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Hello Meurig,
I really do think this is a lovely group and you have probably taken it as far as possible, regarding Bracken's son, a great many Irishmen served in the American forces in the Second World War, I don't think that would be so unusual, depending on how he felt about Great Britain and the way events had developed in the lead up to the establishment of the Free State.
I suppose I would be tempted the wave some money at the MOD in respect of his MSM, they might be in procession of a list which may have an all important date upon it.
Regarding Dublin's captured at Dundee, have you been through all surviving papers yet, whilst I don't collect to this regiment, I have ended up with a few, I actually started to do that some time ago, but, sadly it remains work in progress.
I certainly do not have an issue with the way their medals were named, but, what I find rather odd, is simply that precious few have a Mounted Infantry certificate actually noted with an actual date of award, I think from memory, I only noted four out of those men's papers I had looked at and one of those was post Anglo Boer War, although, I have many more papers to look at if still extant.
There is also the matter of the dates, the casualty returns and published rolls show the 20th of October as well as the 21st of October, I assume those are the dates upon which an individual was reported missing.
I think of those shown on the 21st of October, not a single man is given as wounded, unlike the day before, where such men really stand out.

More work for us and any like minded people I think.

Regards Frank

Evening Frank

Now I have his date of death I can try an FOI request, never done one before.

When working through the "new" POWs I did look for service papers to see if they yielded any information to confirm or deny their POW status. I don't think any of the Dublin's papers I found indicated any MI training or service. This is not entirely unusual, a number of other service papers I have seen to confirmed MI men of the ABW do not show any MI training. Annoying.

Regards
Meurig

Hello Meurig,
Well nothing ventured, nothing gained, that is really all there is left to do and I think that I certainly would, in the case of men who served in the Anglo Boer War and Great War, it is a real no brainer, even to the MOD, that these men are long gone and you would expect more from them without them being obstructive.
Again, I think it really is a very unusual and most pleasing group, yes, I agree, the lack of MI Certificates shown in papers is very annoying indeed, thank heavens for regimental histories.
Regards Frank

Hi everyone,

Apologies if this has been discussed before.

From what I can gather regarding the Battle of Talana, there appear to have been two distinct groups of prisoners of war: those who were wounded and subsequently left behind when Talana was abandoned, and a separate group of mounted infantry who were captured after becoming stranded alongside the 18th Hussars.

In The Second Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the South African War by Majors C. F. Romer and A. E. Mainwaring, Appendix 4 lists those who were wounded, while Appendix 5 details those recorded as Missing—the latter list is reproduced below.

This list comprises 94 men, which aligns with the typical strength of a Mounted Infantry company.

Would it be reasonable to conclude that these individuals were the ones captured with the 18th Hussars?

I’ve highlighted Bracken’s name in the list below.

BATTLE OF TALANA.

REPORTED MISSING SINCE OCTOBER 21ST, 1899.

Reg. No. Rank and Name.
2615 Clr.-Sgt. Gage
2078 Sgt. Martin
4388 " Guilfoyle
3761 " Carroll
5328 L.-Sgt. Payne
5178 " Crean
5094 Cpl. Corrigan
5544 " Richards
6028 " Pearson
5004 " Kiernan
5601 L.-Cpl. Lee
5143 " Flynn
5304 " Whelan
4812 " Lyons
4868 " Green
5033 " Byrne
4947 " Harper
4638 Pte. Mahon
4966 " Murphy
4359 " Hall
4655 " Cullen
5175 " Reddy
5143 " Flynn
5759 " Dowling
5070 " Angleton
5402 " Rourke
5209 " Dunne
5793 " Murphy
4513 " Connor
5055 " Reidy
5609 " Connor
5162 " Macken
5929 " Carroll
5956 " Rourke
4498 " Watts
4884 " Kenny
5876 " Molloy
5647 " Harrison
6087 " Tyrrell
4788 " Toomey
4366 " Doyle
5931 " Bracken
3752 " Travers
5733 " Kavanagh
6055 " Gough
5266 " Bigley
5479 " Brien
5489 " Geoghegan
6019 " Curran
5918 " Callaghan
4411 " Cooney
5706 " McEvoy
5600 " Gleeson
5000 " Nulty
4974 " Costello
5889 " Keogh
5501 " Mannix
5127 " Battersby
5352 " White
4864 " Byrne
5390 " Doyle
5126 " Farrell
5714 " Finnigan
5055 " Reidy
5345 " Dunne
5789 " Flood
4964 " Gibney
5987 " Mahoney
5030 " Callaghan
5126 " Delaney
4692 " McGuinness
6018 " McDonagh
5693 " Keating
4532 " Kirwan
6866 " Molloy
5427 " Carr
4142 " Lyons
6120 " Cullen
4927 " Kane
5545 " Reilly
5702 " Byrne
5724 " Dempsey
5218 " Reilly
5880 " Carroll
5144 " Williams
5027 " Doody
4473 " Hand
4566 " Glynn
5184 " Dowler
5551 " Finn
5912 " Kavanagh
5182 " Cavanagh
5350 " Farrell
4692 " McGann

Thanks.