TOPIC:

Forum members
I don't recall seeing anything about this subject previously. I have seen artists' impressions of relatives crowding about notice board lists headed "South Africa" - but surely the WO would have a protocol to notify the next-of-kin about a casualty. Was it by letter? Not that it happened very much in my time - but protocol then was a visit to the NofK by a Padre and an officer. Back during the ABW, surely the relatives would not rely on seeing a name in a casualty list as first notification?
Regards
IL.

Hello IL
I have had a look through some of my documentation and books and there seems to be a lack of information pertaining to next of kin procedures. I have some copies of local newspapers which I have tried to scan but are so small its ineligible to read. But various local news papers of the day published lists associated with the Counties and Shires that the soldiers were from. For example, the Yorkshire Herald dated Saturday December 2nd 1899 dedicates a page to the war in South Africa and there is a section dedicated to the 2nd West Yorkshire at Willow Grange. It goes on to list the killed and wounded from the York district. This included men that were killed, severely wounded, slightly wounded and men who were taken prisoner. Willow Grange took place on the 23rd of November 1899. It made the papers 9 days after the battle. If this is the first line of communication for the families at home, then, in my humble opinion it was quite brutal to say the least. I would imagine comrades and commanding officers did write home and communicate the losses but having a dedicated bereavement section I do not know. I think lists were circulated amongst towns and cities and were located at town halls and funeral directors. As for a member of the British armed forces visiting individual families to deliver the sombre news of the death of a loved one remains to be discovered.
Best regards
Dave

Dave
Thanks for your reply. I knew I had seen a reference to official notifications to NoK and had a look this afternoon. I found it in Edgar Wallace's "Unofficial Despatches of the Anglo Boer War". Second edition, Cape Town, 1975, being a facsimile of the original edition of 1901. I refer to Number XXII "Previously Unreported" and dated from Norval's Pont, April 21st.
I won't reproduce the entirety of Number XXII - in which he writes of a casualty "previously unreported". He mentions an action "on the road to Klip Drift at Rooilaagte where the fight was and left several little mounds of earth with crude crosses". Due to the fact that one man in that action had been detached from his regiment and his CO wasn't quite certain if "Jim" was acting as an orderly or a signaller to a flying column (which in fact he was, but not entered on it's nominal roll), he was not missed by his parent unit. Eventually, word had filtered back and possibly a Court of Enquiry might sit on the matter. The thing is that Wallace made the point that "he was not missed except by a widow WHO WOULD FALL TO SPECULATING WHY A LETTER DID NOT COME. The widow does not read the newspapers and nobody has told her, NOT EVEN THE WAR OFFICE".
Now, we know that Edgar Wallace was a bit of a rebel and was not recommended for a war medal due to the fact that he had evaded the rules of censorship. However, he was there at the time and his "Unofficial Despatches" makes a number of points and has an immediacy I find striking.
To summarise an overly long reply. We know that the Casualty rolls were published (if not always widely distributed) and comrades would certainly write to an NofK. Apparently, however, there was a form of notification issued to NoK's by the WO. Wallace refers to them.
Perhaps a copy of such a notification might turn up one day.
Regards
IL.

"Deceased was wounded by a shell in the battle of Diamond Hill, on June 12th, and died two days later from the effects. What makes the case doubly sad, is that his friends had been led to believe that he was only slightly wounded and was doing well, frequent enquiries at the War Office apparently confirming this view. Nothing to the contrary was heard until a comrade's letter to a neighbouring village arrived, containing the startling information that Corporal Moakes was dead."

His name didn't appear in the casualty lists until around the beginning of September 1900, and just to add that Moakes had a wife and child, so something in the system went badly wrong.

Hello Ian,
Yes, it normally was a letter, certainly in the case of members of the British Army at least, it was the practice of the Regiment/Corps concerned to write as soon as possible to the next of kin that had been originally given by the casualty upon enlistment, rather than the War Office.
For example, in the case of the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment and the Guards Brigade, a note was dispatched from Horse Guards normally signed by the casualties Regimental Colonel at the earliest possible convenience.
Sadly, it was not always the case that this was done, particularly after "black week" with the result that some families received the news via the published returns that had been placed in the hands of the press by the War Office, on occasion, there were errors and omissions, but, I still believe it was carelessness rather than anything else.
Regards Frank


.

LinneyI wrote: Forum members
I don't recall seeing anything about this subject previously. I have seen artists' impressions of relatives crowding about notice board lists headed "South Africa" - but surely the WO would have a protocol to notify the next-of-kin about a casualty. Was it by letter? Not that it happened very much in my time - but protocol then was a visit to the NofK by a Padre and an officer. Back during the ABW, surely the relatives would not rely on seeing a name in a casualty list as first notification?
Regards
IL.

Frank
That form of notification is what I would I would have expected - and I can understand confusion during Black Week. As I said before, I had never seen an example or indeed heard of one.
Thanks for that confirmation.
Regards
IL.