Prisoner of War

In July, 1900, Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for Southern Africa and Governor of Cape Colony, telegraphed the Governor-General of Canada, Lord Minto, "regret to report that Trooper Sidney McLaughlin (2nd. Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles) was taken prisoner at Reitvlei." (Just north of Cape Town, Reitvlei is now a bird sanctuary).

The capture, which occurred on Friday the thirteenth, caused additional bad luck by keeping Sidney from earning more than two clasps (Orange Free State and Cape Colony) on his Queen's Medal. But there was also a lucky consequence: he was discharged early, on 31st October, in order to join the South African Constabulary, formed only nine days previously. Sydney remained until 1902 with this para-military force intended to pacify the conquered Boer republics. The badge that he wore is shown upper left.

By 1906 Sidney was back in Canada, married to Lorna, a New Brunswick girl four years younger than himself. They are believed to be the couple in the photograph alongside.

Sidney never troubled to claim his medal, but he did, like Percy and Stanley, apply for a grant under the Volunteer Bounty Act, which authorized the granting of 320 acres of Dominion Land to residents of Canada who had served in South Africa. (Most veterans opted to receive $60 rather than land, or sold their land grant entitlement to a substitute.)

When Sidney applied for the grant his address was c/o The Times, Brandon, Manitoba. This suggests he had already become a typesetter, because in 1914 Sidney was a monotype operator with the Medicine Hat News. During World War I he became a Quarter-Master-Serjeant in the Canadian Army Service Corps. In 1916 he was sent for duty with the Royal Flying Corps.

Information about the rest of the the judge's children is fragmentary. Hugh came to Canada and in 1901 worked as a laborer in Regina. By 1913 he had moved to Medicine Hat where he was employed by the city. He resided at the same Princess Avenue address for many years, and was still there in 1937, working as a city foreman. He later went to Vancouver. Like his sisters, Hugh was still living when Fred died in 1964.

Neil (above left), a clerk with the Canadian Pacific Railway, lived with Sidney at 325 Belfast Street, Medicine Hat. Neil also worked in the Bank of Toronto at Saint-Lambert (on the St. Lawrence River opposite Montreal) before becoming an accountant in Minneapolis.

Donough Crofton McLaughlin came to Montreal aboard the SS Virginian with Eva (left) and Nora (right), probably in 1912. Don went to Hamilton, Ontario, where he died in 1931.

At Christmas 1908 Eva ended a two-year visit to Fred in Maple Creek by returning to England. She resided in Hastings even though she had bought land in Canada. Eva was a very kind soul, but she died a spinster in 1969 at Dolphin Square, the Westminster apartment complex where many MPs live.

Nora married Cecil Eric Howard in 1913 at Creston, BC, half way between Vancouver and Medicine Hat. Cecil had served with the Durham Artillery Volunteer Corps, continuing when part of it became a Royal Field Artillery brigade in 1908. About 1930 Nora was in Zerua, Palestine. The couple had four children.

© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
Reproduction or transmission, in whole or in part, for other than personal use is prohibited without advance permission from Dr. G. H. McLaughlin.