Who Can Be Commemorated:  Prior To The Boer War, 1899

• Officers

For the period prior to the Boer War of 1899-1902 commemoration was the exception rather than the norm and was mainly restricted to the officer class. Our records hold a rich vein of information for those who are lucky enough to have wealthy ancestry. Wealthier families could afford to erect a memorial and when they did they usually provided a myriad of additional information about the family itself as well as the person who was being commemorated.

It is not just those who died in combat who are commemorated. One can also find details of those who have died of disease or accidents so if your ancestor did not die in a conflict it is still worth seeing if there is a memorial commemorating them.

• Other Ranks

Those who were in the ranks were barely commemorated due to the way in which they were perceived. Popular opinion saw them as being the next best thing to a criminal and, coupled with the poverty of the families they came from, commemoration of them is rare. Other ranks occasionally get a mention on regimental memorials but they only feature as a number rather than as individuals. For example, this memorial located in York Minster commemorates the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment when it was based in India  between 1857 – 1867 and saw military action during the Indian Mutiny and Abyssinia 1867 – 1868. It is typical of many regimental memorials of this period. The officers are named, albeit in rank order, but as soon as you get to the other ranks they are only referred to as a group with the bare facts that 13 sergeants and one hundred and ninety one men also died.