Raiders who served in the Anglo-Boer War - the Jameson Raid 31-12-1895.

The Jameson Raid is a remarkable event even in the turbulent history of southern African land grabs by Africans, Boers and Britons.

What sets the raid apart is that it was not a state operation, but a private army - mercenaries - of the British South Africa Company run by the diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes.

There is much information on the Raid on the net and particularly www.angloboerwar.com. You can get a nominal list on the "Name Search" putting "List of Jameson raiders" (no quotes) in the Notes field. A more accessible list is available here.

This post presents a list of 67 known Raiders who went on to serve in the Anglo-Boer War. There will be more as research continues. If you can add to this list please leave a comment - thanks.

Name	Primary Unit Served in the Anglo-Boer War			Rank	No
Adames, Ernest Gribbon	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Staff Sgt-Major	539
Armstrong, James St George P			Imperial Yeomanry	Private	2259
Belk, Samuel Waterhouse			Kimberley Town Guard	Sergeant
Bowden, Frank Lake	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Captain
Bowden, Sydney Vincent			Cape Police	Lieutenant
Brand, William John			Warren's Mounted Infantry	Sergeant	64
Bruce, Stewart Hay Phillips	B	Squadron	Protectorate Regiment FF	Trooper	307
Burgess, William Robert			Kimberley Horse	Sergeant	249
Burnand, John Arthur			Cape Railway Sharpshooters	Sergeant	1239
Callanan, Henry A	A	Squadron	Rhodesian Regiment	Trooper	43
Cazalet, Alexander Phillip Louis	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Captain
Chadborn, John Arthur			Cape Police	Private	517
Chawner, Henry William	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Captain
Close, Percival Thomas Stephen			Imperial Light Horse	Corporal	1992
Cole, Mansell Lawford	D	Squadron	Protectorate Regiment FF	Lieutenant
Constable, Harry Paley	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Lieutenant
Cumming, Adam Bennett	E	Squadron	Rhodesian Regiment	Captain
Davey, Thomas William	G	Troop	Southern Rhodesian Volunteers	Corporal	571
Dewar, Arthur Robert Johnson	5		New Zealand Mounted Rifles	Lt & Adjutant
Dodge, James Horsefield			Rimington's Guides	Sergeant
Drury, Gordon Vallancy	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Captain
Eastwood, Francis Eastwood	III	Mashonaland Div	British South Africa Police	Lieutenant
Franklin, Benjamin Charles	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Corporal	761
Frost, John	1		Imperial Light Horse	Trooper	39
Gibbs, Joseph Walter	C	Squadron	Protectorate Regiment FF	Trooper	55
Gibson, William Mitchell			Kimberley Horse	Sergeant-Major	197
Going, Gerald H	I	Bechuanaland Div	British South Africa Police	Trooper	2412
Gosling, Audley Vaughan	III	Mashonaland Div	British South Africa Police	Major
Grenfell, Harold Maxwell			1st Life Guards	Bvt Lt-Colonel
Grey, Raleigh			6th Dragoons	Captain
Gunn, Angus Donald	E	Squadron	Rhodesian Regiment	Trooper
Harber, Walter Alexander	1		Imperial Light Horse	Trooper	276
Harris, Reginald Oke	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Sergeant-Major	107
Harwood, Evelyn Gwynne		Armoured Trains	Southern Rhodesian Volunteers	Trooper	745
Holden, Edward CS			Protectorate Regiment FF	Captain
Hore, Arthur Henry Johnstone			Southern Rhodesian Volunteers	Capt & Adjutant
Ibbs, Charles Henry			Imperial Light Infantry	Sergeant	839
Ingham, John Seager	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Lieutenant
Jupp, Richard Barry			Imperial Light Horse	Corporal	1181
Kennedy, Leslie Coleridge			Kitchener's Horse	Trooper	3324
Kincaid-Smith, Kenneth John			Artillery Royal	Captain
Lawson, Charles Frederick			Kimberley Horse	Trooper	152
Levis, James George	II	District	Cape Police	Corporal
Lindsell, Charles Frederick			Reserve Of Officers	Captain
Little, Hugh Mervyn	1		Imperial Light Horse	Trooper	688
McMillan, Donald Bather	2		Imperial Light Horse	Trooper	688
Moore, Percy Henry Evelyn			Imperial Light Horse	Trooper	599
Parker, George Bertie	A	Squadron	Loch's Horse	Trooper	69
Pender, John Stuart Menzies			British South Africa Police	Troop Sgt Major	541
Pepys, Arthur Guy Leslie			Northampton Regiment	Lieutenant
Pescod, William Thomas			Natal Field Artillery	Sergeant	105
Pomeroy, Granvill George	1	Battalion	Gloucester Regiment	Lieutenant
Poole, Ernest Josiah			Protectorate Regiment FF	Trooper
Rea, Harold George	E	Squadron	Rhodesian Regiment	Trooper
Rhodes, Charles Alfred	II	Bulawayo Div	British South Africa Police	Sergeant	785
Ruck, George Gordon			Loch's Horse	Sergeant	29
Spring, Francis Raymond	C	Troop	Southern Rhodesian Volunteers	Trooper	525
Steadmond, Edward			Protectorate Regiment FF	Trooper	294
Thomas, William Llewellyn		Mashonaland Sqdn	Rhodesian Regiment	Trooper	124
Thorn, Richard Alder	A	Troop	Southern Rhodesian Volunteers	Trooper	516
Villiers, Charles Hyde			Horse Guards (The Blues), Royal	Captain
Webb, Ben William			Commander-in-Chief's Bodyguard	Trooper	6
Weinthal, Paul			Robert's Horse	Sqdn QM Sgt	2211
White, Henry Frederick			Reserve Of Officers	Major
Wickham, Thomas Strange			South African Light Horse	Unknown	806
Willows, Tom Oxden			Rhodesian Field Force	2nd Lieutenant
Wood, Edward Allen			British South Africa Police	Lieutenant

Queen's South Africa medal: multi clasp medals

The Register is a large database with many types of data that can be interrogated in ways not yet done to provide new and unique views of the British Empire in the Anglo-Boer War.

The Queen's South Africa (QSA) medal could be issued with zero to 26 clasps in a variety of combinations. These combinations are of great interest to many medal collectors.

The number of clasps on a QSA is one collecting facet. As I build a new QSA medal roll index, the table below shows the numbers of clasps issued on the QSA drawn from the current 124,948 QSA clasp entitlement on The Register. As more data is added these numbers will change.

Clasps	No Date Clasps	All Including Date Clasps
0	12178	12178
1	12098	12374
2	12808	20827
3	23504	26316
4	10368	33208
5	6203	26305
6	3583	4828
7	396	846
8	146	207
9	0	37
10	0	0
Total QSA	69106	124948

There are no 10 clasp QSAs, but I have included this number as some may believe 10 clasp QSAs were issued. The June 1972 issue of the Military History Journal published an article entitled Queen's South Africa Medal with 10 Bars by GR Duxbury. I had another look at the medal in question, a 10 clasp medal named to Trooper M(oses) Wilson Damant's Horse. The medal was part of the Ronnie Hunt collection on permanent loan to the SA National War Museum, now the Ditsong National Museum of Military History. I wrote a reply, The ten-clasp QSA mystery resolved, Military History Journal (South African Military History Society) vol 125 No 5 June 2012.

I established that Trooper Wilson's 10 clasp QSA Belmont, Modder River, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittebergen, Relief of Kimberley, South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 should be an eight clasp QSA with the two date clasps on the King's South Africa medal.

 

Mellors & Kirk: Caveat Emptor

Mellors & Kirk 

Offering a “professional service” and “fully researched and expertly catalogued” medals.

 

Sale January 22, 2020 Lot 714

AFRICAN CAMPAIGNS PAIR, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL, ONE CLASP BECHUANALAND AND QUEEN'S SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL, FOUR CLASPS CAPE COLONY, ORANGE FREE STATE, TRANSVAAL AND SOUTH AFRICA 1901 SGT L O TILLARD VYRBURG VOL [ON CAPE, 313 TPR L O TILLARD PROTECT REGT FF ON SECOND (QSA SUSPENDER REATTACHED)]

When received it was discovered that on the obverse of each medal there was a large blob of solder on Queen Victoria's face. Additional solder was on the post of the QSA suspender, the rods used to attach the clasps to each other had been removed. Solder had been roughly applied to the rivets to prevent the clasps falling apart. There are obvious drops of solder on the top of the clasp ears on the Cape of Good Hope medal.

The auction house was advised by e-mail on February 1st asking how the "very important defects on each medal" were missed. The response was that the medals could not be accepted back and I could have requested further photographs.          
                            

Further email communication failed to draw Mellors & Kirk on the question whether the cataloguing of this lot represented the standard of cataloguing or this was a simple mistake.

A Signed For letter was sent to Mellors & Kirk restating the case and questions regarding Mellors and Kirk's standard of cataloguing.

This letter drew an offer of a refund of hammer price plus premium, which has been accepted and promptly processed.

It took 24 days, numerous emails and a Signed For letter to bring this case to a suitable conclusion.

Throughout Mellors & Kirk refuse to explain how these clear and obvious defects were not stated in the catalogue description.

"In conclusion, I think it for the best that Mellors & Kirk Ltd does not accept bids from you in the future."

Caveat Emptor

Who was Magersfontein's 'Young Unknown Scottish Bugler'? Part II

An article with this title was published in the South African Military History journal in December 1979, you can read the full article here.

This blog, the "Part II", brings the story up to date using information not available to the author, Fiona Barbour, in 1979. I will also show how this soldier has been erroneously turned into a romantic fictional character in more recent years.

The premise of the original article was to identify an unknown Scottish bugler who died at the battle of Magersfontein, December 11, 1899. After the battle the soldiers were buried largely where they fell, there were 20 burial sites. In 1905 the British dead were concentrated into one grave site. It was not until 1931, when the Burgher Monument was erected, that the Boer (and Scandinavian) dead were consolidated. One grave stone, erected in 1963, at the Burgher Monument stood out, the inscription read "In Memory of a Young Unknown Scottish Bugler...". It is presumed this stone replaced one made earlier, this first grave stone is lost. In 1969 the grave was given a new stone:

The 1969 stone, photographed in 2020. Courtesy Phil Gibson

By a process of deduction Fiona Barbour concluded that the most likely candidate for this grave was Drummer 3543 W Milne, 2 battalion, The Seaforth Highlanders. The official casualty roll records him as "Missing - Court of Enquiry states killed" at Magersfontein on December 11, 1899. The headstone records he was wounded and buried by the Boers. This would explain why Milne was posted as "Missing" by the British - they had not recovered and buried his body after the battle.

The "traditional" story on the Boer side is that "a young bugler", badly wounded, was taken by the Boers to their hospital where he died. He was buried with the other Boer dead, and presumably his grave was marked. Other British dead who died in Boer hands were found when the consolidation occurred.

Satisfied, Barbour concludes the article, but notes that Milne's age was not known at the time; even "the Regiment was unable to give me" his age. Some may be surprised the regiment does not know about its own soldiers. However, we now know that many regiments do not hold biographical details. Any attestation books they may have kept were destroyed in a fit of housekeeping or sent to a central archive, such as the National Army Museum or The National Archives. The service papers we know and love could, in 1979, only be searched manually at the The National Archives. Thanks to digitisation we know no papers survive for Milne, as is common for fatalities.

In recent years the 'Young Unknown Scottish Bugler' has in certain circles transformed into "The little Drummer Boy of Magersfontein." Working under the misapprehension that all Drummers in the British Army were "boys" (children) Milne is stated to be aged 15. In 1979 Barbour called this notion "a romantic nonsense". And, history tells us that it is indeed untrue; Drummers, Buglers and Trumpeters may well have once been boys, but they grew up into young men retaining their rank and role. Research from The Register shows 148 Drummers, Trumpeters and Buglers died during the war. The age is known for eight; the eldest was 32, the youngest 16, the average age 21.6. More research will add more data to improve the quality of the result. But,this further proves the  "a romantic nonsense" of the "little drummer boy".

However advances in research material allow us to make an educated guess at Milne's age from the work by Paul Nixon on Army Service Numbers. Milne's service number, 3543, was allocated between January 1891 and May 1892. A search of the British Newspaper Archive found a report in The Scotsman (December 18, 1899)  relating to casualties at Magersfontein supplied by the regiment that "Drummer W Milne, Edinburgh; enlisted March 1891". Between 1899 and 1979 the relevant source the regiment had as to his age seems to have disappeared.

With an enlistment date of March 1891 and assuming an enlistment age between 14 and 18 (he might have been older), Milne was between 22 and 26 years old when he died.

If Milne is the 'Young Unknown Scottish Bugler', and the evidence is strong then he was definitely not the romanticised "little drummer boy" as some would like to make out.