| Show THE UTAH NEWSPAPER HALL OF FAME government employ asmessenger in the control department His father had been transferred to Chester where his assignment permitted him to reside in Chester Castle John left home in 1875 after his mother passed away while giving birth to her thirteenth child When his father remarried soon after John joined the Sixth Cheshire Earl of ChesterRifle Volunteers where he spent the next two years It was while assigned near Billing ton that he joined the Latter-day Saints Church in May 1877 Wallis walked to Scotland to join the Royal Scots and with that regiment traveled through many countries including Ireland Malta and the West Indies visiting Jamaica Barbados and Trinidad While on duty in the latter post he sufferedsevere attack of yellow fever during plague which took the lives of hundreds of soldiers It left him withweak heart but refusing to be invalided home he was transferred toposition with the Military Police as Corporal in Charge of the Officers Mess In this role he recalled he met many men of national prominence The regiment was later transferred to Capetown South Africa engaging in the 1884-85 Boer uprising in Bechuanaland and operations in Zululand during 1888 and 1889 Wallis was associated on the Zulu expedition with Sir Baden Powell who years later became the founder of the Boy Scout movement While based in Capetown Wallis was subordinate to Sir Henry Stanley who had gained fame in 1871 for discovering explorer David Livingstone deep in the jungles of Africa Their meeting is remembered by Stanleyclassic question Dr Livingstone presume Before being discharged Wallis was also in Maderia St Helena Ascension Island and Bermuda 639 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
