Sergeant-Major Adam Armstrong Bothwell
Number: 9421/ 44570
Company: 46th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion/ 176th (Irish Horse) Company, 29th Battalion
ENLISTMENT
Date: 12 January 1900/ 5 April 1902.
Place: Belfast/ Belfast
Age: 25 years 9 months (Jamuary 1901)
Trade of calling: Managing clerk/ insurance manager
Place of birth: In the Parish of Shankill, near the Town of Belfast, in the County of Antrim
Family: Single. Father James Hamilton Bothwell, commercial traveller, mother Elizabeth (nee Armstrong), brothers William (eldest) and Arthur, sister Margaret, of 20 The Mount, Mountpottinger, Belfast. Brother of Thomas Henry Bothwell, Imperial Yeomanry 9475 and 39244.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 10 1/4". Complexion fresh/fair, eyes brown/hazel, hair brown. Scar on back of head/ Scar on right neck; tattoo shield, hand and Ulster left forearm; bird and letter[s] G.M. tight wrist.
Religion: Other Protestant/ Church of England
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 2 March 1900/ 8 May 1902
Home: 26 October 1900
Campaigns: South Africa - Lindley/ South Africa 1902
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State and 1902 Clasps
Conduct: Very good
DISCHARGE
Date: 12 January 1901
Place: Shorncliffe
Reason: At own request. Rank - Private.
Intended place of residence: The Mount, Mountpottinger, Belfast
DEATH
Date: 20 January 1903, while attached to 30th Battalion as Sergeant-Major
Place: No.1 General Hospital, Wynburg Camp, Cape Town
Cause: Enteric fever and pneumonia
Buried/ commemorated: Constantia Cemetery, Cape Town.
BELFAST VOLUNTEERS PRAISE THE BOERS.
Several letters have recently been received by the friends of members of the Belfast companies of the Imperial Yeomanry who were captured at Lindley by the Boers, and who have since been retained as prisoners of war at Nooitgedacht. The letters are sufficient to allay the anxiety of the relatives, as they indicated that the yeomen might have fared worse than under the wings of the burghers. Indeed, one of the Yeomen, Trooper Tom Bothwell, riting to his friends in Belfast draws quite a pleasant picture of life at Nooitgedacht. He states - "We have plenty of room and plenty to eat, and we pass our time in cooking. The Boers have been very good to us all the time, and we have nothing to complain about, as we are healthy and getting stout." Trooper Adam Bothwell, brother of the former writer, also writes in the same strain, and says they are quite contented and that the Boers have been very kind to them. Trooper Berry, in a letter to his friends in Larne, says he is enjoying himself and is in the best of health. These opinions - and certainly they cannot be regarded as prejudiced opinions - may be useful in educating the Jingo in what the Boer character is like and demonstrating to him that even in war the Boer can unite kindness and sympathy with stern relentless determination.
(Derry Journal, 27 August 1900)
Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 16 March 1901
Regret will be felt at the death of Mr. Adam A. Bothwell, a well-known Belfast man, which occurred in South Africa, on the 20th ult. Mr. Bothwell was the second son of Mr. J. H. Bothwell, The Mount, and first went to South Africa with the 46th Company Imperial Yeomanry, in 1900. With that company he saw considerable active service in the late war, including the disasterous engagement at Lindley, where, with many of his comrades, he was taken prisoner. On his return home he took a prominent part in the raising of the Irish Horse, and was Capt. Craig's right hand man in the forming of the northern squadrons of that corps. Shortly afterwards he received an important appointment as staff clerk, with the rank of sergeant-major, and he again sailed for Africa, and took up the duties of his new position. He died on the date mentioned from enteric fever and pneumonia.
(Irish Independent, 17 February 1903.)
Cemetery image sourced from the Find a Grave site.
This page last updated 12 August 2024.