TOPIC:

David, an update!

As you suggested, I contacted DNW and they passed on my contact information to the person who bought my grandfather's medals from you at auction in 2011. He contacted me very promptly, and has been kind enough to send me a sizable package of documents concerning my grandfather, many of which I had not seen before, but which relate to his service in the First World War, not the Boer War.

Included among the papers was a photocopy of a photograph of the medical officers and nursing staff of the temporary hospital set up at the Masonic Temple in Kimberley, taken around the time of the siege. I'm attaching a scanned copy of the photocopy. I believe that the Masonic Temple was taken over for use as a temporary hospital in March 1900, after the siege had ended, but I could be wrong about that. In any event, one of the men is identified in the papers (by means of a blow-up, copy attached) as William Cooper. Intriguing, certainly, although I think this might be a misidentification, for several reasons: (1) the man identified doesn't look very much like the photographs of my grandfather taken a few years later, (2) I don't see much in the way of family resemblance, and (3) I don't think (though it's hard to be sure) that this man appears in the photo you posted earlier in this stream showing the R.A.M.C. men present at Kimberley during the siege. So, the mystery continues!

I'd be very interested to know if you, or anyone else, can identify any of the people in the Masonic Temple photograph.

Thanks again!

Ardmore

Ardmore,

That is an intriguing picture. I would guess from the caption that the picture was taken after the siege. I do not know for how long the original few men of the RAMC stayed in Kimberley but I would guess not for long.

I will check on the date the LNLR withdrew as I imagine the RAMC would have been with them.

Best wishes
David