Bugler Dunne had his visit to Osborne on Monday, crossing the Solent from Southsea in the charge of Lieutenant Knox. A boy of fifteen, dressed in khaki, he was ushered by Sir John McNeil into a small room, where sat her Majesty near a table. He stood and bowed a little nervously ; then the Queen told him to step forward, asked him about his wound and whether he liked the Army - which he said he did - and finally presented him with a bugle to take the place of that which he lost by the Tugela River. The new instrument is silver-mounted; it has a green bugle-cord, the green dear to a boy whose father was born in County Tipperary ; and a silver plate attached to it bears the inscription : " Presented to Bugler John Francis Dunne, 1st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers, by Queen Victoria, to replace the bugle lost by him on the field of battle at Colenso, on the 10th December, 1899 when he was wounded."

Source: ILN, page 252 dated 24 Feb 1900

The following article on Bugler Dunne also appeared in another publication as follows:

From " Battle Smoke" dated Wednesday, April 11, 1900 as transcribed by Bev Edmonds

1ST DUBLIN FUSILEERS. The first man wounded on our side at the Battle of Colenso was a little boy, John DUNN, bugler to A Company of the 1st Dublin Fusileers. This statement is an obvious Irishism; but then the dauntless Drummer DUNN is Irish - you can see it by his bright sparkling eyes- and that is why he came to go forth to do battle with the Boers at all. He joined the 1st Battalion of the Dublin Fusileers at Aldershot in July, when he was just fourteen years old and four feet and three-quarter inches in height. As became a boy bred in a barracks he took to soldiering like a duck to water, and as " No 6406 " he was sent out to the front with his regiment. He landed at Durban on December 1, travelled to Estcourt by train, and marched from there to Chieveley, via Frere. His colour sergeant wanted him to stay at Chieveley, but the boy would not. "I want to be with the company," he said. And go he did.

His company had a hard time, for it was in the fighting front, and lost thirty-seven men out of eighty-four killed and wounded, Captain A.W. GORDON, leading it, being badly mauled. The Fusileers had to swim across the Tugela to attack the Boer trenches. Just as they were doubling towards the enemy lines, the boy, who was in front with the officer got hit by a piece of shell on a muscle in the upper part of his right arm and also his breast. He was too excited to feel pain.............? dropped from his hand. With extraordinary presence ...........? it to his lips with his left hand, only to sink to the ground........? blood. He was immediately carried off in an ambulance.......? he recovered consciousness he discovered much to his..............?bearers had thrown his trumpet into the troublous Tugela........in the way.  Young DUNN was taken to see the Queen. " At e.................? Majesty let it be known that it was her pleasure to see the........? Colenso.

Sincere apologies from Bev and myself for the gaps at the end of the article, only it would appear that the termites, or whatever, had started to munch their way through the document, which has spent the last 100 years in an outhouse in the Australian outback.

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