Arrival of British transport Nile at London according to the Dutch newspaper De Zeeuw dated 10 March 1900

An item reported that two days earlier the transport Nil (1) arrived at London with wounded soldiers returning from South Africa.(2) Among them was a soldier named Oleary who had a severe head wound when he was hit by a Mauser bullet making him deaf and dumb and paralysed at the left side. The chief of the health service in South Africa sir William MacCormac (3) removed the bullet, an once of brains and skull fragments. The result was that Oleary could see and speak again and move his left feet. According to his surgeon was this a miracle.

Notes

1. According to the website http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/rm1.html was she not called Nil but the Nile belonging to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and used as Transport No. 82. Build in 1893 at the shipyard of J.&G, Thompson at Glasgow with a net tonnage of 3,425 and a gross tonnage of 5,855 tons. Fitted out with a single screw and with 3-cylinder triple expansion engines supplying 3,500 ihp she had a speed of 15 knots. Broken up in 1925.

2. The Second Boer War found place between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902 and ended in a defeat of the Boers and regaining British sovereignty of the Orange Free State and South African Republic (Transvaal). In 1920 became the Union of South Africa part of the Commonwealth.

3. Sir William MacCormac, 1^st Baronet (17 January 1836 Belfast-4 December 1901 Bath), a surgeon who also write several books and other publications dealing with his profession. He voluntarily went to South Africa where he served between November 1899 and April 1900 in the Cape Colony and in Natal.