Private John Olliffe
Number: 32521
Company: 74th (Dublin) Company (New), 8th Battalion
ENLISTMENT
Date: 6 March 1901
Place: Dublin
Age: 20 years 1 month
Trade of calling: Plumber
Place of birth: In the Parish of St Thomas, near the Town of Dublin, in the County of Dublin
Family: Single. Father John Olliffe, engine fitter, mother Margaret (nee Collins), 20 Bayfield Avenue, off North Strand, Dublin.
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 3 1/2". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair fair.
Religion: Church of England
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 22 March 1901
Campaigns: South Africa 1899-1901
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 clasps.
DEATH
Date: 24 August 1901
Place: Rooikopjes
Cause: Killed in action
Buried/ commemorated: Griquatown, later re-interred in West End Cemetery, Kimberley/ West End Cemetery Memorial, and St Andrew's Church Memorial, Dublin.
SOLDIERS THREE
A pathetic incident of the Boer War is ... narrated by the parents of Trooper Oliffe, of the 74th (Dublin) Company of Imperial Yeomanry. In childhood Oliffe and two comrades, Bonynge and McLean, attended the same Sunday School, and for some years the trio belonged to the Boys' Brigade attached to Trinity Church, Dublin. Time only cemented their friendship, and when manhood was reached they were still inseparable; so when the Imperial Yeomanry were being recruited in Dublin the gallant trio determined to enlist and fight for their country in South Africa. Together they embarked, together they took part in the same engagements, and when the attack on the convoy was made at Rooikopjes on August 24 together the three young Irishmen defended the convoy, fighting shoulder to shoulder, till at length they fell mortally wounded, and now all three share the same resting place under the veld.
(Dublin Evening Mail, 21 September 1901.)
This page last updated 8 August 2024.