TOPIC:

Not to be confused with Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Bryant of the 26th Mounted Infantry who is said to be interred beneath the toilet on the platform at Ogies Railway Station, Mpumalanga District , Eastern Transvaal. The grave marker for this man, which stands on the station platform next to the toilet block, suggests that he was killed in action on the 1st February 1902 near Witbank. He was buried where he fell and disenterred some time later when a new length of railway line would have crossed over his grave site. Reinterred in his present location which was later covered over by the extension to the Ogies Railway Station platform, hence the grave marker and remains at this site. There has been much debate, particularly by Meurig Jones about the true identity of this man, as many things just do not add up!


Grave marker for J. Bryant at Ogies Railway Station


Grave marker
(Images reproduced here for research purposes only. Original from "Skyline" SAAFA, Johannesburg, March 2012).


Back to the story of the soldier in the title of this thread!
I do hope you are not confused!

I will begin by explaining my interest in Bryant. I do not have his QSA and KSA in my collection, but have recently picked up a memorial card commemorating his death in South Africa. It was sold on eBay as a separate lot from a batch of other memorial cards and funeral items to the Bryant family.
I cannot vouch for it's age with any certainty, but it appears to be of the period and could have conceivably been printed for a memorial service for Joseph Henry Bryant or perhaps at another family ceremony back in England.


Front cover.


Left hand inside cover with the following printed thereon:
'Far from thy home and friends
They Father called there,
There in a stranger's land,
There Jesus found thee,
And then with pitying eye
Called thee to his rest,
Where every tear is dry,
There for ever blest."


Right hand inside cover with the following printed thereon:
"IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
Joseph Henry Bryant,
Lance-Corporal, 2nd Somerset Light Infantry,
Who died of Enteric Fever at Slursmans
Ranges, South Africa, Feb. 3rd, 1902.

AGED 23 YEARS

"Thy will be done."

Watt (2000) tells us that 5241 Lance Corporal Joseph Henry Bryant of the 2nd Battalion Somerset Light Infantry and serving with the 26th Mounted Infantry, died of disease at Sturmans Ranges on 3rd February 1902 and is Interred in Wakkerstroom Cemetery and memorialized on Monument 1. Palmer(1999) and Hayward (1982) both agree on number, rank, name, unit and cause of death.
Furthermore, he is commemorated on the South African memorial for the fallen of the Somerset Light Infantry located on the North Wall, North Transept, Wells Cathedral,
Wells, Somerset, England.
FindMyPast also records his death from Enteric Fever, as reported by the "Western Daily Press" dated 7th February 1902.
With the weight of all of this evidence, I think it safe to say that this is how this man met his end.

His attestation papers are no longer extant, but a little bit more digging has turned up some backstory for us to remember him by.
The Census of 1881 tells us that Joseph was born in 1879 in the St. Paul's District of Bristol, then in Gloucestershire. At the time of the census the family were living at number 5 Belle Vue Cotts, Westbury-upon-Trym, Barton Regis, Gloucestershire.
The Bryant family comprised of his mother Sarah Ann, a widow aged 29 and his elder brother George (4). They were living as lodgers with the Lippiatt family.

The next snippet of information that I came across was in the "Army Register of Soldier's Effects," in which there were two entries as follows:

88682---to rank of Lance Corporal, he attested to the Somersets on 19th September 1898 and was a Gardener by profession living at Westbury, Gloucestershire.
£15 8 shillings and 10 pence was left to his mother Sarah, and £5 2 shillings and 11 pence to his brother George.

98605--rank as Private.

For his military service in the South African campaign Joseph was posthumously awarded the Queen's South Africa medal with clasps Cape Colony/Tugela Heights/Orange Free State/Relief of Ladysmith and Transvaal (WO100/175).
Also the King's South Africa medal with both date clasps (WO100/323).

What a weird coincidence that a man of the same rank, name and Mounted Infantry unit died within two days of this man over 200 miles away! All very strange.

What a tale of intrigue which has stemmed from a modest purchase of a memorial card.