JOHN ADNITT 

Private John Adnitt / Adnett *Regimental Number 3453) served in South Africa in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment for about three years, receiving clasps for campaigns in Johannesburg, Cape Colony and Orange Free State, as well as the Queen’s South Africa medal 1901 and 1902. He contracted enteric fever (typhoid) and was invalided home in early August 1902. He appeared to make a recovery but whilst on board suffered a relapse. On arrival at Southampton, he was taken to the nearby Netley Military Hospital, but died shortly afterwards on 4 September 1902, at the age of 33. He was buried in Netley Military Cemetery on 8th Sept, but in a grave location which, like so many others from that date, cannot now be identified. There seems to be no record of his registered death in the UK. His military record indicates that he died “at sea”. (The Royal Victoria Hospital aka Netley Hospital was a large military hospital in Netley, near Southampton, Hampshire, England.)

What do we know about John?

John Adnett was born on 3 January 1869 in Crewe, Cheshire, the eldest son of John (1834 – 1911) and Mary Elizabeth nee Hawkes, (1840 - 1901). He had five brothers (one of whom died in infancy) and one older sister. The census records of 1871 and 1881, show that when John was a child, the family were living at 44 Market Street, Crewe. His parents’ address in 1891 and 1901 was 25 Richard Moon Street, Monks Coppenhall, Crewe. Like his father, John worked as a fitter on the railways. In April 1883, aged fourteen and a half, he was apprenticed to the London and North Western Railway Company. He had first enlisted into the British Army on 16th Sept 1891 at Crewe. At the age of thirty, in 1899, he was released from his employment at the railway company to take part in the Boer War. His entry in the record of deceased soldiers’ effects states that his next of kin was his mother, and that a payment of £18/1/4 was made to his father, an indication that John was unmarried.

Both versions appear on different army documents. John’s birth was registered as Adnett, his father’s marriage as Adnett, but both his parents’ deaths as Adnitt. In the 1891 census, the family name is recorded as Hadnott. Another record is under the name Adnil.