Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

EDMUND SWEENEY, Boer War veteran, the front rider depicted in this 48-year-old water colour (above) has died in Brisbane. This picture, entitled 'For the V.C.' was first printed in a Brisbane Courier supplement in 1901. Lines under the picture stated that an officer of the fifth Queensland contingent, writing from South Africa, said he had heard that one of the men, named Sweeney, had been recommended for the Victoria Cross. He rode back under fire to a man whose horse had been shot, and got the man up behind him. Then he himself was shot in the chest, and fell, gasping, 'Never mind me, save yourself, old chap, I'm done for.' Mr. Sweeney never received what would have been Queensland's first V.C, but was granted the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His brother (Mr. William Sweeney, Margate) said yesterday that the man he saved was former Police Sergeant Adams, of Cabarlah, near Toowoomba, now a plumber in Sydney. Mr. Sweeney, a former teamster and Main Roads Commission overseer, has left a widow and four children. He was 69.