Ancestor Details
Ancestor's Name: Louis Charles Waterson
Ancestor's date of birth: 1878
Ancestor's date of death: 19/03/1903
Cause of Death: Tuberculosis
Service and Life Before the Boer War: Farming, Bega Valley
Service Number: 65
Colony or State of enlistment: NSW, Place of Enlistment: Bega
Unit: A Sqadron NSW Mounted Rifles
Rank attained in Boer War: PTE, Date Effective: 1899
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War service
Murray Page: 34
Contingent: First New South Wales.
Ship: Aberdeen, Date of Sailing: 04/11/1899
Memorial details: Buried in Bega NSW
Awards/Decorations/Commendations: Queen's South Africa Medal with Cape Colony, Paardeberg, Driefontein and Orange Free State clasps.
Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided
Reasons to go and fight: Perhaps after the loss of his mother and two siblings he needed to get away.
Details of service in war: From December 1899 in north-west Cape Colony, and Free State. Weakened on the march to Bloemfontein he later had a bad attack of enteric and was eventually invalided home. Private Waterson was invalided from Capetown 23 October 1900, arrived in Sydney per 'Delphic' in November 1900 and returned home 27 November 1900.
Service and life after the Boer War: He looked all right on return but is supposed to have caught a chill which paved the way for consumption. His father was unable to care for him as Charles had just lost his wife and 2 children to fever, so his Uncle Henry Waterson chose to care for him and built a room for him at the rear of his house at Wallagoot. No one from the family were allowed near this room for fear of catching the disease. Louis Waterson, son of Charles Waterson of Wallagoot, died 19 March 1903 aged 25 after a lingering illness. Henry was the one to care for him alone and inevitably Henry also caught the disease and died two years after Louis at the age of 59 years. Henry's daughter, Evelyn Mary, was the one who nursed her father through his disease and was lucky enough to escape infection.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Lynneeta Darmody (nee Waterson), North Fitzroy VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: Second cousinName of Descendant: Judith Elizabeth Poynton (nee Waterson), WARRNAMBOOL VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: Second CousinName of Descendant: Andrew Lachlan POYNTON, WOODEND VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: 3rd CousinName of Descendant: Amie Elizabeth FOREMAN, ILLOWA VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: 3rd CousinName of Descendant: Coen Lachlan POYNTON, WOODEND VIC
Relationship to Ancestor: 4th CousinName of Descendant: Carter William POYNTON
Relationship to Ancestor: 4th Cousin
