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Okay Brett,
I wanted to do this man justice, because of what happened to him, so I really hope you will not be too disappointed as there is not much left now.

Henry Corbett Gorton grew up, in his family home, here, in this very house, the immediate area has changed little from an architectural point of view.
The semi- detached house, now a nusery, is really just a shell, the victorian fixtures and fittings have gone forever along with the gardens as you can see.
It is quite large, it needed to be with all his brothers and sisters, it had a cellar too, the rendering is not victorian and would not have been there when he lived here, the house next door is a much better example and has changed rather less.

Brett,
It will take me quite some time to get it all together for you and I now must wait for some copies that had to be ordered from their local County Council, as a sole and rather useless microfilm reader rendered photography all but impossible, it has no place in the 21st century, but it was all they had.

Anyway, this was the original grammar school, where Henry's elder brothers, Thomas and James attended, now as this closed in about 1877-78 it is not clear whether or not Henry went there, however, he could well have done, but, not really for more than a year or so.
It is now small private apartments/flats.

The new gammar school was open as the old one closed and was sited almost opposite "Beeropolis" where both Henry and his elder brothers played rugby for their school teams and Henry went on to play threequarter back for the towns second team in the early 1890's.
It stood well into the 20th century but as you can see is now long gone.



This bit of wall is all thats left now.

Hi Frank

I am most grateful to you for all the trouble you have taken to provide a foundation for Gorton's file. Hopefully, this file will always stay with Gorton's medal and stand as a memorial to a man who gave his life for 'Queen and Country'.

In his account of the Battle of Wagon Hill, George Gibson wrote:
"Trooper 'Dicky' Gorton received no less than 13 wounds. When he was being carried away on a stretcher, he had a cheery smile left and waved a hand to his understanding comrades, in mute farewell. He died four days later. His surviving comrades like to think that:-
'All the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.'"

Since you have given pictures of the area where Gorton started his life, I am attaching one of the area on Wagon Hill where he was mortally wounded.

Regards and thanks again.
Brett

Frank

I meant to add that the last time someone in the UK tried to photograph a house that once belonged to man, whose medal I had in my collection, he was chased away by youths whose origins were on the Indian subcontinent. Evidently, the neighbourhood was open only to Muslims.

Brett

Hello Brett,
Thanks for the photo of Wagon Hill, yes, it was a bad period, the 5th and 6th January, as far as I am concerned, this whole ridge was in those hours "The Boer War" Kimberley and Mafeking do not come close.
Frank