I had done my duty. Must admit I am doing better with the Smethwick Telephone and the rank and file of Smethwick, several of whom wrote letters home to their mother which get quoted with some interesting blow by blow accounts of the siege and relief of Ladysmith. Also, some pithy comments regarding the Boers who were definitely not playing the game, in their opinion.

With reference to the South Africa Field Force  records.
The 9th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry  consisted of the following:-

29th Denbighshire
30th Pembrokeshire
31st Montgomeryshire
49th Montgomeryshire
88th Montgomeryshire
89th Montgomeryshire.

Between 1st January 1901 & 31st of May 1902 there were approximately 108 entries pertaining to the 9th Battalion IY.
Ranging from K I A, Severely Wounded, Missing and Died of disease.
As the I Y were a mobile Force patrolling large areas there are a number of locations in SA where the above died or were wounded and killed.
During January to May 1902 ,23 soldiers died of disease at Helibron, Springfontein and Pretoria. Many other locations are mentioned regarding skirmishes and contact with the Boers. However specific battalions are not mentioned as the casualties are recorded under the 9th battalion.

Having had a look at A C Eytons 88th company medal rolls , I only found 3 casualties.  2 deceased and 1 died of wounds. The rolls can sometimes provide clues to where soldiers were wounded or returned home. Alas, information can be omitted. I think Archie may have had an illness or a disease which required convalescence back in the UK.
I have enclosed Lieutenant Eytons medal roll for your records.
As you can see they are dated and the location is Klerksdorp and Welshpool.

With regard to finding out exactly what happened to A C Eyton. Have you considered contacting the Shropshire Archives?
The family were prominent in Shropshire, residing at the beautiful Eyton Hall at Eyton -on-the Weald- Moors. It could be possible that some letters or communique may have been sent to the family from Archibald reference his time in South Africa and may provide some clues if available. I suspect that you may have already contacted your family members for any clues..  I am sorry I couldn't be more exact with the information. I wish you well in your quest. Please keep the forum posted.

Best regards

Dave

Web address for archive.
www.shropshirearchives.org.uk .