Elandslaagte - the cavalry chargers

The battle at Elandslaagte on October 21, 1899 was critical to holding up the Boer forces bearing down on Ladysmith and southern Natal. British forces won the battle driving the Boers off the field and inflicting a physcological and physical defeat when the British cavalry charged through the retreating  Boers. The charge has gone down in history, a relatively rare use of lances and swords in a full blown cavalry charge. The young trumpeter Shurlock shooting three Boers with his revolver and one lance piercing two Boers. The British infantry did well too, charging and capturing the Boer positions. 

 A clasp Elandslaagte was issued for the Queen's South Africa medal. For medal collectors medals to men who took part in the battle are eagerly sought. Most highly prized are medals to the cavalry, the 5th Lancers and 5th Dragoon Guards. It is generally accepted that only two squadrons, one from each regiment charged and that there was another squadron of the 5th Lancers on the battlefield who did not charge. Therefore the odds on a 5th Lancer being a charger are 50/50.

What is less well known is that there was a third squadron of the 5th Lancers entitled to the clasp Elandslaagte. They did not take part in the battle which is perhaps why their role in glossed over. This information is critical to medal collectors, the odds on a 5th Lancer being a charger are reduced to1:3.

The regimental history of the 5th Lancers which has been re-printed and is widely available mention all three squadrons involved in the operations that led to the battle.

A (Cpt J.B.Scriven) took no active part "to the west of French" towards Bester's Station

C (Cpt M.P.R. Oakes) the squadron that did charge with 5th Dragoon Guards from the left

D (Cpt A. Parker) with the Imperial Light Horse "sent to clear a ridge running parallel to the main Boer position, and about two and a half miles to the south west of it...The Boers, under Pienaar, fell back towards their main position." They spent the rest of the day supporting the Imperial Light Horse.

A quick count of the Elandslaagte clasps to the 5th Lancers bears this out, 419 clasps were awarded. This equates to three strong squadrons not two. Eighty-six 5th Lancers earned the Defence of Ladysmith without Elandslaagte indicating a weak squadron left behind. In comparison 172 Elandslaagte clasps were issued to the 5th Dragoon Guards, another strong squadron.

The qualification for the clasp hints at it not simply encompassing the actual battlefield, "All troops at Elandslaagte on 21st October, 1899, who were on the right bank of the Sunday's River and north of an east and west line through Buys Farm [south of Elandslaagte].", there is no left or west boundary. "Buys Farm" was the farm RietKuil owned by one Johannes Petrus Buys. The farm was primarily to the east of the railway and extended north to the Modder Spruit and west just to the other side of the railway line. The farm was used by the British to hold cattle and there was a camp about Modder Spruit Siding, called by one soldier "Buy's [sic] Farm Camp, Modder Spruit".

Thanks to Elné Watson for identifying Buys Farm and Rory Reynolds for additional information.

Cape Garrison Artillery - view from the medal roll

The standard reference for colonial units is Stirling's The Colonials in South Africa (London, William Blackwood, 1907) which is widely used. I have taken the text below from Stirling and added nuggets from the scarce but useful The Armed Forces of South Africa, Major G Tylden (Johannesburg, Africana Museum, 1954). To this is added information derived from The Register and especially it's casualty roll and medal roll.

Raised 1891 as the Cape Garrison Artillery and Engineer Corps. The “Engineer Corps” was dropped from 1897. Volunteer status was dropped in January 1899. Mobilised in October 1899, the strength being 373. Throughout the war they did much good work. During 1900 they were chiefly employed on the western railway and west of the line. A section was for some months operating under Sir C Warren and other leaders against the Griqualand rebels. The corps assisted in garrisoning various important posts. Some were in Jacobsdal when that town was attacked on 25th October, and some were in the relieving force. In his telegram of 31st August 1900 Lord Roberts deals with an attack on Kraaipan station, in which he remarks: "Sergeant Southrood, Cape Garrison Artillery, behaved with great gallantry".

In 1901 detachments of this corps garrisoned, along with the Cape Town Highlanders and various locally raised troops, the towns in the extreme west of Cape Colony and sundry posts right up to the border of German South-West Africa, which were successfully held against repeated attacks.

A detachment was part of the little garrison of O'okiep. These men are unfortunatley not able to be identified.

Lieutenant J C Campbell of the CGA was, when serving with an armoured train, unfortunately killed in an accident north of Pretoria on 8th May 1902.

The Mentions gained by the corps were:

LORD ROBERTS' DESPATCH: 2nd April 1901.—Driver Rodger (DCM).

LORD KITCHENER'S DESPATCH: 23rd June 1902. — Lieutenant Colonel T E Lawton (DSO); Captain J Sampson; Company Sergeant Major W G Duncan; Sergeants W Lewis, RGA, F C Honey, W Carruthers (DCM), W Vye (DCM).

There are a total 958 names on the QSA roll of the Cape Garrison Artillery (WO100-240). Apart from Kitchener’s Horse above a number of men served in other South African units. But men from “overseas” units such as Lord Strathcona’s Horse (1), Army Service Corps (2), Canadian Infantry (1), Canadian Artillery (1), Royal Scots Fusiliers (1 officer), Royal Irish Regiment (1) and a sailor from HMS Monarch chose to join the CGA. Trpr 8457 RJM Horne of the Imperial Yeomanry secured himself a commission in the CGA.

The unit only suffered 10 battle casualties with just one man being killed, Gnr 637 GM Stephens at Brugspruit, four wounded and the remainder missing or POW. Three died of injuries and a further 17 died from disease.

The medal rolls reveal an unexpected and startling statistic, of the 958 men who served with the CGA 76 are marked as deserters – 7% of the unit. The medal roll simply states “deserter”, no place or date is given. Deserters were additionally marked “no medal”, one may assume the desertion took place during the war. The CGA was demobilised on 30 June, 1902 releasing every enlistee but continued as a part-time unit.

None of these men are noted in the Official casualty rolls – more new data only available in The Register. However, it raises the question, “why are they not on the official casualty rolls?”. Was the unit admin slack in that respect or as the unit was not involved in the front line then these desertions were not considered for “casualty reporting”? Every deserter was an original enlistee in the CGA which may indicate they were simply bored with rear echelon soldiering. Only nine deserters have been traced to serve in another South African unit.

Given the unit’s lack of frontline service they did not earn any battle bars as a unit. A QSA with a battle bar indicates service in another unit such as Kitchener’s Horse. State clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State are common, Transvaal, less so.

Given the flow of men into and out of the unit the King’s South Africa medal is scarce to the CGA. There are 444 men on the roll.

When researching the history of a unit the medal roll should not be ignored as a source of new information and insights.

 

The Ten Clasp QSA – Myth or Reality?

The South African National War Museum (now known as Ditsong National Museum of Military History) has or had a QSA with ten clasps named to Trpr Moses Wilson, Damant’s Horse. I proved it was not a valid ten clasp QSA, the two date clasps belonged on a King’s South Africa medal. See The ten-clasp QSA mystery resolved (Military History Journal (South African Military History Society) vol 125 No 5 June 2012). The Special Note appended to the article by the editor immediately prior to publication is in fact irrelevant to the matter. No other ten clasp QSAs are known to exist.

Is it possible though? Strictly speaking the answer is “Yes”. Eight and even nine clasp QSAs are known, you can see how many and to whom by using the query “Number of clasps awarded on a QSA” in the Research Centre on The Register of The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902. The award of clasps was subject to rules specified for each clasp, these can be seen here.

Most of the known eight and nine clasp QSAs have the following battle clasps; Belmont, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen and Relief of Kimberley. This combination represents the fighting and hard slog on the Western Front from November 1899, relief of Kimberley and the capture of the Boer capitals, ending with the second mass surrender of Boers in the Wittebergen in July 1900.

The clasp issue rules allow for a South Africa 1902 clasp on the QSA if the recipient served less than the 18 months overall to qualify for a KSA. But, most eight or nine clasp men either left the war in 1900 or 1901 or earned the KSA with over 18 months service. There are only nine months between the qualification dates for the first clasp, Belmont, November 1899, and the last clasp, Belfast August 1900, which gives plenty of time to earn South Africa 1901 take a break then serve again in 1902 to earn a South Africa 1902 clasp on the QSA. No examples have been found of a valid ten clasp QSA.

Total Clasps	Total known	South Africa 1901 clasp	South Africa 1902 clasp	Both date clasps	KSA Medal
9	40	38	2	0	0
8	214	41	1	18	73

 Of the 73 KSA medals issued to recipients of an eight clasp QSA three earned their KSAs as civilian conductors with the Army Service Corps and were thus, correctly, not issued clasps to the KSA. One had a no bar KSA, the other two single bar KSAs with South Africa 1901 clasp. The latter earned their South Africa 1901 clasps by virtue of being discharged from Rimington’s Guides in 1901.

There were only five battle clasps awarded for the Natal campaign; Talana, Elandslaagte, Defence of Ladysmith, Relief of Ladysmith, Tugela Heights and Laing’s Nek. A ten clasp QSA for a participant in this campaign would have to combine with battle clasps from the Western Front. As both fronts were fought simultaneously it is scarce to see QSAs with clasps for both fronts. Most are Relief of Ladysmith paired with Relief of Mafeking but, they don’t figure  in high clasp combination QSAs. The majority of this double relief combination are five clasps: RoM,OFS,T,TH,RoL. Belfast is the most likely non-Natal clasp in combination with the Relief of Ladysmith clasps as that battle in August 1900 marked the union of Buller’s Natal Field Force with Lord Robert’s South African Field Force.

A few multi-front clasp combinations are known to cavalry soldiers, in what capacity they served on either front or why they switched it is not known. They would have had to travel at some speed to meet the qualifying dates for the clasps. Captain FR Lawrence, 14^th Hussars, and Pte 3899 JC Parker, 14^th Hussars (probably officer’s servant) earned eight clasps each; J,DH,Bf,CC,OFS,TH,RoL,SA01,SA02. Pte 4331 V Botting, 9^th Lancers, managed the Natal clasp in his Western Front eight clasp combination; B,MR,J,DH,Bf,RoK,OFS,N,SA01. The most common Western Front and Natal combination is Relief of Ladysmith and Relief of Mafeking,

In summary, the ten clasp QSA is technically possible but so far no valid issue of such a medal has been found.

Spion Kop - who was on the hill?

This aim of this article is to enable medal collectors to make an informed choice when purchasing a medal to one who was there.

Ask “the man in the street” to name a battle or word associated with the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and they will probably answer ‘Spion Kop’ or ‘the Kop’. The battle of Spion Kop (24th January, 1900) holds similar familiarity amongst medal collectors. The reason why Spion Kop is so well known is because it was a very bloody battle for the British, it dominated the news of the day and the word ‘kop’ passed into the British language to describe a steeply banked terrace at football grounds – most notably at Anfield the home of Liverpool FC. The word ‘kop’ survives today in its footballing context and the battle continues to attract attention as one of those defeats the British Army finds itself saddled with.

Spion Kop has been the subject of a number of books and articles written in the last 110 years. The most recent published in October 2023 (right).  Generally the authors concentrate on two aspects; the casualties, from a high level number to detailed lists for a unit, and descriptions of what took place in that “acre of massacre”. The battle of Spion kop has not been researched from the point of view of the medal collector. An important fact the medal collector needs to know is if the ‘man behind the medal’ was actually present at a certain battle. The chance to buy a medal to a man taking part in a famous battle of the British Army is a must for most (if not all) medal collectors. Unlike many famous battles Spion Kop does not have a medal or clasp dedicated to it.

Spion Kop is covered by the 'Relief of Ladysmith' clasp that covers 14 weeks of fighting across a wide geographical area: "All troops in Natal north of and including Estcourt between 15th December, 1899, and 28th February, 1900, both dates inclusive.". Contemporary accounts and the casualty rolls also refer to "Spion Kop" not just as a battle but a series of battles that culminated in the battle on Spion Kop on January 24th, 1900. The Natal Field Force casualty roll uses Spion Kop for some casualties of the preceeding battles of Tabanyama (20th January),  Venter's Spruit (23rd January) and a gunner  on Three Tree Hill (20th January). This information can be used uncritically by dealers and collectors giving the false impression the soldier was on that "acre of massacre".

The table shows shows those troops actually enagaged on the summit of Spion Kop with their estimated strength, percentage of a complete unit involved and percentage casualties suffered. The exact number of troops involved is difficult to state. Davidson states there were 1,700 men in the first wave (p.160) and a further 1,900 reinforcements (p.201) making a total of 3,600 on the hill. This differs from my figure below of 4,248, highlighting the diffiuclty of this exercise. Apart from Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry contemporary sources simply state numbers of companies of a unit that were involved. On campaign company strength varied due to deaths, sickness and sending men to be signallers or servants and grooms to Staff officers. Company strength is assumed to be 100 men. The percentage attempts to show how much of a unit was involved in the battle.

Numbers of companies sent into battle with approximate strength				Casualty %age
Army Medical Corps, Royal	?		-	0
Engineers, Royal, 17th company	half company	50	50%	10%
Imperial Light Infantry	8 companies	800	100%	16%
Lancashire Fusiliers, 2nd bn	8 companies	800	100%	40%
Lancaster Regiment, Royal, 2nd bn	6 companies	600	75%	30.5%
Middlesex Regiment	8 companies	800	100%	13%
Scottish Rifles	8 companies	800	100%	10.75%
South Lancashire Regiment, 1st bn	2 companies	200	25%	20.5%
Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry		198	-	45.5%
Total:		4248

It is apparent most infantry regiments sent up a complete battalion. However, there is one piece of data that is missing so far; how many from each regiment earned the clasp 'Relief of Ladysmith', does the number approximate those on the hill or exceed it? Some regiments may have had access to reinforcements who still qualified for the 'Relief of Ladysmith' clasp. This will be a project for The Register as I compile the QSA medal rolls on a database.

Not every man on Spion Kop was there on 24th January. Early on the 25th Briton and Boer reconvened on the hill early in the morning to remove the wounded and bury the dead, the Boers took many of their dead away for burial in Pretoria. One British soldier was made a POW despite being a strecther bearer.

Pte 3541 H Adcock, 1st bn Leicestershire Rgt, was a stretcher bearer. The 1st bn Leicestershires were shut up in Ladysmith, re-called from the reserves Adcock was sent out and tagged onto an unknown unit. On his release from POW camp at Waterval on 6th June, 1900 he wrote to his worried parents as he had been posted as killed in a newspaper, "Just before daybreak on the 25th we were sent up the hill". They found a wounded man, placed him on stretcher, "when we heard a lot of shouting behind us. We looked round and saw lot of Boers. They made us put up our hands, and go to them." Having explained they were stretcher bearers the Boers "told us that they did not want us and told us to look after our wounded.". Tending to another wounded man, "...a Boer came up to me..."Where is your red cross?" I looked at my arm and, found I had lost it. I told him I had lost it, but he said; 'You will have to go with us'". (Leicester Chronicle 28 July 1900) Adcock was sent to Waterval Camp near Pretoria where he remained for over 5 months.