Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles and the South African Light Horse.

One feature of the Second Anglo-Boer War was the fervor among civilians (men and women) to volunteer for the forces of the British Empire. Many civilian units are well known that were raised in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Sri Lanka and Canada . Volunteers from the UK arrived in 1900 with the Imperial Yeomanry, but a small number were determined to join the fray before then.

Calls in the UK in 1899 to raise a civilian volunteer force were rejected by the War Office. One of those calling for this force was Sir George Canning, Lord Harris, a man with interests in South African mining businesses. Lord Harris was also Honorary Colonel of the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles, rebuffed by the War Office he encouraged his own men to go to South Africa and join one of the many units being raised there. Eleven men came forward and traveled in November 1899 to enlist in the Imperial Light Horse. They, or Lord Harris, paid their passage and they took out their own kit. Lord Harris was a noted cricket player and this group were soon nicknamed "Harris' Eleven", their departure did not go unnoticed by the newspapers:

"It is impossible to estimate the far-reaching effects of the patriotism of the dozen (sic) men of the East Kent Yeomanry.." [The Globe 21-12-1899]

When they arrived in Cape Town they learned that the ILH had been besieged in Ladysmith, so they decided to join the South African Light Horse being raised in Cape Town.

The 11 men are:

822	Sergeant-Major	Charles Tilleard	Mudford
823	Trooper	A	Monckton
824	Sergeant	HH	Clarke
825	Trooper	AD	Butcher
826	Trooper	A	Goodhew
827	Trooper	George Percy	Tice
828	Lance-Sergeant	H	Foster
829	Trooper	Ernest Albert	Sole
830	Trooper	Thomas Owen	Robinson
831	Trooper	Thomas Morgan	Deveson
832	Trooper	Thomas Banbury	Palmer

They served through the Relief of Ladysmith campaign and the clearance of Natal. It did not take long for them to draw praise from their Army commander, Maj-Gen Sir Redvers Buller, VC, himself a noted leader of irregular cavalry: 

"Among the best irregulars I have here are a party of the East Kent Yeomanry Cavalry" [The Globe 21-12-1899] 

Buller was an advocate of raising a large force of irregular cavalry and was undoubtedly using these 11 men as an example to further his agenda. One newspaper report labels these men as "pioneers of the Imperial Yeomanry". [London Evening Standard 27-07-1901]

This group suffered just one casualty, Ernest Sole died of enteric fever at Standerton on July 21st, 1900. He is remembered with a memorial in St Mary's Church, Stodmarsh, Kent and the Kent units memorial in Dane John Park, Canterbury, Kent. 

Sgt-Major Mudford was MID and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (London Gazette 08-02, 27-09-1901). Sgt HH Clarke was MID (London Gazette 08-02-1901).

Of the remaining 10 they all returned home in 1900 apart from GP Tice who was commissioned into Robert's Horse and later served with the Prince of Wales Light Horse, South African Mounted Irregular Forces and finally 9th bn Imperial Yeomanry. Tice remained in South Africa taking part in the 1906 Natal Rebellion (L-Cpl Transvaal Mounted Rifles). He fought in World War I as a Major in the Lancashire Fusiliers. 

The 10 received their medals from King Edward VII on July 26th, 1901 in a large parade. The weather was foul, rain delaying the start. When the men received their medals, they were without clasps, these were issued later. I have recorded six of the eleven QSAs: Clarke, Butcher, Deveson, Mudford, Robinson and Tice. The medals to Clarke, Butcher and Deveson are named to the "RL: E. KENT M.R.".

Tice's QSA, because he was commissioned, is named to the SAMIF, not the unit he first served as when he was an other rank.

Main image is from The Transvaal in War and Peace, N Edwards, H Virtue & Co, 1900 page 201. The picture was taken before they left for South Africa. Sgt-Major Carlisle did not go to South Africa.

Further reading: Kent and County of London Yeomanry Association (Sharpshooters)

Tribute Medals - Norton

Tribute Medals are a particular feature of the Second Anglo-Boer War, not being a common item for previous or subsequent wars. They are well documented in MG "Bill" Hibbard's excellent Boer War Tribute Medals (Constantia Classics, Sandton, 1982), and Canadian Welcome Home Medals 1899-1945 (George A Brown, Douglas Ferguson Historical Research Foundation, BC 1991). Tribute medals for the Second Anglo-Boer are uncommon at best and some are simply unique. The medals are often made from gold or silver and were expensive in their day. Not surprisingly, they are highly collected today.

More common examples include Birmingham (left) and the Montgomeryshire Imperial Yeomanry (right).

The medal I want show today is one rated by Bill Hibbard as R3 (two to four known) and second only to R4 "only example known" - the tribute medal issued by Norton (or Norton Malton) in North Yorkshire.

This medal was issued named which makes it great for research. The decision to issue a tribute medal was made at a town meeting on 16th October 1903. Local resident Colonel Sir James Legard and his wife of Welham Hall had placed a window in St Peter's Church in memory "of those who fell in war and those who returned in peace". Their son, Captain AD Legard, 1st bn King's Royal Rifle Corps, was one who returned safely. Additionally a dinner was to be held for the veterans when the window was unveiled on 12th November 1903. At the meeting Col Legard said that 43 men from the village served in the war representing 13% of the population. Memorials were also erected for five men who died and 40 who survived (it is not known the reason for the discrepancy between Col Legard's 43 men and the 40 named on the memorial). When these memorials were erected is not known, but must coincide with the award of the tribute medal. There is a further memorial to 2nd Lt FH Raikes 2nd bn KRRC who was killed 6th January, 1900 at Wagon Hill defending Ladysmith. Cpt Legard was at the siege of Ladysmith.

The medal is silver, 36mm in diameter and made by JR Gaunt & Sons, Birmingham. The medal contain hallmarks for 1903. Hibbard indicates 2-4 were issued - on what basis is not known. Judging from the memorial to the survivors there must be 40 medals, which on Hibbard's scale rates as common - survival of the medals today is another matter. Hibbard only identifies one recipient: Trooper 12309 CP Benson (Yorkshire) Imperial Yeomanry. From my searches only two are known to exist.

The medal illustrated was given to Gunner 51107 H Kilvington 82nd btty Royal Field Artillery. Herbert Kilvington was born in "Malton" in 1868, he enlisted into the RFA at "New Malton" in 1885. Herbert served in Burma (IGS medal and clasp Burma 1889-92). In South Africa he served from January 1900 to August 1902. In 1901 he transferred from the 82nd btty to LL section pom-poms. For his service he was awarded the QSA with clasps for Cape Colony Orange Free State, Transvaal and Laing's Nek and the KSA with two date clasps. After the war he worked at the North-Eastern Railway dockyard as a labourer. In 1896 he married Elizabeth, they had no children on the 1911 census. In 1914 on the outbreak of World War 1 he re-enlisted for the Military Police but only served 27 days. Herbert died in Hull in 1942, aged 74.

Ward, William - Army Form B2077 Discharge Parchment

This is a parchment certificate issued to each soldier on discharge from the Army or on transfer to the Reserves. The parchment was a form of identity and could be used to show employers proof identity, character and why they had not been civilian employ. These are not common at all.

This certificate was issued to William Ward who had served with the 8th Hussars and was discharged at Leeds on 8th October 1896 to the Reserves. While on the Reserves Ward was liable for call up for the period remaining of his 12 year enlistment.

Ward's service papers exist on FindmyPast. They show he was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire and enlisted age 18 in 1889, he was a servant.

He was recalled for active service in the Anglo-Boer War on 28th December, 1899. He served twice in South Africa, probably being invalided due to illness. He earned the QSA with clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State and King's South Africa with two date clasps. He was finally discharged in August 1902.

Boer POW Handicraft: medal box

Handicrafts made by Boer prisoners of war are well known and well collected. Less well known examples are boxes made for the medals of British soldiers guarding the Boer POWs.

The example shown here was made in Trinchinopoly (now Tiruchirappalli),  Tamil Nadu, southern India. This was the location of the largest POW camp in India (and Pakistan). The box was made for Pte 4307 JH Stocks, 1st bn Lincolnshire Rgt. The 1st bn had fought in the 1898 Sudan campaign at The Atbara and Khartoum. After the successful conclusion of the campaign the battalion was sent to India, when the Boer POWs arrived they became the camp guards. The 1st bn did not fight in South Africa but became intimately involved in one of the most unusual aspects of the war; guarding POWS in areas on the British Empire remote from the scene of fighting.



Inside the box are Stocks' two Sudan Campaign medals.

The box maker's name is 'J Viviers'. The only ‘J Viviers’ I have traced at Trichinopoly is a JPW Viviers who was wounded and POW at Dewetsdorp (December 15th, 1900), he died of his wounds in India on April 2nd, 1902. A similar box to a Pte 4349 W Breeze Lincolnshire Rgt was sold at auction in the UK in November 2011.

John Stocks was discharged from the Army in 1903 when he returned to the UK. He married in 1904 and settled in Hemsworth, Yorkshire where he became a postman. There is splendid picture of John (Jack) with his wife, Myra, and young niece on an Ancestry family tree.

John re-enlisted in September 1914 into the Lincolnshire Rgt. He served with the 6th bn at Gallipoli, Somme in July 1916 (but not the first day), Flers-Courcelette and Thiepval. John was transferred to the 8th bn and took part in the battle of Arras 9-12 April 1917. He was presumed dead on April 20th. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and the Dewsbury Memorial in Yorkshire.

Research Puzzle: TF Adlard South African Light Horse, was he a casualty?

The Natal Field Force Casualty Roll (NFF) shows "416 Sgt Adlard TF Died wounds Natal 31-01-1900". Steve Watt's In Memoriam (University of Natal 2000) also shows this man with the additional information that there is a metal grave marker with his name at Mooi River and All Saints Church in Ladysmith.

Adlard's QSA medal has been sold on BidorBuy.co.za, a South African eBay, for R7933 (or GBP467) as died of wounds, a screenshot of the page in NFF is shown. The information from NFF and Watt has been copied uncritically onto AngloBoerwar.com and shown as evidence by the seller.

So what is the problem?

As shown clearly on the medal for sale Adlard earned bars for service after his reported death on January 31, 1900; namely Tugela Heights (February 1900), Laing's Nek (June 100), Belfast (August 1900).  The medal roll makes no indication that he was wounded, died or even discharged early. Where does the NFF record come from?

The NFF is a tertiary source, there is no indication of where it gets its information from. In discussions with other researchers we believe that is was compiled from casualty lists printed in newspapers. The casualty lists in newspapers come from the War Office which in turn forwards information received from South Africa; the lengthy chain of communication is open to errors creeping in. The NFF is full or errors and omissions, some are copied from the newspapers and others come from careless compilation and a lack of double checking.

I use the The Times to cross check casualties. On February 2, 1900 reporting on casualties from Natal for the period January 22-27, 1900 it shows Adlard as wounded and a few lines below there is the entry: "Trooper H Adlard, South African Light Horse, died of wounds January 31".

So, TF Adlard was apparently wounded - but this is not shown in the NFF, why? Who knows, perhaps they combined the two entries for Adlard on this page from the The Times (if that was their source) and recorded erroneously that TF Adlard died of wounds.

But what of "H Adlard"? This man did exist; Trooper 99 Herbert Adlard, SALH. He was reported as "Adlar" (sic) wounded in the The Times of January 26 in a report from Chieveley dated January 23, and recorded by NFF . Adlard was wounded at/near Hussar Hill during a reconnaissance, he was one of three SALH casualties that day. Adlard's whereabouts and actions that day may well be tied to the story of Cpt HW de Rougemont, SALH who was mortally wounded and his story is told in official dispatches, The Spion Kop Dispatches (HMSO, 1902). As a bugler Adlard would probably have accompanied an officer, possibly de Rougemont. When de Rougemont was wounded four men carried him out of the firing line where they were found by Cpt C Dalton RAMC, whose testimony is recorded in the dispatch:

"I dismounted, and was attending to the wounded Officer [de Rougemont], when some Boers rode up from the flank to within 100 yards. I gave my white handkerchief to one of the men, and told him to wave it, which he did. I told another to take the Geneva Cross armlet off my arm and hold it up, which he did. In spite of this they opened fire and shot two of us, myself and one of the men [Adlard?]."

Herbert Adlard may not have been with de Rougemont but there is enough evidence to show that he was the only Adlard of the SALH to die from wounds in January 1900.

1st Life Guards and the Relief of Ladysmith

Two officers and six men of the 1^st Life Guards served in the campaign in Natal to relieve Ladysmith, all earned the Relief of Ladysmith clasp but only two, Lt JS Cavendish and Trpr T Pearce, the Tugela Heights clasp. A civilian groom also earned these two clasps.

Name	Clasp	Remarks
Cpt Hugh C Keith-Fraser	CC,RoL	Adjutant SALH, died 1906
Lt Lord John S Cavendish	J,DH,W,CC,TH,RoL	1914 Star trio KiA 30-10-1914
Cpl 2051 WW Brown	P,D,J,CC,RoL
Trpr 1860 Charles W Clark	P,D,CC,RoL	1914 Star trio
Trpr 2036 Richard Collett	P,D,J,CC,RoL
Trpr 1918 Thomas M Grayson	P,D,J,CC,RoL
Trpr 999 JJ Nye	CC,RoL	Servant to Cpt HC Keith-Fraser
Trpr 1122 Robert Pearce	CC,OFS,TH,RoL
Civilian W Head	Bronze QSA (J,DH,W,CC,TH,RoL)	Groom to Lt Lord JS Cavendish

Only one squadron of the 1^st Life Guards was sent fight in a composite Household Cavalry regiment composed of a squadron each from the 1^st and 2^nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards. They arrived at the end of December 1899 and were posted to the Western Front.

What was this group of eight men doing away from their regiment on the other side of south Africa? Cpt HC Keith-Fraser was Cpt and Adjutant attached South African Light Horse (SALH) with his servant Trpr JJ Nye. Cpt Keith-Fraser was appointed assistant Press Censor at the Cape in October 1899. Obviously he wanted to fight and secured himself the adjutancy with a premier colonial unit, the SALH. However, Keith-Fraser returned, probably invalided, to England in January 1900. In April he was appointed a Special Service Officer for service in South Africa but it does not appear he returned to the front as his name does not appear in the Shipping Lists published in The Times. Keith-Fraser is on the March 1901 census at the barracks at Windsor. Trpr Nye has not been traced on the 1901 census.

Lt Lord JS Cavendish was a Special Service Officer sailing on the SS Moor with Trpr Pearce (at least) on October 21^st, 1899. Cavendish had been appointed Divisional Signalling Officer, 2^nd Division (Major-General CF Clery), Natal Field Force. It would seem most likely that the other troopers were involved in signalling too, but no evidence has been found to support this. Papers have been traced for Clark, Collett, Grayson and Pearce, none indicate any training in skills such as signalling for which a soldier would have been employed extra-regimentally. On Trpr Pearce’s discharge in 1903 his “Special qualifications for employment in civil life” is “Valet”, perhaps he was Lt Cavendish’s servant.

Brown, Clark, Collet, Grayson earned the Paardeberg clasp, to qualify they had to be within 7,000 yards of General Cronje's final laager, or within 7,000 yards of Koodoe's Rand Drift between 17-26th February 1900. The Household Cavalry regiment was present at Paardeberg. Meanwhile Lt Cavendish, Trpr Pearce and civilian groom W Head qualified for the Tugela Heights clasp; they were employed in the operations north of an east and west line through Chieveley Station between the 14th and 27th February. It is most likely they were present for the actual relief of Ladysmith on February 27^th. Pearce probably accompanied Cavendish and Head to the Western Front, but was struck down with enteric fever and separated from Cavendish. Pearce was in hospital in Bloemfontein on March 10^th, moving south to hospital in Norval’s Pont in July and invalided to England aboard the SS Gascon which arrived back in August 1900. Pearce is on the March 1901 census in the barracks at Windsor.

Lt Cavendish was mentioned in despatches (08-02-1901) and awarded the DSO (19-04-1901) for his work in South Africa. Cavendish was attached the West African Field Force from 1907 to 1910. He was killed in October 1914 in France.

Robert Pearce was born in Laleham, Middlesex, his father was an agricultural labourer which was Robert’s job before enlisting. He took his discharge in 1903 after 21 years (and no LSGC apparently). On the 1911 Census he is the landlord of the Crown Hotel, Cookham, Berkshire, the pub still operates under the name of the Crown Inn. He enlisted in 1915 at the age of 52, landlord of The Duke of Wellington, Peascod St, Windsor (near the barracks), the pub does not exist today. He enlisted in 1915 into the 1^st Life Guards and served for four years, home service only.

Sgt-Major Mauchle's Missing Diary

I have in my collection an Anglo-Boere Oorlog medal to a Sergant-Major Freidrich Traugott Mauchle of the Transvaal Staatsatillerie. Mauchle was one the few professional soldiers in the Transvaal and was most likely German or Swiss. He fought on the Natal Front from October 1899 and later in the Transvaal.

In the National Archives London amongst the papers in CO 417 - Colonial Office: High Commission for South Africa, Original Correspondence there is printed document Translations of Boer Documents by the Director of Military Intelligence, South Africa. Item 9 is the Translation of Diary of Sergeant-Major Mauchle of State Artillery, the diary is identified as Diary No. 3 pieces 1 and 2 are noted as missing. Mauchle was taken prisoner at Zusterhoek, Transvaal on 26 October, 1901. No doubt this was where the British got his diary which covers the period 15 July to 24 October, 1901. I have long wondered what happened to Diaries 1 and 2.

Reading around on a different topic I was surprised to find a direct account of  Mauchle's capture with some amusing detail. In Jim Wallace's account of the Canadian Scouts Knowing No Fear he relates that Mauchle was captured by the Canadian Scouts. When Mauchle arrived at the PoW camp in Pretoria he wrote to the camp commander complaining that he and his comrades had been robbed of their money and his diary had been taken. Mauchle maintained that a major of the Canadian Scouts took their names and amounts of money taken promising the money would be returned when they reached the PoW camp. The camp commander passed the details onto the Provost Marshall who wrote to Major CJ Ross, Canadian Scouts. Major Ross replied he would have forwarded the money "had he known the whereabouts of these men". It would be interesting to know if the Canadian Scouts had taken all three of Mauchle's diaries and parts 1 and 2 somehow got lost in transit to Military Intelligence. In January 1902 Mauchle was sent to Deadwood Camp on St Helena, it is not known when he returned to South Africa.

After the war Mauchle went to work at the Daspoort Bacteriological Institute and Laboratory in charge of the library and stock records. The Institute was led by Arnold Theiler (from Switzerland) who pre-war served as a Transvaal government veterinary surgeon. In 1898 Theiler set up the Daspoort Institute. During the war Theiler served as veterinary surgeon to the Staatsartillerie and perhaps where he first met Mauchle. In 1901 the British allowed Theiler to continue his important research at Daspoort.

Mauchle married Mathilde Henriette (nee Stohr) who died in 1925.

Nothing more is known of Mauchle.