SHOWERS – EDEN CURRIE
| Born: Rank: LIEUT. COL./MAJOR Regiment: LUMSDEN’S HORSE GPS: |
Reason for death: KILLED IA Place of death: THABA N’CHU Date of death: 1900/04/30 Memorial: BURIED AT KAREE SIDING – STEVE WATT “IN MEMORIAM” |
Note:
NO MEMORIAL TO LIEUT. COL. SHOWERS HAS BEEN FOUND AT KAREE SIDING. IN HIS BOOK “WITH LUMSDEN’S HORSE AGIN THE BOERS” J.H.BURN-MURDOCH RECOUNTS THE DEATH OF MAJOR SHOWERS AS FOLLOWS:- “IT WAS ABOUT THIS TIME THAT OUR GALLANT MAJOR, WHO SCORNED TO TAKE COVER, GOT TWO MORTAL BULLET WOUNDS THROUGH HIS LUNGS. OUR DOCTOR VERY PLUCKILY SET TO AND CUT OFF HIS TUNIC AND PLUGGED THE BULLET-HOLES QUITE REGARDLESS OF THE HEAVY FIRE HE WAS SUBJECTED TO. BUT IT WAS OF NO USE; IN A FEW MOMENTS THE BRAVE OLD SOLDIER BREATHED HIS LAST: ALL HE SAID WAS, – “AH WELL, I’M DONE FOR…IT’S NOT SO BAD AS I SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED”. IN THE BOOK “THE HISTORY OF LUMSDEN’S HORSE‘, IN CHAPTER 9, THE FOLLOWING IS RECORDED – “IN THE OLD CAMP AT SPYTFONTEIN, TO WHICH THE BODY OF MAJOR SHOWERS WAS BORNE THE NEXT DAY, ANOTHER SIMPLE MEMORIAL, PATHETICALLY DISTINGUISHED BY ITS LONELINESS, WAS RAISED BY THE COMRADES WHO PAID THEIR SORROWING TRIBUTE TO HIM THERE, BUT BROUGHT AWAY MEMORIES OF HIS SOLDIERLY QUALITIES, WHICH THEY HAVE HONOURED SINCE BY A MORE SUMPTUOUS MONUMENT IN BENGAL. AT THE TIME, SPYTFONTEIN WAS A FARM JUST TO THE SOUTH-EAST OF KAREE SIDING.
