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Difficult one this, only casualty at this location. Newspapers also show Wilge River as the location. Watt shows he is buried in Braamfontein, Johannesburg with the additional remark "Rietvlei/Witklip".

As it is the only casualty at this place the Gazetteer doesn't have an entry for it as it doesn't figure in contemporary histories. But, the Gazetteer does show two farms near Delmas which is not far east of Johannesburg, Rietvlei (3) 15km north-west and Witklip (2) "immediately south of Delmas" - are these locations Watt means? Neither entry shows any action on that date or even month and year. It could be Joyce was simply sniped on patrol and there was no action to report.

The Register shows 10 battle casualties for this date but none obviously connected to Joyce.

Here we go. Listed by H.F. Marriott in his indispensable "Alphabetical Index to Farms in the Transvaal" (Johannesburg, 1904) as Vandyksput (132) [or "Van Dyks put" on Jeppe's Map]. Location given as: Map 5, grid square 26.0 – 26.15 latitude; 28.45 – 29.0 longitude.

Watt's remark "Rietvlei/Witklip" appears to be an indication that Vandyksput is located midway between Rietvlei (169) and Witklip (532).












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Gentlemen many thanks for identifying where 5590 Private J Joyce died so accurately. I agree his death was an isolated one and quite likely he was picked off by a well concealed lurking Boer marksman with nothing much else to report but it is surprising he does not seem to have made any casualty list in the newspapers of the day as I found last night.

Last night I searched the 1901 newspapers for Joyce & the 11th Mounted Infantry.

Joyce’s “Record of Deceased Soldiers’ Effects” entry tells us his father was called Thomas, he was born in Walsall and attested on 21 January 1899 when he was working as a “galvaniser”. I can now add he was aged 19 when he died and his mother was named Mary as this clipping from the Walsall Advertiser of 5 October 1901 shows:



So he was born sometime between late September 1881 & 1882 which means he could have been under 18 when he attested in January 1899. Allowing for an enumerator error on his age he could have been the James living in back to backs in Walsall in 1891 with an Irish born coal miner for a father. Also he could have received a Roman Catholic baptism in Birmingham in March 1882, having been born the previous month, in the name of “Jacobus” (latinised James) but one cannot be certain on either count. The only militia attestation papers for a J Joyce born in Walsall I can find are dated December 1901 so they can definitely be ruled out.

I now have a dozen newspaper clippings regarding the 11th Mounted Infantry in 1901. The nearest to Joyce’s death is regarding their involvement in a skirmish at a Blood River Poort on 17 September 1901 i.e. 8 days before Joyce was killed in action. This encounter produced 24 fatal Imperial casualties but none for the South Staffs Regiment. However, 8 belonged to the 2/Royal Irish Fusiliers whose, another source tells me, MIC was part of the 11th Mounted Infantry. Blood River Poort I believe is about 200 miles SE of Van Dyks Put Farm on the Wilge River.

The Google Afrikaans to English translator tells me “Put” translates as “well” but does help further regarding the possible meanings of “well” . Thus, could one say 5590 Private J Joyce was killed in action on Van Dyks Well Farm.