TOPIC:

A Captain Egerton, later Major then General shows up a number of times in my grandfather's story as per my Uncle. At Omdurman or however it is spelled. Captain Egerton pulled him from the frontline when he was hit in the hip. Later when John was with the 6th HLI Egerton asked to see him, and was surprised he was still in the Army. John would have been in his mid-forties by then

In the diary account of John Winning, of 20th of Oct. he mentions that a few reserve men joined them. My grandfather was at Fort George awaiting the completion of his time with the Seaforth about that time. I wonder if one of these men was John Holmes Will never know for sure but it is kind of fits what my uncle says about John going back into active service

Read the rest of the John Winning diary posted, which filled in a lot on the way of life of a Private during the Anglo- Boer war. Hopefully, the Highland Museum releases more of the pages. So thank you Dave F.

My son downloaded some photos during the Covid shut down and just sent them to me after I mentioned I was working on John Holmes military. At first it just looked like the usual photos from the internet. One image, which I bypassed a few times turned out to be the best clue on his POW . Instead of the page listing John being wounded, as I thought it was It had a long list of POWs being released from Nooitgedacht the article was in The Times of Sept. 20 1900. John was listed. It says at top of article that this was the second part of posting POW names.

Moose46
You have a real puzzle there. There is no doubt that your GF was released from captivity as per The Times report of 20 Sept., 1900. However, the Palmer Casualty roll shows no entry for your GF (Dave F has checked SAFF - see a previous post). Had your GF been an unrecorded capture at Magersfontein (11th December 1899), and not released until 20th September 1900, then he would have had no opportunity to earn the clasps for "Paardeburg" (17th to 26th Feb., 1900) or "Dreifontein" (10th March 1900).
Your GF's KSA roll simply confirms his medal and clasps and notes "to England, 19/8/02".
My rechecking of SAFF (sorry, Dave, I just had to!) shows a number of Seaforth chaps who were captured at odd places other than the main battles. Failing any more revelations, my guess would be that your GF went into the bag at some unrecorded location and after 10th March, 1900.
As ever, quite happy to be proved wrong.
Regards
IL.

I think you must be correct, if he had the two clasps, he must have been in those actions. So it makes sense. Funny that never came to me. From reading my uncle's account it did not sound like he was held for a long period of time. Dave F. was unable to find him listed as POW same as no one could find him listed for a Chitral medal yet my uncle records him as being there and the medal being stolen while in Netley hospital after being wounded in Sudan.
Looks like all the facts point to missing documentation. I spent over 14 years researching my father's RCAF bomber squadron and had the same problem with it

From what I read of these battles in this war, I guess I am lucky to be here. So many deaths are caused by poor leadership. I know my Grandfather thought highly of Kitchener and I am just an armchair observer, but these British Generals were better suited to wars of the past, not the modern warfare they found themselves in.
Many thanks to everyone who put the parts together and into context. There may be more to ask about. For now, it is Private Robert Logan of the 71st in the Crimea of the 1850s to sort out next. Dan