AN AINSDALE man has uncovered the tragic story of how his uncle went from Southport to fight and die in South Africa more than a century ago.

Retired furniture remover Bev Gregory has drawn on family memories and archival research to produce a compelling account of how Alfred J. Gregory’s life came to an horrific end during the Boer War.

He was struck down by typhoid in the Orange Free State and perished on May 18, 1900, aged only 28.

Alfred J Gregory was buried in Boshof, South Africa, after his death from typhoid in 1900

Alfred and his Imperial Yeomanry comrades were in the country to combat Boer fighters battling for independence from the British Empire, and had set up camp near the capital Bloemfontein.

He became desperately feverish and was taken to Boshof hospital, where an ultimately futile attempt was made to treat him with drugs.

Bev told LookBack: “As a good Christian, Alfred saw that there were many sick and wounded men arriving at the hospital and it was typical of him to give up his bed so that others may use it – but it was to lead to his own demise.”

The contrast with jovial scenes in Southport less than six months earlier could not have been greater.

On January 6, 1900, Bridge Street resident Alfred signed up to fight in present-day South Africa at Southport Temperance Institute on London Street.

The recruitment of him and others was celebrated with a banquet at the Cambridge Hall (now Southport Arts Centre) 12 days later.

The Southport Visiter produced a glowing report of “one of the finest gatherings ever held in the hall”, which was funded by a public collection and organised by the town’s Mayor, Mr Alderman T. P. Griffiths. Even the menu was recorded by the Visiter, with officers able to feast on roast pheasant with bread sauce and crumbs and their men on roast mutton with onion sauce.

Alfred J. Gregory was buried in Boshof, South Africa, after his death from typhoid in 1900

Soon after, Alfred said farewell to his mother and three sisters and spent a month at sea before landing in Cape Town and a land in the grip of the Second Boer War of 1899- 1902.

The siege of the town of Ladysmith by Boer troops had recently been relieved after 120 days and the British had suffered a clutch of heavy defeats.

Initial experiences of conflict left a deep mark on Alfred, a devout Christian.

Bev said: “Alfred had seen some terrible things for the first time in his life and in a letter to his good friend the Rev F. Sinker (from the Christ Church Bible Class in Southport), he said he was amidst many evils and had seen suffering that had brought tears to his eyes.”

The disease that claimed the life of Alfred only months later was rife among the British contingent. Almost 1,000 troops died in the outbreak at Bloemfontein before it burnt itself out at the beginning of April.

SOLDIER, seaman, trader and devout Christian – Alfred J. Gregory was all these things during his short life.

He was born in Oxford in January 1872 and his family took up residence at 29 Upper Duke Street in Southport in 1881.

After attending St Paul’s Mixed School in Belmont Street until the age of 13, he joined the Merchant Navy.

On his return to the town in 1898 he opened a shop at 11 Princes Street with a works store on Upper Aughton Road.

An advert in the Southport Directory dating from 1900 read: Gregory, Alfred J. (Farmers Supply Stores) – saddler, tarpaulin and window-blind manufacturer, rope and twine dealer.

Emotional tribute was paid to Alfred when fellow members of the Christ Church Men’s Bible Class in Southport learned off his death thousands of miles away.

His friend Rev Sinker told worshippers at a special service: “The news of his death from enteric fever (typhoid) at Boshof came as an awful shock last week.

“I shall never forget with what intense enthusiasm we wished him Godspeed on January 14 in this very hall, as we gave him our offerings of love and admiration.

Bev Gregory holds up a copy of his uncle Alfred’s enlistment papers outside Southport Temperance Institute, where he signed up to fight in the Boer War in 1900

“Little did we know that we would never see his face again, and hear his cheery laugh, or receive that hearty grip of his hand.

“He was a man of God, fine and unselfish, and had the heart of a little child.

“He heard his country’s call and obeyed it. Those short months among the soldiers in South Africa may have been the mission God was preparing him for all his life.”

NEWS of Alfred’s death devastated his mother Charlotte, who had lost her husband, Alfred Snr, in 1895.

She went on to lose another son at the age of only 28 in 1905.

That left only Bev’s father, Frederick, alive out of Charlotte and Alfred Gregory’s three sons.

Burnley Road resident Bev, 71, owes his extraordinary one-generation link to a Boer War combatant to the fact he was born when his father was in middle age.

He now intends to write a book about the Southport men who found themselves fighting for Empire in South Africa.

If you can help Bev in his research, please call him on 01704-578451.

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