TOPIC:

The man who has obsessed me for the past few months, Tpr H C Gorton, ILH, was mortally wounded during the Battle of Wagon Hill on 6 January 1900. He had "seven wounds in the body and five in the head". He was carried off the hill with uncontrollable hic-cups, which were probably the result of a wound to the diaphragm. His comrade, Sgt J W Laing, who was also wounded, was in hospital with Gorton and wrote:
"I would like again to mention that my poor old pal "Dickie" Gorton hic-coughed himself to death in the bed next to me."

It took Gorton four days to die, which must have been agonising for him and distressing for those who witnessed his suffering.

Brett

Brett,

I am very sure that PTSD is no recent phenomena. I wonder if returning soldiers received any help for these things when they returned. I guess not.

Best wishes
David

David
I knew several WW1 diggers in the 50's and 60's; as well as many WW2 types and even more from Malaya and SVN. There was absolutely no help given to them to fit into civilian life and I am certain that it was not any better for the ABW. That said, they all tried to get on with it; forget the nasty bits and treasure the comradeship.
IL.

Hi Adrian and David

Thanks for the extra information to be added to Parker's file.

Henk

Hi Brett and others

The lot of mortally wounded Boer War soldiers, waiting to die, must have been awful.

An extreme case is represented in my collection by the QSA to 3685 Pte W Jefferies, Grenadier Guards. He was wounded and trapped in the veld fire at Biddulphsberg on 29 May 1900 and only died of burns some 4 weeks later on 25 June 1900. I cannot even try to imagine what agony he went through.

Henk

The trio to Pte J Dawson, LNLR, which is being auctioned by Neate Auctions next week.

The Star has, as Frank predicted in a post a few weeks a ago, the 'C' hallmark.



QSA (3) DoK Ofs Tr (4669 PTE J. DAWSON, 1st L. N. LANC: REGT.)
KSA (2) (4669 PTE. J. DAWSON, L. N. LANC: REGT.)
Kimberley Star 1899 - 1902 with 'C' hallmark.