Distinguished Conduct Medal Citations

In 1899 the Distinguished Conduct Medal was the only gallantry medal that could be awarded to Other Ranks and was second in rank to the Victoria Cross. Over 2,000 DCMs were awarded for the Anglo-Boer War, it is unfortunate then, that for the vast majority of awards the citations have not survived. A significant number of awards for good service during the war and not action in the face of the enemy. Therefore when buying and or researching a DCM one cannot say for what action it was awarded.

For The Register I have been going through the DCM awards and it has become apparent that for many awards there is scope to determine the circumstances of the award. We probably won't be able to say that Pte Tommy Atkins charged with his bayonet, killing or capturing a great number of Boers. But more can be found, for example let's consider the award to Lance-Corporal 3510 William Brown (real name Fowler), 2nd bn Northumberland Fusiliers.

Fowler's medals were sold by Dix Noonan Webb the catalogue quotes from the “regimental journal”:

‘A, C, E, and F Companies sent up the Witwatersburg to clear the heights along the left flank. Stiff skirmishing on very steep and difficult ground, Boers holding heights ahead and some distant kopjes on left flank from which they kept up a heavy fire at long ranges. Privates Doyle and Jamieson of F Company were killed and four others wounded. Lance-Corporal Brown much distinguished himself here.'

This would suggest that Fowler’s DCM is for this action which has no date and just the approximate location of “Witwatersburg” – a range of hills or mountains. One is assuming too that the “Lance-Corporal Brown” is the same man as received the DCM.

That aside, Fowler’s service papers (WO97), not quoted in the catalogue, state clearly that he ‘Distinguished himself at Skeerpoort 04-08-1900' Is this the date and place of the action described in the regimental journal?

Unfortunately not, the two men mentioned as killed; Doyle (Pte W 5141) and Jamieson (Pte J 1656) are recorded as killed in action on September 5^th, 1900 at Hartebeesfontein. The casualty roll confirms four were wounded at this place. So, there is significant doubt over where Brown won his DCM.

What do we know of the action at Skeerpoort on August 8^th, 1900? There are no recorded casualties here for this date. The two histories of the Northumberland Fusiliers (Wood and Walker) do not help. Skeerpoort was not in The Gazetteer either, it has just been added. Skeerpoort is to the west of Pretoria below the Magaliesberg, a few kilometres east of the present day Hartebeestepoort Dam.

Eighteen men from a variety of units were casualties here (only one killed) from September 1900 to November 1901. The rugged Magaliesberg was a favourite bolt-hole for the Boers, the terrain favoured those with local knowledge. There were a few well known roads through the passes (“Neks”) that the British blocked. Later the British built a line of blockhouses across the top of the range. In early August 1900 British forces were preparing to block the Neks to prevent Christian de Wet crossing.

More reading around could reveal exactly what the Northumberland Fusiliers and Brown did to earn his DCM. It could be that Fowler's award, like others in the war were for more multiple acts over a period of time.

When I have completed work on the DCMs I will publish statistics on showing for how many DCMs the battle or location for which it was awarded are known. The challenge then is to do the research into individual awards to reveal more. 

The Imperial Light Infantry at Spion Kop - restating their casualties

The battle of Spion Kop (January 24, 1900) was one the most bloodiest battles of the war. This was the first action for the Imperial Light Infantry (ILI), a newly raised unit most of whose recruits were refugees from Johannesburg.

The Natal Field Force casualty roll (Hayward & Son, ) (NFFCR) lists the casualties for Spion Kop. The NFFCR has long been known to be inaccurate and incomplete. David Humphry wrote about the problems with the NFFCR in Medal News in February 2002 citing the ILI casualty lists specifically.
Humphry noted discrepancies between the NFFCR and a list of casualties published in the Manchester Guardian, the NFFCR shows the men as "Missing-Released 06.06.00" or  "Missing-Released" the paper shows them as wounded. Which is correct?

As part of the continuous process to update The Register I have looked in detail at the ILI casualties drawing on information not yet used from The Times, medal rolls (WO100), regimental history and the discharge books (WO127). Here is a breakdown of the casualties between the NFFCR and new data in The Register:

	The Register	NFFCR
Killed	33	29
DoW	2	1
Wounded	82	31
POW	28	4
Missing - Released	1	15
Missing - Released 06-06-00	0	45

A new piece of evidence has come to light in The Times which helped settle the issue over the number of men missing vs men wounded. The British prisoners taken by the Boers at Spion Kop were sent to Waterval camp near Pretoria. The camp was captured by the British in June 6, 1900 and most of the men freed; the Boers moved what they thought were "high value" prisoners eastwards. List of the men released from Waterval were published in The Times, the edition for July 27th listed 28 men of the ILI freed. This data has never been used in compiling the casualty rolls.

The 28 men listed in The Times as released and therefore actual prisoners are mostly found on the NFFCR list as "Missing - Released". Most of those in the category "Missing - Released 06.06.00", with that specific date of June 6 were not in the 28, but shown as wounded, two were killed . It appears the NFFCR has made a big mistake and overstated the number of real POWs and understated the number of wounded.

Further proof that these men were not prisoners comes from checking the medal entitlement. Fortunately the campaign to relieve Ladysmith was covered by two battle clasps: Relief of Ladysmith and Tugela Heights. The battle for Spion Kop is covered by the first clasp and Tugela Heights is for the subsequent battles starting on February 14th. Therefore if a soldier is captured at Spion Kop one would not expect him to have the clasp Tugela Heights and vice versa.

For all the men listed as wounded in The Times and "Missing-Released 06.06.00" they have the clasp Tugela Heights and many the next clasp for Laing's Nek. These men could not have been prisoners. The data in The Register for the ILI has been corrected to show the figures in the table above. These numbers match closely the figures published in the ILI history (With the Imperial Light Infantry Through Natal, Straker 1903 C Boscawen-Wright).

Other corrections have come to light; three men listed in the NFFCR as "Missing-Released" were in fact killed and Pte 215 J Hirst is listed on the ILI memorial on Spion Kop as killed. In fact Pte Hirst survived and served later in the Commander-in-Chief's Bodyguard. The ILI memorial also misses three men from the list of killed.

To confuse matters slightly, having used medal entitlement data to show men were not prisoners, four of those listed in The Times released from Waterval have the later clasps Tugela Heights and or Laing's Nek. It seems unlikely their names are on The Times list erroneously, perhaps the error lay in compiling the medal roll which has been known to happen too.

The moral of this story is not to trust one source, but start with The Register as it is the only casualty roll to be updated and corrected. Unfortunately the errors in the NFFCR have been blindly copied onto the internet for millions to use.

Defence & Relief: The Clasp Combinations for the sieges

There were four main sieges during the war, and a host of lesser known sieges. The four main sieges were:

Kimberley - 14th October, 1899 to 15th February, 1900
Ladysmith -  3rd November, 1899 to 28th February, 1900
Mafeking - 13th October, 1899 to 17th May, 1900
Wepener  - 9th April, 1900 to 25th April, 1900

Clasps were issued for the defence and relief of each of these sieges, (apart from Wepener which has no relief clasp) which are popular amongst collectors. Another angle is that of collecting defence and relief combinations and double relief combinations. From the data collected for The Register these are the available combinations and known medals to date are:

Defence of Kimberley - Relief of Mafeking    : 155 (420 - Kaplan)
Defence of Ladysmith - Relief of Mafeking    :   18 + 18 (33 + 184 with Elandslaagte clasp - Kaplan)
Relief of Ladysmith    - Relief of Mafeking     : 132 (209 - Kaplan)
Relief of Kimberley    - Relief of Mafeking     :     7
Relief of Kimberley    - Relief of Ladysmith    :    2
Relief of Kimberley    - (Defence of) Wepener :    3

There are no "double defence" combinations.

"Kaplan" refers to "The Medal Roll of the Queen's South Africa Medal with Bar Relief of Mafeking, 1980".

As more clasp data is input into The Register these figures are likely to increase, but I believe the relative scarcity of each combination will remain.

Q Battery RHA at Sanna's Post 31st March, 1900

The Register of the Anglo-Boer War has been updated with the names of the 138 men from Q Battery Royal Horse Artillery who served in this classic action. Three Victoria Crosses were awarded Q battery; one officer and two men who were elected by their comrades. The names are taken from a panel created by the battery to be placed in the men's mess wherever the battery was stationed. The location of the panel is unknown, it may have been destroyed during the bombing of London during World War II.

Sanna's Post or Koornspruit was a comprehensive defeat in an ambush of a British column by Christian de Wet and was the first reverse suffered by Lord Robert's all conquering army. Lord Robert's army had in four weeks reversed the defeat suffered by Lord Methuen at Magersfontein that had stalled the British advance in the west. Robert's men had driven the Boers back, captured over 4000 at Paardeberg and captured Bloemfontein the capital of the Orange Free State.

At Bloemfontein Robert's army rested, and allowed the Boers to regroup. de Wet was very keen to carry the war on and the ambush at Sanna's Post signalled his intent to attack wherever he could; a pattern that was to develop into the protracted guerrilla phase (October 1900 to May 1902).

Sanna's Post was a postal agency and railway station in the course of construction 30 km east of Bloemfontein. The action took place in a drift across the Koornspruit (a left bank tributary of the Modder River) on the farm Klipkraal. The location of the drift named after the farm, Klip Kraal Drift, is difficult to determine.  It is not marked on any contemporary map and may well be a variant of 'Waterworks Drift' - at the Bloemfontein waterworks on the Thaba Nchu-Bloemfontein road.

In order to destroy the Bloemfontein waterworks on the Modder River east of Sannah's Post and cut off the return of Brig-Gen R.G. Broadwood's force from Thaba Nchu to Bloemfontein, Chief-Cmdt C.R. de Wet took a commando of some 1,600 burghers and, splitting it in two, prepared an ambush in the bed of the spruit just west of the incomplete buildings of the railway station.  Broadwood's column arrived early on 31 March 1900 and bivouacked west of the Modder around Sannah's Post.  As dawn broke a few hours later, the bivouac was shelled by guns from the remainder of the commando led by Veg-Gen P.D. de Wet and orders were issued to continue the move westwards towards Bloemfontein.  As the transport waggons jammed together at the drift across the Koornspruit they were ambushed by C.R. de Wet's party which took five guns of 'U' battery Royal Horse Artillery. Q battery lost two guns. Broadwood managed to marshall the remains of his convoy to a drift upstream and continue westwards, but one-third of his column had been either killed, wounded or captured and he had lost seven guns and 83 supply waggons.  In considering the record of the attempts to save other guns from capture, Field Marshal Lord Roberts decided that this was a case of collective gallantry by the officers, drivers and gunners of 'Q' battery Royal Horse Artillery.  Accordingly Victoria Crosses were awarded to Maj E.J. Phipps-Hornby, Sgt C. Parker (elected by the noncommissioned officers) and Gunner I. Lodge and Driver H.H. Glassock (elected by the drivers and gunners).  For his gallantry on the same occasion, Lt F.A. Maxwell, Indian Staff Corps attached to Roberts' Light Horse, was also awarded the Victoria Cross.

Researching British Army Casualties: "new" source

Researching casualties of the Victorian British Army has always been difficult because their service papers were destroyed, although a few have survived. So, the prospect of finding out more about "Pte T Smith" was always slim. War memorials are a potential source in giving the area they came from or giving a first name, but "Thomas Smith" of Birmingham is still difficult. War memorial information is shown as part of a soldier's record on The Register.

On January 15th Ancestry made available the "UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929" from the National Army Museum, Chelsea. These books contain 872,395 records detailing the disposal of monies owed to a soldier who died in service. A typical entry shows first name, surname, service number, regiment, date of enlistment, place of enlistment, for early records a trade is shown, date of death, place of death, how much was owed, to who it was paid: wife, parent, sibling.

The entry for Lance-Sergeant 5414 Henry Wyatt 2nd bn South Wales Borderers. New information: enlisted 22-09-1896, London, trade Blacksmith's mate; next of kin: mother Sarah.

The value of this data in tracing the family history of a soldier is huge, census searches are more accurate with a first name, an assumed date of birth based on enlistment year, next of kin details and possible location.

More "secrets" from the Casualty Rolls

The casualty rolls for the Anglo-Boer War do not tell the whole story, a big problem is that the location given is often the place the casualty return was created. This can be many miles from the actual location and, of course, when trying to research what happened leads you down a false trail. This point was observed when The Gazetteer was published in 1999. The published Gazetteer with its 2400 entries resolved many of these problems allowing researchers to quickly learn the exact location and importantly what occurred leading to the death, wounding or capture of soldiers. This process is on-going.

Two recent findings have led to updates to the gazetteer and casualty details in The Register. In the South African Field Casualty Roll for 11-03-1901 there are casualties for "Balmoral", "nr Balmoral" and "nr Wilge River". Are these incidents connected? The casualty roll gives no clues. Using a fabulous resource "Surrenders" (WO108/372 The National Archives, London) we can find out these casualties are connected and exactly what happened.

On 11 March 1903 a train left Pretoria heading north to Middelburg, a line frequently targeted by Boers. The escort composed of men from a variety of regiments was commanded by a young officer recently arrived in South Africa, 2nd-Lt JP Wilson, Army Service Corps. The train was derailed by an explosion, 2nd-Lt Wilson turned out the escort who lined a ditch and began to return fire on the attacking Boers. 2nd-Lt Wilson spotted a group of Boers advancing up a donga, as he organised a counter-attack he was hit in the thigh losing consciousness immediately. Another part of the defence became disorganised and surrendered forcing the remaining defenders to surrender too. Three men had been killed, three wounded and 38 men surrendered. There is no evidence these men were actually detained and removed from the battlefield, reinforcements from Balmoral arrived. There is no record in the casualty roll nor are any listed in The Times.

Because British soldiers surrendered a court of inquiry was held. 2nd-Lt Wilson and a "Colour-Sgt Butler" (senior NCO) were "honourably acquitted". However, Lord Kitchener in his review, did not feel that Butler's conduct was honourable as he surrendered unwounded. Unfortunately there is no positive identification for "Colour-Sgt Butler".

By checking The Times a casualty was revealed not shown in the Official Casualty roll, Pte 6174 J Scott ("Acott" in The Times), King's Own Scottish Borderers. In the medal rolls Scott is shown simply as "deceased". Nor is Scott shown in Watt's In Memoriam indicating he has no known grave and is not listed on a memorial in South Africa.

Additionally, all the casualties for the Berkshire Regiment at Zilikat's Nek (02-08-1900) are recorded in the Official Casualty rolls are recorded as "Rietfontein". There are 15 Rietfonteins in The Gazetteer in all corners of South Africa. Correcting the casualties to Zilikat's Nek helps researchers, and crucially for collectors and dealers focused on "associations" reveals that these casualties occurred in a Victoria Cross action for the Berkshires. L-Cpl WJ House was awarded the VC for rescuing a wounded sergeant from under a heavy fire when warned not to do so.

Only one sergeant of the Berkshires is recorded as wounded at Zilikat's Nek, presumably this the man rescued by L-Cpl House: Sgt 3744 A Gibbs, Berkshire Rgt. Unfortunately Gibbs died of his wounds the same day.

The Register has been updated with these details for all these men.

The youngest assailant of the war?

Today's research began with the 5th (militia) battalion Royal Irish Rifles, moved on to expanding the gazetteer and finally uncovering the tragic death of a British soldier shot by a six year old boy. Such are the avenues opened by researching for The Register, one must be disciplined to stay on course!

On May 17th, 1901 an outpost of the Royal Irish was attacked by 100 Boers near Leeuwspruit. They kept the Boers at bay until all their ammunition was exhausted, three men were wounded, one fatally, all were captured. Unfortunately this episode is not recorded in Surrenders (WO108/372). The casualty roll records the location as either Leeuwspruit or Wolvehoek; which is correct or are they different places? Such questions have to be answered to make The Register accurate and help researchers know the facts and add colour to their findings.

In the published gazetteer (A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 HM & MGM Jones, Military Press, 1999) there is only one Leeuwspruit, the location where, on June 14th 1900, Lord Kitchener fled for his life across the veldt when the train he was travelling in was halted by the Boers. Later that evening the Boers attacked two trains and a construction party capturing 350 men (not all soldiers).

To identify the location of a place one useful resource is Steve Watt's In Memoriam which gives burial locations (where known). In The Register there are 70 men whose casualty location from the official casualty rolls is "Leeuwspruit". Refining this list by date one can identify individuals not connected with the June 14th attack or the Royal Irish Rifles. Using In Memoriam to check the burial places I have added three Leeuwspruits to the gazetteer; one in the Free State and two what was the Transvaal. All the "Leeuwspruit" casualties now have gazetteer entries.

So, what of the six year old boy? In Watt the place Orebyfontein is mentioned alongside Leeuwspruit. Orebyfontein is not mentioned in the gazetteer, there are three casualties for the 1st Dragoon Guards - two officers and one man. In creating the gazetteer Orebyfontein did not feature in any of the initial sources used - mostly contemporary accounts which do not seem to have reported this incident.

Another good source for casualty information is contemporary newspapers and this where the amazing story of Orebyfontein appears (The Times January 24th, 1902 ):

Whilst skirmishing Pte 4163 HH Hughes 1st King Dragoon Guards was fatally wounded by a six year old Boer boy who approached and shot him in the abdomen with a concealed pistol. Cpt EA Williams was killed and Lt HH Harris wounded in the skirmish. A report to the War Office was made by Sgt C Probertts of Pte Hughes' troop and his comrade Pte MF Elmer.

 I cannot find any further trace in the newspapers about this incident. But, now the fate Pte of Hughes is permanently recorded.