AITKEN, William A
| Service Number: | 9235 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Trooper |
| Last Unit: | Unspecified South African Army Units |
| Born: | Heathcote, Victoria, Australia, 1865 |
| Home Town: | Heathcote, Greater Bendigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Saddler |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Colenso, Natal, South Africa, 15 December 1899 |
| Cemetery: |
Clouston Garden of Remembrance , Colenso |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll, Heathcote Boer War Memorial |
Boer War Service
| Date unknown: | Involvement Trooper, 9235, Unspecified South African Army Units |
|---|
Help us honour William A AITKEN's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed
Son of Alexander AITKEN, Heathcote, Victoria.
A VICTORIAN KILLED AT COLENSO.
News have just been received here of the death, at the battle of Colenso, of William Aitken, a native of Heathcote. Aitken went to Johannesburg a few years ago, and when obliged to leave the Rand, joined Thorneycroft's Horse in Natal. He was wounded in the battle of Colenso, and while being carried on the ambulance was again shot, being struck through the heart. He had his photograph taken and forwarded to his relatives only two days before he was killed.
Willie Aitken was born in heathcote, and when a lad was apprenticed to the late Mr. A. McDonald, as a saddler, and a little while after completing his indenturees he bade goodbye to his friends in Heathcote in order to seek fortune's smiles in South Africa.
He settled down in Dohannesberg, where for some time he was engaged n one of the rich mines in that district.
When the war scare broke out he, with the majority of the population of that city, left for Capetown, where he joined the South African Imperial Light Horse as a saddlery-sergent. He afterwards left that regiment and joined the Thorneycroft Mounted Infantry, and it was while engaged with that body in the battle of Colenso that he was slightly wounded. He was being carried off the field by Lieut. Ponsonby when a bullet struck him in the heart, killing him instantly.
That so promising a life should have been cut off in such a manner is very sad, but it is some consolation to his sorrowing relatives to know that he fell whils fighting for his Queen and Country, as so many of his fellow colonists are now doing.