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Thanks, in fact I'd already started reading it in the hope his name might have popped up - alas not! I'd like to know exactly what the process was for a cavalry corporal fighting in South Africa to be commissioned into the West Indies.

Hi P-C,

I’m assuming you have already have this; but to answer your question of how he received a commission I think it had something to do with his father being a Lt Col in the Royal Artillery.

Hi,

Indeed! There's clearly more in his family for me to get my teeth into - I believe he was born in India, assumedly while his father was on posting there. Will have to confirm his rank on death too; not sure if as the gravestone says, first lieutenant, is accurate. Thanks again.

P-C,

I cannot find any papers for him but did come across this entry from the North British Daily Mail of 20 August 1900.

Thanks for that! I've trawled through the newspaper archives but don't think I came up with that one. Makes sense that it would be part of a wider decision to promote from the ranks, rather than an individual case; the Gazette entries suggest that these moves were mostly to replace other officers being seconded to South Africa? I'm not sure how permanent these regimental moves were meant to be; I know that the chap immediately senior to Stirke, Navarind Bulwer Fellowes, was also the son of a colonel who had gone out as a private soldier having failed to be commissioned at the right time. He was seconded back to South Africa again from the West Indies, where he was killed in action at Roodespoort.