TOPIC:

Please may I introduce myself? I am compiling a book, with my sister, on our Grandfather, Lt Col. G.S. Mardall, who joined the Natal Mounted Police as a Trooper in 1879, and retired as Assistant Commissioner, Natal Police in 1911. I would be most grateful for any help in identifying the uniformed figures in the attached photo, from my Grandfather's album. I believe it must have been taken in early November 1899 because the civilian in the middle is the journalist, Bennet Burleigh, author of "The Natal Campaign", where he describes the train being blown up by the Boers. On the left is my Grandfather, then an Inspector NP, based at Estcourt for the duration of the Siege of Ladysmith. Can anyone please identify the officer in the white cap, or the uniformed man on the right?

Elisabeth

Although we have 'met' before, I am pleased to welcome you to the ABW Forum. I hope you will share with us more of your photos of Colonel Mardall, and that you will find answers to at least some of your questions.

Regards
Brett

Hello Elisabeth,
Welcome on here, I like that photograph very much, upon seeing it, my initial thoughts on the officer with the white cover on his cap, was an officer of field rank in the Natal Carbineers, but after a closer look, I don't think so now.
I look forward to reading any posts that you may add on here in due course.
Kind regards Frank

Elisabeth,

A warm welcome to the forum.

An excellent photo. Only sorry that I can't help with the identification.

Best wishes
David

I wonder if anyone could confirm please whether the man in the military cap (second from left) could be Captain Albert Hensley of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, whose photo appears here:http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25618/25618-h/25618-h.htm#img033. He died of wounds sustained at Ventners Spruit in January 1900. My Grandfather describes accompanying the armoured train with him to Colenso the day before the train was attacked and Winston Churchill taken prisoner in November 1899.

Elisabeth

There is a history of the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the Boer War, which was written by Majors Romer and Mainwaring. In it is a portrait photograph of Captain Hensley in which he has a fuller face than the officer on the train. That probably means little given the different times that the two photographs were taken - one in a studio in comfortable peacetime and the other on weight-reducing active service.

Perhaps of greater significance is a group photograph of RDF officers before they embarked for Aden in 1902. It shows them wearing white-crowned caps similar to the one the man on the railway coach was wearing. Of course, this type of cap may have been common to many regiments, but at least it does not eliminate the RDF from consideration.

My file on the RDF was sacrificed during our recent 'downsizing', but I remember it contained a published copy of a letter that Captain Hensley addressed to his father shortly before he was killed. The fact that this letter could be reproduced suggests that records of Hensley's life are preserved somewhere and a search for them may be rewarding.

Regards
Brett