Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

THE LATE LIEUTENANT ANNAT.
HIS MILITARY CAREER ENDED.
The following particulars concerning Lieutenant Annat, whose death in action at Elands River has been reported, will be read with Interest. It was published just before the  contingent left Queensland : "James Whamond Annat, one of the division leaders of D Company in the Third Queensland Contingent, was born at Lintrathen, Airlie, Scotland, in the year 1864. After leaving school in 1880, he joined the Gordon Highlanders, in preference to being sent to the Dundee Grammar School. Though only 16 years of age; he was accepted as a full fledged private. In January of the following year he was sent out to South Africa, where he joined, the Gordons, who were taking part In the first Transvaal war.  He was in the Majuba Hill disaster, where he was wounded towards the close of the battle General Hector Macdonald, the hero of Omdurman, and now in command of the Highland Brigade, but who then was only a lieutenant of the Gordons, being then in the same battle. Of Macdonald's bravery on that occasion Lieutenant Annat narrates some striking  incidents. Of about 200 Gordons who had climbed the hill during the night, only thirteen were left from the list of killed and wounded. It appears that Macdonald and some of the  others who were left vainly appealed to Sir George Colley to be allowed to charge. When the remnant of the regiment returned to England, Lieutenant Annat was transferred to the  Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, with whom he took part in the Zulu war in 1883-4. He then went to Canada in 1887, being on the staff in the North-west provinces. He fought in the Indian rebellion raised by the chief Sitting Bull, and was severely wounded at Pdne Ridge in 1890. Leaving Canada, he carne to New South Wales, where he was on  the staff as instructor, and after Wards came to Queensland to act as instructor. He was then sent to take charge of the 3rd Kennedy Regiment, and the Kennedy Mounted Infantry. Being asked to take a commission, he did so in 1895. For the last few years be was engaged in mining pursuits, and owned a mine on the New South Wales border, with a crushing and cyanide plant. At the time at his appointment to the contingent he was in command of the L Company of the Queensland Rifles. We learn that he leaves a wife and five children, the eldest a boy 7 1/2 years old, and the youngest an infant of 3 months.