Steve’s advice worked allowing the mystery of the Memorial to Marshall’s Horse in a South Wales Church to be solved:
South Wales Daily News 11th November 1902
MEMORIAL WINDOW AT NEWPORT
The handsome stained-glass window, which has been erected over the south door of the south aisle in St. John the Baptist Church, Newport, was privately unveiled a few days ago, the proposed public function, at which Colonel Sir Edward Ward was to have assisted, having been abandoned. The window is erected to the memory of the officers and men of Marshall’s Horse, who lost their lives in the South African campaign and the subjects in the window include representations of Our Lord, and St. Michael and St. George. The South African war medal and the clasps are artistically delineated. A tablet erected in the wall beneath the window is inscribed with the names of the brave fellows. At morning services on Sunday the vicar (Rev. J. F. Summers) in place of the sermon gave a description of the window, the artistic beauties of which were much admired, and in the name of the parish, heartily thanked the donor (the wife of Colonel Wallis) for the handsome gift. Colonel Wallis’s son was one of the officers of Marshall’s Horse.
Colonel Wallis’s son was Captain Charles William Wallis (1874-1911). He was born in Calcutta and died in Canada and has a separate memorial under the stained glass window mentioned in the article. This personal memorial depicts the three medals he won including his Queen’s South Africa Medal (4 clasps) & King’s South Africa Medal (2 clasps).
I suspect, but better and closer up photos are needed than those shown on the Roll-of-Honour website, that Charles’s four clasps – Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Cape Colony & Orange Free State are depicted at the bottom of the stained glass window.
Another mystery is why only his mother is mentioned as a donor as his father was still alive. The family was obviously well off and on the 1881 Census Return they were living in Chester House, Newport with three servants and his father’s occupation was given as “East India Trader”. Charles’s two sisters, one two years his senior and the other five years his junior, were both born in Newport.
Is this Memorial unique, being the only Memorial outside South Africa dedicated to all the fallen of a unit raised in South Africa?
There is also another Boer War Memorial in Newport, South Wales:
roll-of-honourorg.selvi.co.uk/Monmouthsh...portSouthAfrica.html
A word of warning when searching for Newport – there is also a Newport in north Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales (those who have followed the Roll-of-Honour link given in a previous post will notice they have got a bit confused), a Newport on the Isle of Wight, a Newport in Shropshire (where the author’s Smethwick GS were evacuated to in WW2) and even a Newport-on-Tay where there is also a Boer War Memorial. The Newport in question above is in Gwent, south-east Wales but once was in Monmouthshire and gained City status in 1996. It is also famous for its Transporter Bridge across the River Usk and its football team, Newport County, who have spent most of their existence propping up the English Football League.
