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Two Lilley brothers, William and Dave, joined the 5"' Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War but only one of them returned.
Both brothers were popular with their colleagues, William being a private and Dave, the older brother, an acting Corporal. In fact because William was only 17 when he enlisted, Dave was encouraged by his parents to enlist as well to "keep an eye on William".
Details on how William died are sketchy but he was killed during fierce fighting with the enemy near Onverwacht in Northern Transvaal on 4 January 1902.
Before that he'd certainly been in the thick of things. In a letter to his sister Edith and brother-in-law Bob dated 6 October 1901, he described some of the action. Well a little bit about the war we have had a good deal of fighting lately. We had a bit of a go the other day at a place called Weapener there was 3 boers shot dead & 17 boers wounded our loss was nill and about a week after that there was 50 of QIB & 150 New Zealanders went out on patroal away from the colum & they struck about 400 boers and had a good cut in with them but the boers had the best part of it, they was getting all around our fellers and soon would have had the lot of them. But General Plumer got wind of it & made a bid for it, we were 10 miles off when he heard of it & he sent Col. Jervis & about 200 of us & 2 big guns & Pompom to assist them we galloped the 10 miles & our horses were done in when we got there it was just dusk when the guns & pompom started playing on to them they were all larged up in the camp the shells fell right in amongst them & then there was a bit of a flutter amongst the boers there was little peices flying all roads the shells killed about 4 boers the losses on our side was 4 killed & 2 wounded the men killed were Leiut Kaskey, Leiut Pooley, Private G H White & Private Milliner the men wounded Private Gatfield & another man. The New Zeal never came near our fellers they was sitting down having tea when we came up with the guns & our blokes was in a tight corner the boers [unreadable] of our fellers & they would have had the lot if we hadn't have came up quick they stripped our fellers and let them go. The boer loss was 10 killed & a good few wounded. The name of the place was Makarie Drift. 1 have no more time to write any more, we are goeing to have a cut at Botha now. I have had no sickness yet Remember us to all up there.
I Remain, Your Brother, W Lilley, South Africa. (No changes have been made to the spelling or grammar of the original letter)
Although the Lilley family would have learned of William's death through brother Dave, a company commander of the 5th QIB, Captain Charles Gehrmann wrote a condolence letter to the family. The letter was in a beautiful script. Dear Sir, It is with great regret that I have to write to you on so sad a matter. No doubt by now you have been advised officially and Dave will have written to you. Your son No 127 Pvt W Lilley met his death bravely in an engagement on January 4th when our regiment suffered severely.
"He was one of my best men and was the life of all his troop. His death has cast quite a gloom amongst us. His cheerful manner made him a favourite with both officers and men and I regret his death very much. He was always willing for any work and although not present myself at the time of his death, his example on the field was a lesson many a man could follow and be a credit to his country. Allow me to sympathise with you and your family in your sad bereavement and I pray for the Almighty to be with you in your sad affliction and make it easy to bear.
"I trust nothing will happen to your other son and that he will be spared to return to you safe and sound. He is also a credit to his company and is a very promising young officer.
"I must apologise for not writing earlier, but I have been in hospital since beginning of the month, hence this delay.
"Hoping that the Almighty will be with you in your trouble and that Dave may be spared to you.
I remain, yours sincerely, Chas G. Gehrinann, Capt 5th QIB
The material for this article was supplied by Mr Alan Lilley of Queensland
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