TOPIC:

Hi,

Hopefully the good people of this forum could help with my dilemma...

My great grandfather William Murrant fought with the 2nd Queens Royal west Surrey regiment at Colenso, private 3136.
He is listed as severely wounded on 15th Dec 1899 and in the war office list published in newspapers in brackets after his name it says "(Who has since died)".

The thing is, he didn't die! I have very good proof he lived subsequently in London and died around 1942.

I have one more source which appears to be some sort of medal list extract from the Surrey heritage centre. He is listed but does not have an entry against any medals. There is a "remarks" column which simply contains the words "England 1 Jan 1900".

So can anyone offer sense or opinions about this?
Is it possible that his "death" was reported incorrectly?
Does anyone have any idea what that 1 Jan date may mean?
Any idea where to look next to establish what happened to him, hospital admissions, transit home, discharge / pension, etc?

Thanks in advance.

Matt
I had a look on the Palmer casualty roll and his entry shows "3136 Pte Murrant W, Severely wounded, Colenso, 151299". The combination of being in one of the early battles, being severely wounded and having an entry saying "to England 1 Jan 1900" certainly points to him being invalided home. The casualty rolls are certainly sometimes wrong in some details. I would imagine that the early published casualty rolls in the newspapers were subject to the odd typo.
His personal papers may well survive. You might care to look on a commercial site to see what still exists. Perhaps some of the forum membership might be able to delve deeper?
Regards
IL.

Matt

As LinneyI has said William Murrant was invalided home. In the National Archives at Kew there is a series of papers under reference PIN 71 relating to men invalided to pension as a result of wounds, injury or sickness. File number 71/4452 is William Murrant 1890-1942, the former date being his year of enlistment and the latter the year of his death. This has to be your man.

These files often run to well over 100 pages and as they are not available online the only practical way is to get copies is to have them put on a CD-ROM. If you want to pursue this drop me a PM and I'll give you the details of a specialist researcher I use to obtain copies of these files. By the way, his service papers do not appear to have survived so his PIN 71 file is the only record of his service and its aftermath available.

Regards

David

Thanks both for your responses - very useful indeed.

David, I will PM you re: the PIN 71 file.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has looked at the Boer War related sections of the QRWS regiment sources at Surrey archives about whether they would be worth viewing.

Also, whether anyone has access to the medal rolls who could inform whether or not a medal was awarded.

Matt,

I could not see any papers for him on FindMyPast.

The medal roll for the Queen's in WO100/166p332 lists his single clasp, Relief of Ladysmith, which is correct for someone wounded at Colenso who saw no further part in the war. The note says 'To England, Invalided'.

The Times, 22 Dec 1899, reported him deceased



but the Natal Field Force Casualty Roll, page 33 line 28 correctly reported him 'Severely wounded at Colenso. 15 Dec 1899.'