The Second Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the South African War: With a Description of the Operations in the Aden HinterlandRomer, Cecil Francis
History
The Second Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers in the South African War: With a Description of the Operations in the Aden Hinterland
Romer, Cecil Francis
Great Britain. Army. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. 2nd Battalion; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Regimental histories
It was impossible for these three companies to advance any further,
and they were therefore forced to limit their efforts to an attempt to
keep down the Boer fire. Meanwhile, General Penn-Symons had, about
9.15 a.m., come up to the far edge of the wood, and crying, 'Dublin
Fusiliers, we must take the hill!' crossed the wall. Shortly
afterwards he received a mortal wound. Captain Weldon was also killed
near the same spot in a gallant effort to help a wounded comrade, No.
5078 Private Gorman. Captain Weldon, together with several men of his
company, had surmounted the wall in face of a heavy fire, and had
taken cover in a small depression on its further side. Private Gorman
was hit in the very act of surmounting the obstacle, and was falling
backwards, when Captain Weldon, rushing out from his cover, seized him
by the arm, and was pulling him into safety when he himself was
mortally wounded. Privates Brady and Smith dragged him in under cover,
but he only lived a few minutes. His dog, a fox-terrier named Rose,
had accompanied him through the fight, and when his body was later on
recovered, the faithful little animal was found beside it, and was
afterwards taken care of by the men of 'E' company. There was no more
popular officer in the regiment than George Weldon, and his loss was
deeply felt by all ranks. He was the first officer of the Dublin
Fusiliers to fall in the war, which thus early asserted its claim to
seize the best. He was buried that same afternoon in the small
cemetery, facing the hill on which he had met his death.
[Illustration: The Last Rites.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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