Lance Corporal Samuel Daniel Natal Mounted Police his movements leading up to his death at iSandlwana

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Stalybridge Reporter - Saturday 15 March 1879

Subject: Lce - Corp Samuel Daniels NMP KIA Isandlwana Tue Jul 04, 2023 4:39 am

listed as Cpl Daniels in Forsyth , Dutton , Sole , England's Sons and the NMP Memorial at Isandlwana , but is Daniel on the AZW Memorial in PMB .
90th Salute

I'll ensure ES is corrected. Thanks.
A good discovery!

90th wrote:: listed as Cpl Daniels in Forsyth , Dutton , Sole , England's Sons and the NMP Memorial at Isandlwana , but is Daniel on the AZW Memorial in PMB .
90th

The NMP Nominal Roll as published in Nongqai (Vol 3 No. 8.1 22 August 2012) shows that "Daniels S." enlisted on 16.7.77. Number 180.

Subject: Lce - Corp Samuel Daniels NMP KIA Isandlwana Wed Jul 05, 2023 3:54 am

Hi Julian
It's not you who needs to correct anything , seems the AZW in PMB is incorrect ! Salute

90th

90th
It seems you have more faith in me than I do myself. My reasoning for suggesting I was at fault was that the letters above are obviously to a close friend in Newton Heath, Lancs with whom Samuel kept in touch. According to the recipient/reporter Samuel worked for 9 years in Newton Heath and in Harpurhey (nearby) before he left. So he evidently knew him well and would have been precise about his surname.
The letters would have been signed as well and presumably the editor would have been careful to report the correct name, or so I would hope! That's why I tend to go along the Daniel rather than the Daniels route.
I checked the censuses and birth records and there are several men of both surnames from that area whose trail does not go beyond 1879. One is Samuel Daniels born 1852 in Silverdale, Staffs but who was lodging in Pendlebury, Lancs in 1871, but, as I said, there are several possibilities - nothing definitive.
The volume of Daniels rather than Daniel evidence is considerable and may well be right but the letters cannot be ignored unless one accepts the editor made a simple printing error.
One to ponder.
One last thing is that the letters give the rank of Lance-Corporal (the last was dated 14.1.1879) which I've not seen before and is likely to be right.

There is another clue in that his brother and his wife left SA before August 1878 to return to England. Ships' passenger lists might reveal a Daniel(s) couple. The Silverdale Daniels had an elder brother called George and a younger called John.

Posts : 4 Join date : 2013-02-17

Samuel's elder brother was Dr James Daniel.

Look out for Cam Simpson's new book on the Natal Mounted Police were he is fully identified.

These newspaper extracts add much to his story.

robgdad
Thanks for the post.
Does Cam confirm that the surname is indeed Daniel and not Daniels?

Posts : 1 Join date : 2016-11-24 Location : Suffolk

A most interesting post.

The Death Notice of Samuel Daniel can be accessed at:
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In the Affadavit at:
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by Dr. James Daniel MD, brother of Samuel Daniel, their surname is clearly Daniel.

Brian
Thank you for the confirmation. Samuel Daniel it is.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] wrote:: The Death Notice of Samuel Daniel can be accessed at:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
In the Affadavit at:
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by Dr. James Daniel MD, brother of Samuel Daniel, their surname is clearly Daniel.

Interestingly, the death notice has his name recorded as Daniels with the 's' struck through. Probably because of the affadavit.

It's really good to have all this confirmatory evidence. Thank you for posting.

An Establishment Register for the Natal Mounted Police can be found at the link:
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It is not complete as evidenced by the absence of an entry for Samuel Daniel and others investigated, but it gives much useful other information.
Another listing giving enlistment dates, including the later Natal Police, is held at the Killie Campbell Africana Library in Durban. This list was gratefully copied and reproduced in Nongqai private magazine at link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brian
That last link brings up 'page not found'. Are you sure it's correct?

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Just opened it again by copying and pasting into Google. Please try again and advise result.Thanks.

I agree that the first link does not open. Apologies ....the link probably does not like the full stop at the end which I inadvertently used to end the sentence!
The second link given certainly does open. Must watch that in future!

Brian
Yes it works fine, thank you!

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