Carlisle, John Sloan (Jack)
Sergeant
No. 6267, 3rd Regiment, South African Infantry
Died of disease on Monday 4 February 1918 (aged 37)
Buried:
Boksburg Cemetery, Gauteng, South Africa (Grave A. 619)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Family grave headstone in Boksburg Cemetery
BIOGRAPHY
In some records his surname is spelt Carlile.
John Sloan Carlisle (known as Jack) was born on 15 September 1880 in Conlig and he was a son of William Robert and Mary Stewart Carlisle (nee Sloan) who were married on 29 June 1879 in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Church Belfast. William Robert Carlisle, aged 23, was a Private in the 104th Regiment and living in Belfast Army Barracks. He was a son of Alexander Carlisle, a labourer. Mary Stewart Sloan, aged 24, from Urney Street, Belfast was a daughter of John and Agnes Sloan (nee Findley). John Sloan worked as a labourer.
William Robert Carlisle and Mary Stewart Carlisle (nee Sloan) had three children:
John Sloan (born 15 September 1880 in Conlig)
Robert Hugh (born 10 July 1883 in Conlig)
William James (born 15 August 1885 in Conlig)
In 1901, along with two other young men, Jack Carlisle (aged 20) was boarding with the widowed Mary Sloan (aged 46) in Memel Street, Belfast and he was working as a blacksmith.
The death of Sergeant Jack Carlisle was reported in the 6 March 1919 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline Conlig-South African’s Death. The report stated that Jack Carlisle moved to South Africa around 1903 where he worked as a miner in the Glencairn Mine. After Jack’s father died his widowed mother moved to South Africa in 1906 where she lived in Ninth Street, Boksburg North.
It was reported in the Press that ‘Jack Carlisle served in German West Africa and then volunteered for service overseas. He served in Egypt, Gallipoli and on the Western Front including Delville Wood and Vimy Ridge. He was wounded at Verdun and returned to South Africa in March 1917. His health declined, and he died on 4 February 1918 at his mother’s residence in Boksburg North’.
Sergeant Jack Carlisle (No. 6267) was buried in Boksburg Cemetery and, also commemorated on his headstone, are his mother, Mary Sloan Carlisle, who died on 14 August 1921 and his brother William James Carlisle who died on 9 September 1921 (aged 36). William James Carlisle served as a Lance Corporal in the 8th Regiment, South African Infantry.
There is an inscription on Sergeant Jack Carlisle’s headstone:
There remaineth therefore a rest
To the people of God
Let us labour therefore
To enter into that rest