Private Henry Victor Mayne Ringwood
Number: 11190
Company: 61st (South Irish Horse) Company (Dublin), attached to Staff establishment 17th Battalion
ENLISTMENT
Date: 17 January 1900
Place: Kells, County Meath
Age: 26 years 9 months
Trade of calling: Nil (served apprenticeship in Dublin to J. R. Lynch, 3 years)
Place of birth: In the Parish of Kells, near the Town of Kells, in the County of Meath
Family: Father John Ringwood, physician and surgeon, mother Mary Ringwood (nee Mayne).
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 6' 2 1/4". Complexion dark, eyes grey, hair dark.
Religion: Other Protestant
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 6 April 1900
Campaigns: South Africa 1899-1901
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal; Rhodesia clasp
DEATH
Date: 7/9 February 1901
Place: Bulawayo
Cause: Enteric fever
Buried/ commemorated: Bulawayo/ St Columba's Church, Kells
Some were however left in the Buluwayo hospitals - men whose constitutions had been sapped in the low tracts of the Tuli district and one - Trooper Victor Ringwood of the 61st - after lingering for more than two months, died worsted in the hard struggle against the enteric foe which had seized him in its grip. The following 'appreciation' written by a comrade, ably shows the loss his squadron sustained by his death.
"Death took from us one of the best of our most popluar comrades, one of the 'smartest' soldiers in the Squadron - aye, in the Battalion - poor Victor Ringwood! His unvarying cheerfulness under difficulties, his quiet humour, his unselfish solicitude for the comfort of others; these and many other estimable traits which I cannot paint in words, had endeared him to us all. From the commencement of our campaign he had acted as Colonel's orderly with credit to himself and the approbation and high opinion of his superiors. Had he been fated to pursue arms as a profession, he must have gone far. Had the Ruler of our destinies seen fit to grant him a soldier's death with his face to the foe, he himself would have been the last to complain. But, oh the pity o't! After months of suffering, with its past to be proud of, with its future full of promise, far away from everyone held dear, on the hillside at Buluwayo his young life closed. Until the last bugle call may the sod lie lightly on his grave!"
(Sharrad H. Gilbert, Rhodesia - And After: Being the Story of the 17th and 18th Battalions of the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa, 1901.)
Londonderry Sentinel, 12 December 1901
This page last updated 4 August 2024.