Stan Reid - Death

Death

On 23 June 1901, during a reconnaissance at Renshoogte Farm, near Ermelo, Reid was once again shot in the stomach. His brother placed Reid and the other wounded in an ambulance cart and set off back to their camp.

In a letter to their parents, written after Reid's death, his brother described his wounding:

, as soon as it was light enough to march, the Fifth and Sixth W.A.M.I. and Imperial Light Horse, with two Colt guns, left camp to reconnoitre the surrounding country, as the Boer snipers had been giving a lot of annoyance on the previous day. On a kopje about three miles from camp we lodged the guns in a position in which they had command on all sides within a range of about 3,000 yards. From the kopje we advanced, the Fifth on the left and the Sixth in the centre, and on the right we advanced two and a half miles from the guns to some kaffir kraals, where we halted, while Stanley was further ahead with his troops in skirmishing order to see what was over the sky-line which was about three miles away from us. They advanced slowly, and when they were near the sky-line we heard heavy firing going on. Stanley and his troops disappeared from view behind a ridge, and the rifle firing became very heavy and continuous in their direction. Then we saw about twenty mounted men appear from the ridge over which his troops had disappeared from view. We took them to be our men returning until they came within 300 yards or so. Then we discovered they were Boers chasing two of Stanley's men. We opened fire on them and drove them back. Then these two men told us that of Stanley's troops' two men were killed and three wounded, the rest being taken prisoners. In the meantime the 5in. gun had been sent for and taken into position alongside the Colt guns. These now commenced firing on the enemy for a while at a range of about five miles. After they finished my orderly and myself rode across with the Red Cross flag, to the scene of the troops' engagement. There we found two dead and three wounded — Stanley through the stomach, his sergeant in three places, through the neck, through the leg, and through his lungs; and a private through the chest. We at once dressed Stanley's wounds, and made him as comfortable as it was possible, the men of ours doing all they could to make him comfortable, taking off half their own clothes to make a bed for him and to cover him. In about an hour and a half the ambulance waggon came, and we took them all back to camp. Major Jones, who is in charge of the hospital, has done everything to make him comfortable.

Three days later, on the morning of 29 June 1901, Reid died of his wounds at Middel-Kraal: his brother described the circumstances in his letter to their parents:

Stanley died at 5 o'clock. Since he was wounded I have been near him all the time, and was with him when be passed away. I had all the surgeons in the camp. but they all agreed it was hopeless. He was in considerable pain, but stood it as I have seldom seen a man stand it. The men of the contingent fairly worshipped him; and are very cut up over his death. Poor Stanley's grave is the best I have seen in South Africa. The men asked leave from the captain to look after the grave. Leave was granted, and they worked away at it and made it up splendidly.

He was buried in a grave especially arranged by the men he had commanded — situated beneath a clump of Australian wattles, with a large wooden cross bearing his name at its head — with full military honours in a ceremony, attended by his commanding officer Colonel Campbell and his staff, representatives of all of the regiments comprising the Sixth W.A.M.I., conducted by regimental chaplain and Reid's old friend, Mr. Collick.

A fellow officer, Lieutenant Bernard Bardwell, reported that "His brother, the doctor, was almost mad with grief. It will take a strong hand to pull him together again, as he is utterly broken down, poor fellow."

In 1902, Mr. Collick praised Reid, stating that "though Stanley Reid went to South Africa as a soldier he lived up to the high standard of life that he would have had to live as a minister, and in every way he set a good example to his men.

Reid, the second VFL player known to have died in active service, is buried at the Middelburg Cemetery, Mpumalanga.

At probate, in April 1902, his estate was worth £200.