Best Answer #11: from Thomas Thompson:
"The local memorial to the Boer War soldiers is located in front of the Oxford County Courthouse facing Central Public School. There are two soldiers whose names appear on the memorial. Colour-Sergeant George W. Leonard of the 22nd Battalion (Oxford Rifles) of the Royal Canadian Regiment ... passed away on ... [WRONG date on memorial; see date correction, below], at the Zand River in South Africa. The other soldier mentioned is Corporal Myrtle Davidson of the South African Constabulary, a former member of the 22nd Battalion (Oxford Rifles) of the Royal Canadian Regiment. Corporal Davidson, infected with enteric (typhoid) fever, passed away on the 4th of February, 1902. The ‘South African War’ was waged between 1899 and 1902 between British-led forces and the original Cape Colony Boer settlers (principally Dutch descended) in what is now the nation of South Africa.
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[Date error correction, 2002 June 21: the Sentinel-Review of June 20, 1900, reported that Sgt. Leonard died on June 18, 1900, from wounds received at the Zand River battle of May 10, 1900.]
Extra Information From Quiz Committee:
It is now (in 1999) the centenary of The South African War: the costliest and bloodiest war that Great Britain fought between 1815 and 1914. About 366,000 Imperial plus 83,000 Colonial troops from Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India and New Zealand fought against 87,000 Boers and their foreign volunteers. At the end of 33 months of a war that started out as a skirmish to quell a revolt and protect British nationals ‘that would be over by Christmas’, 22,000 of the British-led troops, 25,000 Boer and 12,000 black Africans had died. It was a brutal and terrible start to the 20th Century.
Source:
- Thomas Pakenham, ‘The Boer War’ (Woodstock Public Library; Woodstock Museum)