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Private John William Whittle

 

 

Number: 9434

Company: 46th (Belfast) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent

ENLISTMENT

Date: 10 January 1900

Place: Belfast

Age: 23 years. (Born 22 November 1877 at Clonfert, Kilcock, County Kildare.)

Trade or calling: Draper

Place of birth: In the Parish of Killcock, in or near the Town of Killcock, in the County of Kildare

Address: 73 Willowbank Street, Belfast

Family: Single. Mother Sarah Whittle (nee Douglass), of 31 Grosvenor Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Father John William Whittle (dec.), farmer.

Previous military service: No

Description: Height 5' 11". Complexion fresh/ dark, eyes brown, hair brown/ black. Tattoo heart right forearm; indistinct tattoo marks left forearm.

Religion: Church of England

ACTIVE SERVICE

Date to South Africa: 3 March 1900

Date home: 18 May 1901

Actions: Lindley, Bethlehem, Caledon Valley

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

DISCHARGE

Date: 18 June 1901

Place: Shorncliffe

Reason for discharge: At his own request

Intended place of residence: 32 Grove Park, Rathmines, Dublin

Conduct: No documents. From personal observationa and knowledge, very good.

Special qualifications: Draper

 

Whittle was not among the 400 men of the 13th Battalion captured by Boer forces at Lindley in May 1900. Nor is he recorded as having been wounded at the time. His service file states that he saw action at Bethlehem and Caledon Valley.

On 2 February 1905 he married Eleanor Adelaide Bridds in the Mariners Church of Ireland Parish Church, Belfast. At the time of the 1911 Census they were living at 27 Leinster Road West, Rathmines, Dublin, with John's mother and their two children, John working as a warehouseman in a drapery.

 

Image from the Belfast Telegraph, 14 March 1900.

This page last updated 9 January 2025.