TOPIC:

384 TROOPER HERBERT BRENT: 3RD VICTORIA BUSHMEN

QUEENS SOUTH AFRICA: RHODESIA

I have found the above mentioned Australian soldier who died not by Mauser, shell or disease.

Please find below an extract from South Wales Daily News dated 26th May 1900. The final paragraph is the most relevant to our man.

SIR F. CARRINGTON'S
ADVANCE.
MARTIAL LAW IN RHODESIA
RHODE'S SRIFT CLEAR.
(Press Association War Special)
MARANDELLAS, Monday.
"Martial law has been proclaimed in Southern Rhodesia. A second Regiment of Bushmen have been formed. It is made up of Queenslanders, South Australians and Tasmanians. Major Tunbridge of the Queensland contingent, is in command.
Reports received from Tuli show that the Boers have completely cleared out of the neighborhood of Rhodes Drift.
General Carrington is making every possible arrangement to prevent the work of transporting the troops over the line from interfering with the forwarding of foodstuffs to Salisbury and Bulawayo. The latest advices from these places show that the prices of provision are now much lower than they were.
A second fatal accident involving the death of an Australian occurred near Umtali on the 15 th last, Sergeant Brent of the Victorian contingent, being killed in a railway collision. There were no other casualties. The deceased was buried on the following day with military honours, and practically the whole town attended the funeral."

Watt (2000) states that Sergeant Brent was killed in a railway accident on 14th May 1900 at Mandigras, near MARANDELLAS. He is Interred at Umtali.
His next of kin looks to be his wife, named as a dependant, Annie Maria Brent of Carisbrook.

The Register of Deceased Soldiers Effects (106926) shows holdings of £10 War Gratuity and £5 Colonial Gratuity. There is an entry alongside which states "have been paid to curator of deceased persons estates Victoria and are claimed in the Victoria contingent person account 10/04.
Charged against votes.

One of the many casualties of railway incidents.

Hi Steve
Ref the Bugle article,
Info taken from Find a Grave
Black Country Bulge 4th February 2010
Also:-
He is not commemorated on the Royal Warwickshire Regiment Boer War memorial in in St Mary's Church, Old Square, Warwick, Warwickshire, England .

Steve
The entry for "384 Sgt. Herbert Brent, 3rd Victorian Imperial Regt" (occupation; Publican, age 34 born 1866, from Carisbrook, Victoria) on the Oz-B website shows:
"Umtali was the scene of a second fatal railway accident. On Monday last (prior to 26/5/1900) Sgt. Brent, a popular non-commissioned officer of the Victorian contingent, being killed outright. There were two trains running to Umtali , one a short distance from the other. The first got stuck in a deep cutting, and the second came down from behind. Sgt. Brent had been assisting the engine driver all the day, and was on the engine of the first train when the collision occurred. He jumped, but the sheer walls of the cutting threw him back under the engine, so that he was killed instantly. His remains were conveyed to Untali where he was buried with military honors. Only a few days previously, his commanding officer, Captain Dobbin, had received a letter from the Portuguese officials at Beria, commending the sergeant's coolness at a time of the midnight riot at Beria'.
There a number of references cited as to Sgt. Brent and the incident referred to above.
Regards
IL.

IL,
Indebted to you for the oz-b information.
Sounds like he was a cracking NCO and was very unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Cheers Steve

11697 PRIVATE WILLIAM REARDON: ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS

William is another poisoning casualty that I don't think we have posted as yet.

He was born in Merthyr Tydfil around 1871 to parents James and Margaret who were both born in Ireland. The 1871 Census finds William living at Bute Terrace, Gelligaer, Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire, Wales along with his parents and four brothers and three sisters.

He attested to the RAMC at Adare, County Limerick, Ireland on 31st January 1898 , and is recorded as being a Chemist by profession. He died of poisoning at Elandsfontein on 30th May 1902, and is Interred at Germiston, Primrose Cemetery, commemorated on monument 1.
The Register of Deceased Soldiers Effects (94632) records that his total estate of £12 7s 6d including War Gratuity was left to his father, who is recorded in the Christian name of John.
William is also commemorated at the Gun Hill Memorial to the RAMC at Aldershot, Hampshire, England.

It does seem odd that a trained chemist could get his substances mixed up!

I found his record while researching the men named on the Merthyr Tydfil Boer War Memorial.

Major Robert Lipton Macgregor . 1st Batt. Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
Was one of over 50 members of the South African Field Force to have committed suicide whilst being temporarily insane.


Major Robert Lipton Macgregor  born on the 27th  April 1892 at Kilmalie, Lochaber  Argyle  Scotland.
One of 4 children whose father was Ronald and his mother Duncana (Nee Cummings).

 Major Macgregor entered his regiment May 1882, being promoted Captain June 1890, and Major, October 1900. He served in the Bechuanaland Expedition under Sir Charles Warren, 1884-85, with the 1st Battalion Royal Scots, also in the operations in Zululand in 1888. Major Macgregor, who had been serving with the 2nd battalion in India, was posted on his promotion in October 1900, to the 1st battalion, and proceeding to South Africa served there up to the time of his death.

It is believed that Major Macgregor was at Nooitgedacht POW camp when he killed himself aged 38 on the 2nd April 1901.

Watt memorial has Major Macgregor interred at Airlie, monument 3 ?

Find a grave has Major Macgregor buried at Craig's Cemetery at Fort William Scotland ?

Additional information.
Over seas postings. Malta,  India , South Africa

QSA medal roll , Cape Colony,  Orange Free State,  Transvaal.

A Freemason with fellow officers with the lodge of Unity, Peace & Concord.

Robert Macgregor was believed to be unmarried?

Further information, as ever, will be most welcomed.


Dave........