Sergeant Robert Berry & Acting Corporal John McFarlanePrint Page

This monument was erected in July 1902 by friends of two young soldiers, Sergeant Robert Edwin Berry [aged 23 years] and Acting Corporal John MacFarlane [aged 21 years], who were killed in action in the Transvaal on 4 January 1902 during the South African (Boer) War. 

The Berry family had long been resident in the Sherwood district, and were closely associated with St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Sherwood Road. Both young men were members of the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen and, like all Australian troops participating in the South African [Boer] War of 1899-1902, were volunteers.

The ceremony of unveiling the monument erected to the memory of Sergeant Robert Edwin Berry and acting Corporal John Macfarlane, who fell in action at Onverwacht in January last, was performed by the Premier (Hon. R. Philp M.L.A.) at St. Matthew's churchyard, Sherwood, on Saturday afternoon last. The families of the two soldiers were grouped in front of the stone. There was a large attendance of friends of the fallen soldiers, including a fair number of their comrades of the fifth Q.I.B. contingent. 

Hon. R. Philp then detached the Union Jack from the monument, after which he said he looked upon it as a sad duty to unveil a monument to two young fellows with whom he had travelled to South Africa, but he was glad their friends had taken that fitting opportunity to erect the monument to two brave men who had died as soldiers at Onverwacht. They had died the bravest death a soldier could expect to die. He hoped their action would be remembered by the young people in Queensland. They had fought not only for the honour of the British Empire, but that British liberty should be preserved for all time. 
The Week (Brisbane, Qld),  27 June 1902.

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