Can someone identify this uniform please ?

[Nick29]

I've been sent a better quality scan.  Does this help ?



Thanks for all the suggestions so far !

P.S.  There's nothing on the back of the photo, I'm told.

[Nick29]

I'm in total agreement that it is a light infantry badge, I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to get out this morning.  I just thought the George Cattermole  on SDGW might be a relative somewhere along the line, but the man in the photo is decidedly in the Light Infantry, probably in the transport part of the battalion.

Is there a possibility that this photo could pre-date WW1 a little ?  I have an ancestor CHARLES FARNISH (1874 - 1904, Swilland) whose gravestone says CORPORAL CHARLES FARNISH on it.  He was my g. grandfather's brother's son.  Problem is that he died in 1904.  Was there another war going on in 1904 that he may have been killed in ?

Nick.

[Rod In Sussex]

There were many wars in the Empire. The Boer war ended in 1901 and the uniforms were very similar at that time. There were a number of on going boarder disputes in India, the famous Norwest frontier. In addition soldiers die for non combat reasons: there are accidents and with overseas postings, death from tropical diseases was not uncommon.

Sometimes there is additional information that can be found from the photographers details that can help date a photo.

Rod

[atom12]

Like Rod said, there were many wars going on in the Empire at the turn of the century, even as far as China with the Boxer rebellion.

More likely your Corporal was in the Boer War. He might have contacted an illness whilst abroad. My relative did not arrive back from the Boer War until the end of 1902.

[scrimnet]

Also, soldiers died whilst in barracks like any normal civvy....blood poisoning, food poisoning anything that we take for granted these days.

Don't forget that the great 'flu pandemic of 1918 killed more than the Great War...

Up until Op Telic and Op Fingal, the biggest cause of death for soldiers today was road accidents!