The South African War Memorial dedicated to the 142 men of the First Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry who died in the South African (Boer) War of 1899 to 1902 was originally in the city of Oxford, but has been moved several times. Its current home is at Edward Brooks Barracks near Abingdon, as shown below (photograph by John Drummond):
This South African War Memorial is dedicated to the 142 men of the First Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry who died in the South African (Boer) War of 1899 to 1902.
The monument was designed by an art metal worker of London, Thomas John Gawthorp, and sculpted by John Edward Hyett. It is made of Portland stone and is about nine feet high. It shows a soldier in pith helmet and South African campaign uniform, holding his rifle in the ready position.
It was unveiled by the Bishop of Oxford on 19 September 1903 in the former churchyard of St Clement’s Church (now the site of the Plain roundabout) in front of a crowd of up to five thousand people. The 1st Battalion of the OBLI were under orders for India, and the ceremony took place while it was still unfinished so that they could be present: there was no statue on top of the plinth at the time. The photograph below showing the occasion belonged to Annie Collins, née Hedges (1879–1941):
Between 4,000 and 5,000 people attended the ceremony. The procession, headed by the Mayor’s sergeant carrying the mace, started at Magdalen College School in Cowley Place. Lieutenant General Green Wilkinson said that the memorial was “a sacred possession, and would be handed down for many years in the City of Oxford amongst the beautiful buildings and historic houses”. The Mayor said that they had tried to find a site even more public than this one at the Plain, but it would nevertheless “be always prominent before the citizens”.
“Hymns to be sung at the unveiling of the South African war memorial of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry by the Lord Bishop of Oxford: September 19, 1903” is available at the Oxfordshire History Centre (PA Pamphlets (strongroom) OXFO/725.94).
Sadly this memorial is no longer even in Oxford. It has had four locations in all:
- It originally stood in the former St Clement’s churchyard at The Plain in Oxford
- It was moved to Cowley Barracks in 1950 when the Plain roundabout was created. (There is a photograph of the memorial at these barracks at POX0103812 but it has not been digitised)
- In 1966, when Cowley Barracks was due to close down, it was moved to the Territorial Army Centre at Slade Park in Horspath Driftway, Headington
- In 2008 it moved with the County Territorials to their new TA Centre in Abingdon, and forms the centrepiece of the entrance to Edward Brooks Barracks (This means that a memorial to the First Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry stands in what was Berkshire at the time of the Boer War.)
The photograph below (Historic England CC50/00504) shows this memorial when it stood on the Plain in Oxford in 1907:
The next photograph was taken during its period at the former Slade Park Territorial Army Barracks in Headington.
Information about the memorial on the Imperial War Museum website
The memorial lists the 33 men killed in action and the 109 men who died of disease. The front panel which originally faced the city of Oxford bears an inscription, and the other three panels bear the names listed below:
Killed in action |
Died of Disease |
|
Major: |
Major: |
2455 B. Edwards |
Major Day, Lieutenant Bright, and Second Lieutenant Ball-Acton (whose names are the first threelisted on Oxford's South African War Memorial) were killed in acton and were pictured in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 3 March 1900:
Below are photographs of Ball-Acton and Bright as shown above, and one of Major R. W. Porter, who died of disease:
Many men died of illness while serving in South Africa. These include Private Frank Grahame Twiss, son of Oxford's Postmaster, who died of enteric fever at Hoopstad on 30 May 1900 when he was only 16. He left Magdalen College School to serve and is remembered there on a small brass plaque.
Other South African war memorials in Oxford:
- The South African War Memorial Cottages in Between Towns Road, Cowley
- The South African War Memorial in Magdalen College, Oxford
