Boer War

Keighley Volunteers.

A group photo of 37 men in Army uniform of the Boer War Period. They are holding khaki covered helmets.
The Volunteers in front of the Drill Hall doors in Keighley.

The South African War or Boer War of 11th October 1899 to 31st May 1902 saw a number of volunteer soldiers from our district enlist and march off to fight in South Africa.
We have details on some of them and on this page we will show a list of the names we have from local archives held in Keighley Library and from newspaper archives there are reports of the events at that time.

Portrait photos of eight men who were members of the Keighley Yeomanry and Ambulance Volunteers.
Yeomanry and Ambulance Volunteers.

Key:

Men with an asterisk: * before their name are included on the South African War/Boer War memorial plaque on our website.

The other names have been taken from these photographs of some of the volunteers who went off to this war, part of the Herbert A. France archive BK 424 held at Keighley library.
Men with a (Y) or an (A) after their name feature on the Yeomanry and Ambulance photograph. The group photograph may confuse because it is in black and white. In reality this image would be a sea of scarlet coloured tunics.

We are delighted to be able to show these images of an original Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment Frock, of the type that was worn during the Boer War, as seen in the group photograph above.

A scarlet coloured jacket worn by soldiers taking part in the Boer War. It has a white collar with brass badges and cuffs to match.
The scarlet tunic of the West Riding Regiment.
A close up photo of the shoulder detail with the embroidered words: W. Riding.
Close up of shoulder detail.
A close up photo of the collar with the brass collar badge depicting an elephant.
Close up of collar detail.

Photos kindly supplied by Toby Brayley. Thanks also to Taff Gillingham for his helpful advice.

Bingley:

Private J. W. Dearnley
Private Laycock
Private Mitchell
Private J. W. Scully
Private Whitham

Burley:

Private Crowther
Private Mellor
Private P. D. Verity

Haworth:

Corporal G. Feather
Private Holmes
Private L. Kay, L
Private R. Kay, R
Private A. Summerson

Skipton:

Captain E. Dewhurst
Private T. Holdsworth

 

Keighley:

Private G. Allsop
Private J. Baldwin
*Private Frank Blezard
*Private William Bramma
*Drummer George Brown
Lance Corporal H. Brown
Trooper T. Broster (Y)
*Corporal James Byrnes
*Sergeant Thomas Cadmore
Corporal W. Clough (Y)
*Private Walter Coates
*Private Henry Coleman
*Trooper James Heseltine Dinsdale
Private D. Durkin
Private W. Emmott – He may be:
*Private William Leonard Emmott

Private H. A. Gee
Private J. Greenwood (A)
*Sergeant John William Haigh
*Lance Corporal John Haran
Trooper J. Helliwell
*Private Samuel Holt
Trooper H. King (Y)
*Corporal William Liddimore
Lance Corporal A. Lund
Private J. Johnson
Private A. Jones
Private H. Jowett
Private J. W. Mackey
Private W. Mitchell
Private J. Narey

Private J. Nelson
*Private John Oates
*Trooper Tom Oxley
Private A. Ogden
Private H. O’Neill
Private W. Purdy
Sergeant H. Sellers
Private W. H. Shuttleworth
Trooper J. M. Singleton (Y)
Private R. Stokes
Private H. Stowell
*Private Alfred Thomas
Private J. Thornton (A)
Private G. Webb
Second Officer J. Woollard (A)

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