After 115 years of wondering where their loved one was laid to rest, a family from London, England discovered his grave in the Garden of Remembrance in Barberton.

It was an emotional moment for the family of Lt Robert ffrench Blake, who died during the Anglo-Boer War in May 19, 1902, when they laid a wreath on his tombstone.

The wreath was provided by Blake’s military unit, the Buffs (East Kent Regiment).Members of Barberton’s Lone Tree Shellhole of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats (MOTHs) were present during the wreath laying.

According to Col Robert ffrench Blake II, he was named after his uncle and felt the need to find his resting place.Blake II was accompanied by his wife, Sabina.

“I am generally not an emotional person, although it was an emotional experience. My father, who was the youngest brother, died during World War II when I was about

22 years old, the same age my uncle was when he died. They were four brothers and three were killed in combat.

“One died during World War I, my dad during the second war, then my uncle during the Anglo-Boer War. This was sad for me. The fact that he has been kept in a lovely environment which has been beautifully maintained, gave me happiness. In 2008 I was in South Africa for a holiday, although I had no idea where he could be, since this country is big. All I knew was that it was somewhere near the Kruger National Park,” said ffrench-Blake II

The family was assisted by Mbombelan, Matthew Lötter. The ffrench Blake family met Lötter when he travelled to England after his brother’s death.

“His brother had been our neighbour, so he came to sort out his affairs. His late brother was a good friend. We sent Matthew information and photographs of Robert and he then did the rest.”

According to Lötter, he started researching immediately after receiving the information.”I went to the War Graves Commission of South Africa but it was not very helpful. I sent an email, but I still have not received any feedback from the commission.

I decided to contact Jane Gunston who lives in Mbombela, because I knew she would be able to help. She started researching.

According to our investigation his post-mortem was performed in Nelspruit so we knew he was buried there. In those days, there was no way they could have opened his corpse and kept it, since there were no refrigerators.

While searching I also found out that British casualties in the Lowveld where buried in the Garden of Remembrance in Barberton and I thought there could be a possibility that they were all buried there. I also found out that in 1976, they exhumed the remains of British soldiers from various areas of the Lowveld and reburied them in the garden, so we decided to contact Barberton Museum. Gunston was the one that made the phone call. Lucky for us they went through the records and found him,” said Lötter.

According to information contained in the notice of death served to the family in 1902, ffrench Blake was killed while he was out hunting somewhere between Blockhouse 2 and Blockhouse 3 in Alkmaar, just outside Nelspruit.

“He was not in the country for more than five months. We think he could have gone out with the people he met when he was there. When someone fired a shot, it went straight through his head and he died immediately. Eight hours after he died they took him to Nelspruit and examined him there. They then buried him afterwards in Nelspruit.”

According to Old Bill Deon Höll from the local MOTHs, they were asked by the family to be in attendance when they laid the wreath.

“It was one of our responsibilities to help and to make sure that it was the right tombstone. It was great to see a family honour their loved one in a foreign country,” said Höll.