ABO. City Coins August 2016.
Salmon A.G. Harmse was only 16 years old when, after some 29 months in captivity, he died of Typhoid Fever on St. Helena on 6 July 1902. He is buried in the Knollcombe Cemetery on the island.
He was serving in the Potchefstroom Commando when he was taken prisoner with his father, B.J.F. Harmse, at Paardeberg on 27 February 1900. The POW Register (POW No. 1191) states his age at time of canture as 16, but the authoritative brochure Die Bannelinge (The Exiles), published by the War Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein in 1983, confirms that he was 16 years old when he died. Salmon’s father applied for his late son’s medal in February 1922.
A total of 577 Burghers died outside Southern Africa as Prisoners of War:
- At sea: 77
- St Helena: 171
- Ceylon: 156
- Bermuda: 31
- India: 142
The youngest POW to die overseas was the 8 year old David Jacobs (POW No. 29757) who was captured at Straithnaim on 27 February 1902 and succumbed to measles in Bellary, India on 19 April 1902. The two oldest POW’s to die overseas were 74 when they passed away on St. Helena.
