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Tony, thanks for posting these letters. It really brings home the reality of war. Monday, 22nd January Candy's thoughts are of Christmas and a week in Blackpool with his wife and children. Tuesday 23rd January 1900 and Candy meets his end at Spion Kop.

Best,

Mark

Tony,

These letters are fasinating, thank you for posting them.

As Mark say's, it really does bring home the realities of war. His wife would have recieved the last letter he wrote a while after he was already dead.

Very sad.

Regards

Adrian

Tony,

I echo Mark's and Adrian's comments. Thank you very much for sharing these letters.

David

This post is to clarify one point.

The successful skirmish at Acton Holmes between the mounted Colonial patrol and the Boers took place on 18/1/1900. Instead of exploiting this success by allowing the Mounted Brigade in strength to consolidate the position and then to push east to Ladysmith with infantry reinforcements, the Brigade was withdrawn and the initiative was lost. Subsequently, only one dismounted detachment from the Mounted Brigade (i.e. Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry) took part in the disasters that followed.

It was several days before the British attacked the now strengthened Boer positions and Sgt Candy's letter from Acton Holmes on 22/1/1900 was written during the actions that preceded the assault on Spioenkop on 23/1/1900, when he was killed.

Brett

Hi Tony. I'm a reporter at the Lancashire Telegraph. If you want to email me some details at [email protected] I can put a request on the Darwen page for information that can help with your research?

Kind regards

Dan Clough, Darwen reporter, Lancashire Telegraph