TOPIC:

From the Liverpool Daily Post of 25 December 1899 - address same as that in sale notice Neville posted. Couple of other articles, which I don't think have already been posted, to follow shortly.

This notice come advert appears several times in the Liverpool Daily Echo of May & June 1899:

This one is more for amusement than information - from the Sports Argus 26 April 1902. "The Major" was obviously a bit of showman or, for the first half, a larger than life character.

They had to provide their own horses? Good grief.

Thanks so much for this Smethwick. Yesterday I knew virtually nothing. Today an embarrassment of riches thanks to all of you. Very grateful. Thanks.

Hywel.

I'd have paid money to watch that, it sounds great fun.

Yes Hywel, the first wave of the IY, who were generally from the middle classes were expected to provide their own horses. I have never seen an estimate of the average life expectancy of a horse in the Second Boer War but it must have been very short - whilst 22,000 Imperial Forces lost their lives in Second Boer War, the death toll for Imperial horses was about 300,000! They were not always killed by enemy action - I quote from a letter written by a member of the 48th (North Somerset) Company of the IY "One day he took twenty of us over seventy miles at a very hot pace and nine of our horses died on the road and three of those that got back died a day or so after." The writer was part of Lord Robert's escort and the "he" in the quote was Lord Roberts, CinC of the Imperial Forces.

Anyway, I have some gold dust for you - a letter C R Lempriere sent home from the front. Strangely I found it in the Bournemouth Daily Echo of 20 December 1900 and nowhere else. I have had to split it into two halves to screenshot it. As you will see he gained his skills in SA for playing the clown in Yardley in 1902.



By the way I have found some photos of the Old Talbot Inn, Yardley - one from the period when Clement lived there and the others since it has become a private house. Happy to post if you are interested in them.