Captain Sir John Elliott Cecil Power, Bart
Company: 46th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
Date: 17 February 1900 - appointed Lieutenant in the Imperial Yeomanry
Age: 29 years
Trade of calling: Gentleman, of the Power 'whiskey baron' family, 4th Baronet Kilfane.
Place of birth: In the Parish of Kilcullen, near the Town of Naas, in the County of Kildare
Family: Father Sir Richard Crampton Power, 3rd Baronet Kilfane, mother Florence Anna Maria Power (nee Elliott)
Previous military service: Captain, 5th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment
Religion: Church of Ireland
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 13 March 1900
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony and Orange Free State clasps.
DEATH
Date: 1 June 1900
Place: Lindley
Cause: Wounds sustained on 28 May
Commemorated: Power is buried in the Lindley Cemetery (see images below). He is commemorated on the Lindley Cemetery Memorial and on the Yeomanry Kop Memorial, Lindley.
The circumstances of Power being wounded were briefly described in a letter home by Private Marshall Donnell.
Next morning while we were knocking about looking for something to eat the bullets commenced to fly. At first I had no idea they were bullets. All you heard was a little "biz" going somewhere near you, but very shortly afterwards, when we heard that Sir John Power had been dangerously wounded while looking after the horses a little further up the kopje, we commenced to realise the danger, and got under any cover we could as quickly as possible.
Further details were included in a letter from Adam Bothwell, published in the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 25 August 1900:
On the Monday of our fighting I had just returned to camp after being on guard or picket on Sunday night, when we were ordered to take our horse on to the top of a hill. Before being there five minutes the bullets came round us like hailstones. Our section officer gave the order which was his last in this world. I had one of his horses. He came to me and asked if his horse was all right. I said "Yes." On his turning away he put his field glasses to his eyes, and in one second he was shot right through the wrist and through the temple. The bullet went right through his head and was sticking out at the other side, from which it was extricated with ease.
Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, 9 June 1900
Power's younger brother, Elliott Derrick Le Poer Power, captain in the 1st Battallion, Rifle Brigade, died at Standerton, Mpumalanga, South Africa, on 20 January 1902.
Captain Elliott Power
This page last updated 15 February 2025.