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The above three photographs can all be associated with the Birmingham Boer War Memorial in Cannon Hill Park.

On the left the only officer on the Memorial, Charles Henry Benjamin Adams-Wylie, on his wedding day (24 March 1899). He died of enteric fever in Bloemfontein. A couple of years after his death Lilian remarried and became Mrs Doughty, and doughty she was in character as well as name. She was in Mumbai when plague broke out, whilst all the other English ladies fled she stayed put and a present day Indian website describes her as “Mumbai’s own Florence Nightingale”.

The name to look for on the Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry Spioen Kop Memorial panel is Private F J Silvester. Francis was born and raised in Birmingham but by the start of the Second Boer War he was a Uitlander.

On the right is Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton who unveiled the Memorial, as depicted in the Birmingham Mail on the day of the unveiling. The Birmingham Mail described him as “one of the most popular officers in the British Army”.

Moranthorse and Smethwick
What a great memorial! Especially good to see the panel dedicated to the lads of TMI who fell on the KOP. Many of those names are quite familiar to me. Your man, Silvester, F.J., 4668 served with C Coy., TMI from 20/10/99 until 24/1/00 and he is buried on the KOP. Info from "Thorneycroft's "Unbuttoned"'.
Regards
IL.

Intombi, Ladysmith - Grave of Pte FJ Silvester

Elmarie and Linneyl, thank you for your contributions. My ignorance of the geography of South Africa is profound but diminishing by the day. It seems to me that Intombi, Ladysmith is about 18 miles ENE of Spioen Kop. Does the fact he was buried at Intombi, along with other members of Thorneycroft’s MI who died as a result of Spioen Kop, have any significance regarding his place and time of death?

The full page spread in the Birmingham Mail of 23 June 1906 covering the unveiling of the Cannon Hill Park Memorial led me to Francis James Silvester who died in late January 1900 as a result of the debacle that was Spioen Kop.

With one exception, the right hand column of the page was devoted to brief anecdotes about Birmingham men who had fought in the South African War and survived. The exception was Francis as this extract shows:



As you can see the writer of the piece on Francis does seem to have made an extraordinary claim in the name of Francis.

Here is the 1875 Baptism record for Francis James Silvester from which we can deduce Francis was 24 years and 9 months old when he died at Spioen Kop.



Francis & parents were living in Jennens Row, Birmingham when he was baptised at 5 weeks old and thus he was probably born there. His parents had a short walk to take him to the ceremony as Jennens Row ran alongside the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s. The name Jennens Row lives on but is now an arterial highway in the centre of Birmingham and the house he was probably born in is long gone, as is St Bartholomew’s Church – it was badly bombed in WW2 and totally demolished a few years later.

The 1881 Census found the family still living in Jennens Row although by then the head of the household, James Silvester, was a “(School Board) Visiting Officer”. By 1891 the family had moved to 52 Coventry Road where James was now the proprietor of a Tobacconist’s Shop and 16 year old Francis was a “Cabinet Maker”. James died in 1894 and based on the 1901 Census his wife Ann Elizabeth (Mason) took over the running of the Tobacconist’s Shop. Ann died in 1927 and the 1921 Census indicates she spent her final years living in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham with the elder brother of Francis and his wife.

Exactly when Francis emigrated to South Africa I have no idea.

As you can see from the above newspaper clipping Thorneycroft was a south Staffordshire man. I realised this a couple of months ago whilst researching the Tettenhall Rifle Volunteers and noted the winner of their annual shooting competition was awarded with The Thorneycroft Cup – the cup was presented by Thorneycroft’s father who was an even larger than life character than his son. Tettenhall is a village a couple of miles NW of Wolverhampton where Thorneycroft senior built Tettenhall Towers and Thorneycroft junior was duly born there. After the family moved out it was initially purchased by Wolverhampton Council who, to defray running costs, allowed a local group to run Ghost Tours. Amongst the ghosts they claimed was a servant of Thorneycroft senior who was an inventor amongst other things – the Ghost Tour guides claimed he had invented a flying machine which was launched from one of the towers but, not having full confidence in his own invention, the pilot was one of his servants. In actuality the flying machine only made it to the extent of design drawings. These days Tettenhall Towers is part of an independent day and boarding school, Tettenhall College.

Having digressed I will continue. Some members of the Birmingham History Forum believe the unusually named Jennens Row was named after bachelor William Jennens who died towards the end of the reign of George III having forgotten to sign his will. They reckon his fortune, made out of the manufacture of papier mâché products, was worth £12m in present day money. Alleged relative after alleged relative commenced to claim and at least one book has been written about the never-ending litigation and Charles Dickens based Jarndyce versus Jarndyce in Bleak House upon it. The litigation did finally end in the reign of George V by when all the fortune had been dispersed to men of the law across the country and abroad – over the years the claimants included a Secretary of State of the USA.

Frederick Joseph Moran was born in Birmingham in the summer of 1873. He was baptised on 17th August 1873 in St Thomas’s Church, his father was a “brass finisher” and the family abode was given as the “Bull Ring”. Not the modern famous (or infamous in some eyes) shopping centre but rather a building abutting the cattle market cum meeting place where many a rowdy public meeting has been held over the years. By rights he should have been baptised in St Martin’s Church but in 1873 it was in total disarray undergoing a near total rebuild – even today some people think that what emerged should be Birmingham’s Cathedral rather than St Phillip’s.

By the time of the 1891 Census the family were living in a back to back in Ellis Street a stone’s throw from the Bull Ring. If you want to see what living in a Victorian back to back was like visit the National Trust preserved back to backs in Inge Street, a stone’s throw in a different direction from Ellis Street. Although at 18 Frederick was the oldest of four sons he was listed last on the Census return and the enumerator wrote “Militia Solgier” (not my spelling mistake) as his occupation.

The next we hear of Frederick is that he is in India serving with the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI) as Private 3338 F Moran. A Medal Roll (WO100/87) tells us he was awarded the 1895 India General Service Medal with two clasps – “Punjab Frontier 1897-98” & “Tirah 1897-98”. The next record (SAFF) is that of his death from disease on 14 December 1900 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion DCLI. His entry, As Private 3338 F J Moran, on the 30 July 1901 battalion Medal Roll (WO100/185) indicates he was posthumously awarded the Queens’s South Africa medal with the clasps Paardeburg, Driefontein, Cape Colony and Transvaal. So I think we can say he survived the “Cornish Charge” which is more than 5 of his fellow Brummies did.


From “With the Flag to Pretoria”, p411 and captioned 'The Cornwalls driving the Boers from the river bank' (Courtesy of David Biggins).

Frederick’s mother would not have been a recipient of his medal as she died in 1896. It is unlikely his father was either because the 1901 Census found him as an inmate of the Aston Union Workhouse with his death occurring about a year later. Perhaps if the medal was ever issued it went to one of his younger brothers and was hopefully united with his India Service Medal.

At this stage I need to point out that Private 3338 is the only Moran to appear on the 2/DCLI Medal Roll. In 1903 when the Birmingham Mail listed 474 names that were to appear on the Cannon Hill Park Memorial they included “Private P. J. Moran, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry” – my conclusion is that they were one and the same and further searching shows Frederick is actually commemorated in three places and starting and finishing in Cannon Hill Park it would take a round trip of 540 miles to visit all three – to save petrol (or should I say electricity) here they are:


On the left, part of the Boer War Memorial to the fallen of the DCLI in St Petroc’s church, Bodmin. F J Moran is listed 12 down on the right hand tablet. (Photo by Peter Hinde courtesy of War Memorials Online).

In the centre, the right hand half of the second panel on the Birmingham Boer War Memorial. Pte P J Moran is 20 down in the right hand column. (Photo by Steve Davies aka Moranthorse1)

On the right, the Boer War Memorial in Derby Railway Station to the fallen employees of the Midland Railway. Pte Moran of Birmingham and the DCLI is 11 down. This memorial also tells us he was a Reservist. (Photo by B Wood, courtesy of War Memorials Online)

Piecing all the above together I think we can conclude that by March 1891 Frederick had joined a local Militia Battalion (probably one attached to the Royal Warwicks) and about a year later he decided to become a full time soldier. At the same time the DCLI were on one of their recruiting raids (see below) to Birmingham and hence for 7 years he became a pseudo Cornishman. Initially he served with the 1st Battalion and with them was involved in suppressing rebellious tribesmen in the vicinity of the Khyber Pass. Whilst in India he became time-expired and returned to England where he was discharged into the Army Reserve. He then found employment within Birmingham with the Midland Railway but within a year he was recalled to the colours and re-enlisted in the 2nd Battalion DCLI who sailed for South Africa on 5th November 1899 – the Cornish Charge occurred 18th February 1900 when the 2/DCLI casualties amounted to Officers: 3 killed, 4 wounded; NCO’s & Privates: 12 killed and 55 wounded.

Frederick would not have felt alone in the 2/DCLI as at least 11 others were Brummies - 5 who lost their lives as a result of the Cornish Charge, 1 who was killed at Klip Drift a month later and 5, who like Frederick, lost their lives to disease and illness. In actuality Frederick must have heard many more familiar accents amongst his DCLI comrades in arms. 4.5% of Imperial soldiers died so a fag packet calculation would suggest about 260 members of the 2/DCLI were men of Birmingham. A quarter of a Cornish battalion being from Birmingham seems unlikely so perhaps the 2/DCLI Brummies were unlucky. Another fag packet calculation is that I have discovered at least 6 Smethwickians who served in the 2/DCLI – now according to the 1901 Census Birmingham’s population was 10 times that of Smethwick which would suggest about 60 of the 2/DCLI were from Birmingham. The truth almost certainly lies between the two estimates and I feel quite comfortable predicting at least 100 of the 2/DCLI were Brummies- still a surprisingly high figure.

Why should this be? There were quite strong engineering & business links between Birmingham, Smethwick & Cornwall through Boulton, Watt & Murdoch and even more the Cornish born Tangye Brothers who called their main factory situated on the Birmingham/Smethwick border “The Cornwall Works”.

The proof, or otherwise, of how many Brummies (and Smethwickians) served in the 2/DCLI could be arrived at by using the medal roll to find the attestation papers & service records of all the 2/DCLI survivors!!!

If today one scrutinised the Cannon Hill Park & St Petroc’s Memorials some 225 miles apart you would find 12 names common to both. At St Petrocs they are all listed under the heading PRIVATES but at Canon Hill Park, one is listed as an NCO which is confirmed by the battalion medal roll. I have listed them below in alphabetical order as given on the St Petroc’s Memorial with, in brackets, the Cannon Hill Version if it differs. Below each one I have added their regimental number and cause, place & date of death.

W. ATKINS (LCE. CPL. W. ATKINS)
2259, died of wounds, Paardeberg, 18 February 1900

A. A. BENTON
3450, died of wounds sustained at Paardeberg on 18 February 1900, died on 21 February 1900 at unknown location.

G. DAVIS
4759, died of enteric fever, Bloemfontein, 18 April 1900

E. GROGAN
2584, died of bronchitis, Netley Hospital, January 1900

D. HARBORNE
3868, died of enteric fever, Wynberg, 14 March 1900

J. P. LOVE (I. P. LOVE)
3399, killed in action, Paardeberg, 18 February 1900

F. J. MORAN (P. J. MORAN)
3338, died of unknown disease, Pretoria,14 December 1900

T. SUMMERFIELD
3432, T, killed in action, Klip Drift, 14 March 1900

W. TAYLOR (W. J. TAYLOR)
3385, killed in action, Paardeberg Drift, 18 February 1900

F. THOMPSON
1586, died of an aneurysm, unknown location, 8 September 1900.

W. WASHBROOK
2879, died of wounds sustained at Paardeberg, 18 February 1900 – believed to have died on 26 February at an unknown hospital.

J. WOOD
5611, died of enteric fever at an unknown location, 8 June 1900

Of the two other memorials mentioned above, Berenice posted photos of the one at Derby Railway Station nearly 11 years ago but the one at St Petroc’s, Bodmin appears never to have figured in a post on this site. Is there a Forummer living in Cornwall because St Petroc’s is well worth a visit. Besides the DCLI Memorial which is much more extensive than I have shown there is also a large stained glass commemorating the DCLI in South Africa:

www.bodminchurch.com/stained-glass-st-pe...ox=dataItem-kyrgr56e