5851 Private A Ackroyd, 2nd Battalion the (Prince of Wales's Own) West Yorkshire Regiment. The battalion deployed to South Africa for the Second Anglo Boer War, sailing on the Roslin Castle on 19 Oct 1899, and arrived at the Cape about 8 Nov 1899 and at Durban about the 11 Nov 1899. Along with the 2nd Queen's, 2nd Devons, and 2nd East Surrey, they formed the 2nd Brigade under Major General Hildyard, part of the Ladysmith relief force. They fought at Willow Grange on 22 Nov 1899 in a night attack on Boer forces under Joubert (10 killed, 50 wounded). At Venter's Spruit the battalion had some very severe fighting on the left of Warren's force, particularly on 21 Jan 1900, and at Vaal Krantz on 7 Feb 1900. During the battle of Tugela Heights (13-27 Feb 1900), the breakthrough to Ladysmith the battalion were constantly in the thickest, including their attacks on Monte Cristo and Railway Hill (Captain Conwyn Mansell-Jones was awarded the VC). After the recuperation period following the relief of Ladysmith, they were involved in the advance north into the Transvaal before undertaking a lot of trekking and hard fighting. On 3 Dec 1900 two companies of the battalion were part of the escort of a convoy travelling to Rustenburg, which was attacked by a large Boer force, but the Boers were driven off (9 killed, 13 wounded). On 6 Feb 1901 a portion of the battalion was very heavily attacked at Bothwell, near Lake Chrissie, Eastern Transvaal, by a big force under Botha (19 killed, 7 wounded). Until the close of the campaign they were chiefly located in the extreme east of the Transvaal. Private Ackroyd was killed in a railway accident at Daspoort near Pretoria. He is also commemorated on the West Yorkshire Regiment Boer War memorial in the West Yorkshire Regiment Chapel, York Minster, York, North Yorkshire, England (see: https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/30631).

"Extract from Digest of Service, 2Bn., PWO West Yorks Regt".
June 7th. A terrible railway accident, resulting in the death of nine men and injuries to five others, all of the regiment, took place at the Camp at 5 AM this morning. An escort of 25 men, under Lt. Keppel, 2nd Norfolks (attached), was about to proceed to Nylstroom, and the train had drawn up in the cutting alongside the camp in order to take them up. Owing to there not being room in the armoured truck for the whole escort, and natives having to be turned out of another truck to make room, there was a delayof some minutes. The men were all just in the train, when the train following rushed around the curve behind and into the rear of the standing train. The armoured truck was completely telescoped, and several other carriages broken and derailed. A working party of the Regiment was quickly at work and managed to get out the living quickly, with the exception of Private Shaw, who was under the wreck for two hours. The funeral of the men was held in the afternoon in the cemetery.
Killed; F Coy - L/cpl. Weston, Ptes. Rodwell, R.Atkinson, J.Anderson, J.Jackson, M.Curley H.Coy, Pte. A.Ackroyd and P.Redmond.
. G. Coy , Pte. D.Hope,
Injured, all more or less seriously; F.Coy, Pte. A. Jones, J.Spellman, H Coy., Pte. T.Rowan, H. Shaw. K Coy., H Eshelby.