Private Edward Erskine Wilmot-Chetwode
Number: 9705
Company: 45th (Dublin) Company, 13th Battalion, First Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 15 January 1900
Place: Newbridge
Age: 21 years
Trade of calling: Nil
Place of birth: In the Parish of Woodbrook, in or near the Town of Portarlington, in Queens County
Family: Single. Father Erskine Wilmot-Chetwode, gentleman, mother Gertrude Wilmot-Chetwode (nee Hamilton).
Previous military service: No
Description: Height 5' 10 3/4". Complexion fair, eyes blue, hair fair.
Religion: Other Protestant
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 13 March 1900
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State clasps.
DEATH
Date: 8 July 1900
Place: Lindley
Cause: Wounds sustalined 31 May
Commemorated: Wilmot-Chetwode is buried in the Lindley Cemetery (see images below). He is commemorated on the Lindley Cemetery Memorial, the Yeomanry Kop Memorial, the St Patrick's Cathedral Memorial in Dublin, and on a plaque in St John the Evangelist's Church, Coolbanagher, County Laois (see image below).
Wilmot-Chetwode was twice wounded in the fighting at Lindley, as described in The Irish Field on 16 March 1901.
On 28 May 1900:
Captain Maud ... sent to the kraal asking for reinforcements, and about thirty of ours went out to him. On the way three of them were hit - Lang and Hickey rather severely wounded, and Chetwode slightly injured in the foot.
On 31 May, while part of a group led by Lord Longford holding a strategically important kopje:
For a little while longer Lord Longford's men continued the hopeless struggle on their end of the position, where there were several casualties, including Chetwode and Holmes, of our fourth troop, and others of which we heard later. Finally seeing that headquarters had hoisted the white flag, and that further strife would mean useless slaughter, Lord Longford reluctantly gave the order to cease fire.
It was this latter wound that led to his death.
Irish Times, 17 July 1900
Oxford Journal, 21 July 1900
Second image sourced from the Traces of War site.
This page last updated 17 November 2025.