3-052-432 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Captain W. Lawrell, 1880. Engraving from a photograph by Elliott and Fry. 'At the capture of Secokuni's town, in the Transvaal, by the troops under command of Lieutenant-General Sir Garnet Wolseley, on Nov. 28, Captain Walter Lawrell, of the 4th Hussars, acting as orderly officer to Colonel Baker Russell, who commanded in that action, was one of the few officers killed. He was only son of the Rev. John Lawrell, and was educated at the Charterhouse. He entered the Army in December, 1865, as Cornet in the 9th Lancers, in which regiment, by a strange coincidence, so many of his old brother-officers were falling in Afghanistan nearly at the time of his own death. He exchanged into the 4th Hussars, and on their return from India volunteered for service at the Cape, and took out men and horses for the cavalry there, a duty which he discharged most creditably. Sir Garnet Wolseley, in a letter to his Colonel, says: - "He was a most keen soldier, and loud in his expression of satisfaction at having at last an opportunity given him of seeing some active work." The General further says, "Her Majesty has lost a very gallant soldier, but he died as most soldiers wish to die".' From "Illustrated London News", 1880.