A small quantity of ephemeral material relating to the military service of 1594 Robert Dent, F Company, 2nd Contingent, 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles
Boer War items include a vintage photograph of a Boer commando (140 × 195 mm, a little damaged, signed on the verso ''Sgt. R. Dent | 5th VMR', and presumably souvenired by him); a snapshot of soldiers in the field, including a British officer using a telescope; the front panel of an envelope postmarked Melbourne, 26 August 1901, addressed to 'Corporal Robert Dent, Ambulance, 5th VMR, Transvaal ... On Active Service | To be forwarded'); and two partial leaves cut from a Boer scrap book. On one, Dent has written on the recto 'Got in a boers house', and on the verso 'these leaves were picked from trees growing in the avenue leading to the house of Commandant General Botha' - some of the foliage remains attached to the page). The other one contains a large handbill for a business in Wakkerstoom on the recto, and a menu card from Central Hotel, Nondweni on the verso; Dent has written across it 'A portion of this hotel was used by our men to make fires of for cooking our food there being no other wood available'. Other items include a Victorian Defence Force railway pass for 115 Private R. Dent, Ambulance Corps, valid for three months to 13 November 1898; and a Victorian Military School of Instruction Army Medical Corps certificate made out to Dent, 7 March 1903. Murray, page 300 ('Sergeant. Slightly wounded at Vryheid 05.11.01'). [7 items].
Item #117303
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