FARQUHAR, MOUBRAY GORE, Captain, was
born in 1862, son of Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar, KCB, and Ellen (who died in
1898), daughter of S P Rickman. He served with the BSA Company's Forces in
Matabeleland, 1893 (Medal) and in 1896 (clasp). He again saw active service
in the South African War of 1899-1901; was mentioned in Despatches; received
the Medal with seven clasps, and was created a Companion of the Distinguished
Service Order [London Gazette, 19 April, 1901]: "Moubray Gore Farquhar,
Captain, Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry. In recognition of services during
the operations in South Africa". The Insignia were sent to the
Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, and presented at Bulawayo. He became
Lieutenant Colonel of Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry we are told, in the
Official 'History of the War in South Africa' (compiled by Major General Sir F
Maurice, KCB, and published by Messrs Hurst and Blackett) (page 206): "In
Natal itself two mounted corps, under the command of Major (local Lieutenant
Colonel) A W Thorneycroft, Royal Scots Fusiliers, and Major (local Lieutenant
Colonel) E C Bethune, 16th Lancers, were already being formed". Elsewhere we
read that the corps was raised at Maritzburg, and on page 332 that it formed
part of the mounted brigade commanded by Colonel the Earl of Dundonald.
Thorneycroft and his men were engaged in the attempt to capture Hlangwhane
Mountain at the Battle of Colenso. In the retreat, after Colenso, "Colonel
Thorneycroft was told by Lord Dundonald to fall back slowly along the Gomba
Spruit, protecting the flank of the South African Light Horse. His retreat,
which was covered by the 13th Hussars and three companies of the Royal
Fusiliers, was a good deal harassed by the enemy". In the Spion Kop Campaign
a dismounted squadron of the South African Light Horse, supported by
Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry, captured Bastion Hill. In the chapter on the
capture and evacuation of Spion Kop, Sir F Maurice says that when Woodgate
attacked Spion Kop on 24 January 1900, Thorneycroft offered his services as
guide, and he was desired by Woodgate to take his men to the front and lead
the column. Having climbed the hill and arrived at the edge of an open
plateau, "Thorneycroft's men, who had been climbing in double files, halted,
and having formed line, stole forward again over the crest with fixed
bayonets, expectant of a volley which they had been previously ordered to
receive by flinging themselves to the ground. Behind them, the Lancashire
Fusiliers followed closely in column of double companies, single rank, about
one hundred yards intervening between the companies. Suddenly a loud
challenge, twice repeated in Dutch, rang out from the depths of the mist,
followed by a burst of fire from a surprised Boer piquet, whose position was
revealed by a line of dancing flashes from a dozen rifles. Flat upon the
grass dropped the soldiers, and lay motionless in accordance with their
orders, suffering few casualties, whilst the bullets whistled close above them
for two or three minutes. Then when the magazines of the Mausers were nearly
exhausted, and the fire slackened, the word was given, and the men, leaping to
their feet, charged down upon the piquet, which disappeared into the
protecting fog escaping with the loss of one man only. The rest of the Boer
outposts upon the mountain, numbering some seventy men, vanished without
offering opposition and undiscovered. Thus, at 4 am, by skill and good
fortune, the summit of Spion Kop was almost bloodlessly delivered into our
hands". Woodgate gave orders to entrench, which was done in the fog, and on
very difficult ground, and when the mist lifted a little it was discovered
that the entrenchments were wrongly placed. The Boers rallied and returned,
and the fog began to disperse and disclosed Woodgate's position to the Boers.
The troops, almost without cover, were almost surrounded by fire, and the Boer
reinforcements arrived and began an enveloping movement. Woodgate was
mortally wounded. The fight went on, watched by Buller through a telescope
from Mount Alice. "Even at that distance, the energetic and courageous
movements of a single officer—Thorneycroft—a man of great stature, were to be
singled out from the swaying knots of figures", and General Buller suggested
to Sir C Warren that Thorneycroft should be put in command. The situation
had, however, become very critical. The official and other histories of the
war tell the story of the lighting, and of the final evacuation of the hill.
"Never since Inkerman", says Sir A Conan Doyle, in his 'Great Boer War' (page
199), "had we so grim a soldiers' battle. The company officers were superb
... Grenfell, of Thorneycroft's, was shot, and exclaimed, 'That's all right.
It's not much'. A second wound made him remark, 'I can get on all
right'. The third killed him". And in the end (page 202, 'Great Boer
War'): "Thorneycroft saw the frightful havoc of one day, and he shrank from
the thought of such another. 'Better six battalions safely down the hill than
a mop up in the morning' said he, and he gave the word to retire. One who had
met the troops as they staggered down has told me how far they were from being
routed. In mixed array, but steadily and in order, the long thin line trudged
through the darkness. Their parched lips would not articulate, but they
whispered 'Water! where is water?' as they toiled upon their way. At the
bottom of the hill they formed into regiments once more, and marched back to
the camp. In the morning the blood-spattered hill-top, with its piles of dead
and of wounded, was in the hands of Botha and his men, whose valour and
perseverance deserved the victory which they had won. There is no doubt now
that at 3 am of that morning Botha, knowing that the Rifles had carried
Burger's position, regarded the affair as hopeless, and that no one was more
astonished than he when he found, on the report of two scouts, that it was a
victory and not a defeat which had come to him. How shall we sum up such an
action save that it was a gallant attempt, gallantly carried out, and as
gallantly met? On both sides the results of artillery fire during the
war have been disappointing, but at Spion Kop beyond all question it was the
Boer guns which won the action for them. So keen was the disappointment at
home that there was a tendency to criticize the battle with some harshness,
but it is difficult now, with the evidence at our command, to say what was
left undone which could have altered the result. Had Thorneycroft known all
that we know, he would have kept his grip upon the hill. On the face of it
one finds it difficult to understand why so momentous a decision, upon which
the whole operations depended, should have been left entirely to the judgment
of one who in the morning had been a simple lieutenant colonel. 'Where are
the bosses?' cried a Fusilier, and the historian can only repeat the
question". Thorneycroft's Mounted Infantry took a prominent part in the
Relief of Ladysmith. When Northern Natal was being cleared, Thorneycroft's
men were once more to the fore, on 13 May 1900, in the action at Helpmakaar,
at Alleman's Nek and Laing's Nek. They took part also in the advance towards
Komati Poort, and in the operations on the Johannesburg-Durban line. In the
operations in the Orange River Colony they were engaged in the forcing of
Springhaan Nek on 14 December 1900, and thereafter we read a great deal of the
doings of Thorneycroft, now in command of a column. On 20 September 1901,
Thorneycroft discovered, attacked and defeated the Boer leader, Kritzinger.
Some of Thorneycroft's men were with Ternan when, in the course of his
clearance of the vicinity of Bultfontein, he met with a reverse near
Bultfontein 8 April, 1900. After this affair, which crippled Ternan for a
time, he was ordered to Eensgevonden
to refit. "This was effected", says Sir F Maurice, in Volume IV (page 489) of
the Official History, "by 15 April, when, after escorting a convoy to Hoopstad,
Ternan inarched to Bothaville on the 23rd. Thence he despatched
Thorneycroft's MI to rejoin the officer from whom this veteran corps took its
name. Thorneycroft being now at Klerksdorp in command of a new column of
Australians and New Zealanders. Three days later Thorneycroft took his force
into Kroonstad, where it was broken up".
