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Private John Esler

 

 

Number: 35177

Company: 99th (Irish) Company, 8th Battalion

ENLISTMENT

Date: 14 March 1901

Place: Belfast

Age: 21 years

Trade of calling: Clerk

Place of birth: In the Parish of Belfast, in or near the Town of Belfast, in the County of Antrim.

Family: Single. Father James Esler (dec.), carter; mother Mary Ann Esler (nee Craig), 48 Woodstock Road, Belfast.

Previous military service: No

Description: Height 5' 10 1/2". Complexion fresh, eyes blue, hair brown.

Religion: Presbyterian

ACTIVE SERVICE

Date to South Africa: 13 April 1901

Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony and 1901 clasps.

DEATH

Date: 2 January 1902

Place: Clanwilliam Hospital

Cause: Gunshot wound to the head at Doorn River on 20 December 1901.

Buried/ commemorated: St John's Anglican Cemetery, Clanwilliam, Western Cape, South Africa. The grave marker reads:

FOR KING & EMPIRE
35177
TPR. J. ESLER.
I. Y.
2. 1. 02

He is commemorated on the Kroonstad Garden of Remembrance Memorial.

 

Belfast Telegraph, 16 January 1902

 

Belfast Telegraph, 9 January 1902

 

Esler's brother James, a plater with the ship-building firm Workman, Clark & Co., served in the First World War as a sergeant in the Ulster Divisional Train of the Army Service Corps (No. T3/030882). He was awarded a Military Medal in 1918.

 

 

Cemetery images sourced from the Find a Grave site. Image of James Esler courtesy of Nigel Henderson at History Hub Ulster.

This page last updated 23 August 2024.