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Rifleman John Beattie - Northern Rhodesian Rifles

 
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DerekR
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Location: Hawick, Scotland

PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:41 pm    Post subject: Rifleman John Beattie - Northern Rhodesian Rifles Reply with quote

I am researching the men from Hawick, Scotland who fell in the Great War.

One of them, Rifleman John Beattie defies my research.

He is listed on the Hawick War Memorial as having served and died in the Northern Rhodesian Rifles.
He is listed on the Allars Church Memorial in Hawick under South African forces.
And he appears in a Hawick newspaper as having been killed prior to 13/7/17:
"Rifleman John Beattie, Northern Rhodesian Rifles, son of the late Archibald Beattie, mason, 1 Twirlees Road, Hawick."

However, I can find no trace of John Beattie on either the CWGC website or the SNWM website. There are no names remotely similar.

There is however a Medal Index Card for a John Beattie, Northern Rhodesian Rifles which may be my man:


The regimental numbers of 121, 124 and 125 are all Northern Rhodesian Rifles men, and all are buried in NDOLA (KANSENSHI) CEMETERY in Zambia so I'm looking at a possible non-commemoration.

I have found John's birth certificate in Hawick. Born JOHN DALGLEISH BEATTIE, 25th October, 1879. Sadly there is no family headstone surviving in the Wellogate Cemetery, Hawick to give any clues what happened to John.

Any suggestions where I go now with tracking John down?
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David McNay
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 5:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

10 men called John Beattie died between 1914 and 1918 according to Scotlands People. They were all aged between 23 and 37, which doesn't help to narrow it down.
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DerekR
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bringing this man back to the top.
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DerekR
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have just found the following notice in the "Hawick News" of August 25th, 1916:

"For King and Country:

Beattie - on the 26th June (1916), at Chinsali, Central Africa, Pte. John Beattie, Northern Rhodesian Rifles, third son of the late Archibald Beattie, 1 Twirlees Road (Hawick)."


Chinsali is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, and is headquarters of Chinsali District.
It lies 15 km west of the Great North Road and about 180 km north-north-east of Mpika.

Does anyone know if deaths would be registered in this area of Zambia or how I go about finding out what happened to John in August 1916?
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DerekR
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The regimental numbers of 121, 124 and 125 are all Northern Rhodesian Rifles men, and all are buried in NDOLA (KANSENSHI) CEMETERY in Zambia.
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Adam Brown
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.nrzam.org.uk/NRJ/V5N2/V5N2.htm

Page 166 of Volume 2 of the Northern Rhodesia Journal seems to suggest the NRR was demobilised on 31st March 1916.

It lists four deaths in the regiment:

Lt Stannus Charles Johnson Irvine
Rifleman Alexander Lindsay
Rifleman William Stevens
Rifleman Arthur John Warren

None of these match the names you found in Kanseshi and all three deaths are post 31.03.1916.
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DerekR
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Adam,
Thanks.
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Adam Brown
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is this man still a non-comm?

Thanks

Adam
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DerekR
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, he's still a non-comm.
I've been unable to add any other information to his story.
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David McNay
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Entry on the National Probate Calendar for 1916:

"BEATTIE - John of Lubwa Mission North Nigeria died 26 June 1916 Confirmation of Margaret Beattie. Sealed London 28 January."

The Scottish Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories states:

"BEATTIE, John, sometime residing in Hawick, late of Chinsali, Northern Rhodesia, died 26 June 1916, at Lubwa Mission, Northern Rhodesia, intestate. Confirmation granted at Edinburgh, 23 January, to Margaret Beattie, 1 Twirlees Road, Hawick, his sister, Executrix dative qua next of kin. Valuie of estate, £32 0s 10d."

Has anyone checked the service returns on Scotlandspeople for this man? If we can find the correct one, then I can send on both of the above documents which will link him to the "correct" man.
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Kenneth Morrison



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Location: Rockcliffe Dalbeattie

PostPosted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

John's sister Margaret Beattie died on 19 August 1923 at 1 Twirlees Road, Hawick. She was 59. (Southern Reporter 23/8/1923)
She was born in 1864 in Hawick to Archibald and Ann (Dalgleish) Beattie.
John aged 1 is on the 1881 census at 6 Queensberry Place, Hawick and by 1901 he was as a joiner/carpenter living with his brother Adam and Adam's family in Newcastle.

His father Archibald died in 1911 at 1 Twirlees Road. His mother Annie died in 1915.

There is a Medal Card for John Beattie, Rifleman 123 of the N.Rhodesian Rifles. VM & BWM only.

There is a short history of the NRR here: http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/296401.html
which indicates that the unit was disbanded in March 1916 – so John may well had been a civilian at the time of his death.

As a side issue, the first Free Church of Scotland establishment among the Bemba was a school at Lubwa, opened in 1905 by the Malawian teacher David Kaunda and his wife, whose eighth child was Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia, who was born in Lubwa in 1924 and attended Lubwa Mission School at Chinsali in north-eastern Zambia.
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