People face their death in many ways, as can be seen in the last words of three British soldiers killed in the Boer War.
During a siege, Sergeant M'Donald stepped outside a sangar to watch the effect of a shell, and was hit in seven places by splinters. As his comrades lifted him back into the shelter, dying, he merely said, "Wasn't it a pity I went out to see it?"
At another battle, Major Day left cover to help a wounded man, and had just reached him when he was shot. When both were taken under cover, his first inquiry was how the wounded man was getting on. "Never mind me," said the dying officer.
And a grenadier in a letter home described the death of a comrade: "He gripped my hand, and said in a voice I could only just catch, "Good-bye, old man. Tell poor old dad I died in the front. I had begun a letter to him -- you finish it."
人之將死，反應不一。波爾戰爭之中三名陣亡英軍的遺言，可以說明這一點。
有一場攻城戰，麥克唐納中士走到小胸牆之外，去看一枚砲彈落下的結果，給彈片擊中，身上七處受創，由同袍抬回掩護處，死前只是說：「我走到外面看，不是很不智嗎？」
另一場戰役之中，戴少校走出掩護處，去協助一個受傷同袍，剛走到那同袍身邊，自己也被槍傷。兩人給抬回掩護處，戴少校先問那同袍怎樣。他自己傷重將死，卻說：「不要管我。」
一個擲彈兵的家書敍述同袍之死：「他抓住我的手，我好不容易才聽到他微弱的聲音：『老兄，再見。告訴可憐的家父，我死在前綫。我寫給他的一封信，只開了頭，你替我完結吧。』」