TOPIC:

Herbert John Reynolds

Corporal, 30th Coy. 9th Battalion & 118th Coy. 25th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony & Orange Free State to 4146 Cpl. H.J. Reynolds, 30th Coy. 9th Imp. Yeo.

Herbert Reynolds’ career in uniform is one of two halves – having enlisted first with the 30th Company of the Imperial Yeomanry he later took his discharge and returned home only to re-enlist a while later with the 118th Company whereupon he was back in South Africa but this time to stay.

Born in 1880 in Bristol, Gloucestershire he was the son of Frederick William Reynolds and his wife Emily. Frederick was rather well to do and what was termed, in Victorian times, a Gentleman. Occupation-wise he was a Private Tutor having obtained his M.A. Degree from Cambridge.

The first glimpse we have of Herbert comes courtesy of the 1881 England census where, aged 1, he is one of many in the Reynolds’ household at 3 Kingswood Lodge, Redland Park in Bristol. Aside from his parents were siblings Edith (13), Constance (12), Frederick (9) and Alice (7). Mr Reynolds’ mother Mary (80) as well as servants Susan Strawbridge, Mary Ann Thompson and Sarah Hacker made up the numbers and administered to the family’s needs.

Ten years later at the time of the 1891 England census the picture was little altered. Everyone had aged by the requisite 10 years and the family had been augmented with the appearance of Eveline who was 9 years old. There were now four servants in attendance bearing testimony to Mr Reynolds’ financial prowess.

The humdrum monotony of daily life was shattered however when, in October 1899 Great Britain found itself to be at war with the two Boer Republics in far -away South Africa. Initially a number of reverses were experienced by the British troops in what became termed Black Week – this led to a call for the creation of a Yeomanry force of volunteers who could fight alongside the Regular Army soldiers. Herbert Reynolds was one of those who answered the call.

An Engineer (self-styled) who had been serving an Apprenticeship with the Bristol firm of Edwin Walker & Co. for 2 and a half years; Reynolds completed the Attestation forms for Short Service (One Year with the Colours) at Tenby on 9 February 1900. Aged 20 years and 6 months he was already a member of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Gloucester Artillery (Militia) and was a strapping 6 feet in height weighing 162 pounds and with a ruddy complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. Aside from his vaccination marks he sported a mole on his right shoulder.

Posted to the 30th Company (Pembrokeshire) of the 9th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry he was assigned no 4146 and the rank of Trooper after being found Fit by the Doctor. Reynolds thus became one of the chaps from the 1st I.Y. contingent – known universally to have been recruited from the more affluent strata of Victorian society where one’s social standing was everything. After an initial 53 days at home he sailed for South Africa and the war entering the field on 14 March 1900.

Whether or not he was one of those caught up in the Lindley affair where a large chunk of the 13th Company’s chaps were taken Prisoner of War in what was a humiliation for the British forces is unknown. That he was in Lindley is confirmed by his papers where under “Campaigns” it is recorded that he saw action in Thaba Nchu, Heilbron and Lindley.

After 1 year and 141 days of fighting across the length and breadth of the Orange Free State (in the main) Reynolds had had enough sailing back to England where, at Shorncliffe on 29 June 1901, he took his discharge at his own request from the Yeomanry. His Military Conduct and Character were rated as Very Good. He had, at some stage, been elevated to the rank of Corporal. Now a man of leisure he seems to have re-joined the services of Walker & Co. in his quest to qualify as an Engineer but this was to be short-lived. Perhaps it was the lure of the open veld and the ever-present African sun but, whatever it was, Reynolds determined to return to South Africa – this time for good.

At Bristol on 17 October 1901 he underwent a now familiar procedure – that of completing the Short Service Attestation forms for One Year with the Colours. Familiar with the Imperial Yeomanry he chose to return to their ranks – on this occasion enlisting with the 118th Company of the 25th Battalion – the famous Sharpshooters. Now 22 he confirmed his previous service with the 30th and, having been passed as Fit by the Doctor resumed service retaining his original number of 4146 and his rank of Corporal.

The 118th’s main claim to fame came on and after April 4 1902 – this was the day the Boers invested O'okiep and demanded its surrender, which was rejected. Desultory attacks began on April 8 and soon one blockhouse was captured. But only one determined assault was made and this was easily repulsed. After that the siege degenerated into a mere blockade conducted `with such mutual good humour that on one occasion a challenge to a football match was considered by the garrison and eventually declined.' Smuts himself was whisked off to Vereeniging to attend the peace conference between the Boer leaders and Lord Kitchener...'

The garrison was relieved by a force dispatched by sea from Cape Town to Port Nolloth under the Command of Colonel Cooper, though the immediate relief was carried out by a column of this force composed of 5th Lancers (109) 116th and 118th Companies Imperial Yeomanry (170); one squadron Cape Police and two guns of the 44th Battalion, all under command of Colonel Callwell and encountering severe fighting on the way.

Not long after this the Anglo Boer War ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging being signed on 31 May 1902. Reynolds who had a further 283 days service to his credit was discharged at Elandsfontein on 26 July 1902 – at his own request and to “take up civil employment in Wolmaranstad”. He was awarded both the Queens and Kings Medals (the whereabouts of the latter are unknown). So what was this employment then? The answer lies in a letter written by Reynolds from Germiston in the Transvaal on 25 July 1902 to a Mr Tennant, Secretary of the Law Department, Pretoria. The letter read as follows:

“Dear Sir

I am taking advantage of your kind offer. I will be in Pretoria as soon as possible. I have applied for my discharge but am not certain of getting off tomorrow (Saturday). If not I will be at your office Monday morning, unless I hear to the contrary from you.

Yours sincerely

H.J. Reynolds
118 Co. I.Y. Elandsfontein”

This letter precipitated one to the Resident Magistrate, Wolmaranstad from the Law Department on 29 July informing that worthy that “Mr. Herbert John Reynolds has been temporarily appointed as Clerk on your staff with salary of £200 per annum, to take effect from 28 July 1902.”

Reynolds was thus gainfully employed in the Transvaal Legal system and his good fortune didn’t end there – on 6 March 1903 his salary was increased to £240 with effect from 1 January 1903. Settling down to his duties in post-war South Africa he must have been a busy man – on 11 March 1904 he wrote to the Colonial Secretary in Pretoria stating that,

“I am sending home to England some curios, amongst which are 2 old rifles, I have the honour to request that I may be supplied with a permit authorising me to export these rifles. They are as follows:

1. Snider
2. Wesley Richards
Also 1 small six chamber revolver.

I have the honour etc. etc.”

Permission to export these weapons came on 31 March. The incident reminded me that, should Reynolds be exporting those weapons in this day and age he would probably be classed as an arms dealer….

Life for Reynolds continued unabated until 22 May 1905 – this was the day his superior, the Resident Magistrate at Wolmaranstad received a letter from the Secretary of the Law Department informing him that “Mr H.J. Reynolds, Clerk of your Court, has been appointed as Clerk on the staff of the Magistrate Pietersburg with his present salary of £260 per annum. He should be instructed to report at Pietersburg without delay.”

This must have come as a bolt from the blue as, on 26 May the Magistrate penned a confidential memorandum to the Law Department which read, in part, thus,

“Mr Reynolds has every intention of settling down as a farmer in this district and has quietly been preparing to begin operations when his long leave becomes due in the course of the next few months. Unfortunately he said nothing to me of his intentions, or I would have mentioned the position to you when I last saw you.

Now that his move has come however he points out that for him to remain in the present condition of his affairs would be very hard on him and would interfere with his prospects of embarking on his own venture under the most favourable circumstances. Of course no one would wish to prejudice Mr Reynolds chances, and I accordingly asked you by wire to suspend his transfer until I could communicate with you. If you find it possible to continue Mr Reynolds here for a few months longer I shall be quite agreeable”

No doubt Reynolds this letter was written at Reynolds’ instigation but to no avail – the same Magistrate wrote to the Law Department on 7 June 1905 informing the Secretary that “Mr H.J. Reynolds left here on June 6th for Pietersburg.” Reynolds wasn’t taking this move lying down – from his home in Bloemhof (near Wolmaranstad) on 4 December 1905 whilst he was on leave; he wrote to the Secretary of the Law Department as follows:

“Clerkship at Bloemhof

Having heard that it is your intention to place a clerk in the office of the Resident Justice of the Peace at Bloemhof, I have the honour to make application, that I may be transferred from Pietersburg to this post. As I am now taking my six months leave, which does not expire until the end of February next, and as I understand that a clerk is to appointed next January, I am willing to forfeit that part of my holiday, which would remain after the appointment, should my application be granted”.

The reply which came on 29 December was a favourable one and Reynolds’ very short tenure at Pietersburg was now a thing of the past with his appointment as “Issuer of Process” in Bloemhof on his present salary. This happiness was to be of short duration as his old friend the Secretary of the Law Department penned a confidential letter to him on 15 June 1907 which read as follows,

“Sir

I have the honour to inform you that His Excellency the Governor has approved of your being relieved of your position in the Service of the Colony with effect from the 30th instant, on which date you will be granted one months’ salary in lieu of notice. This decision is arrived at with regret and only in view of the redundancy of staff which has been found to exist by reason of the re-organisation of this Department.

In notifying you of this decision I am desired to convey to you the expression of the Government’s appreciation of your past services and also to inform you that in view of those services it has been decided to pay you a gratuity in respect of leave earned and not taken at the date of retirement in addition to a gratuity of one months; salary for every year of service.

I have the honour etc. etc.”

By now we know Reynolds to be two things – a fighter and a survivor – he wasn’t going to go quietly certainly not at the age of 37! On 22 June 1907 he wrote back as follows;

“Sir

I have the honour to acknowledge….. informing me of my retrenchment.

If you permit me I should like to make the following few remarks on the subject.

I understand perfectly that a reduction of officials is necessary owing to the re-organisation of the Department, and that a certain number must of necessity be the unfortunate ones to be relieved of their positions. But in carrying out such a delicate matter I cannot understand why civil servants who have been in the service for a shorter time should take priority over others who have served practically since the close of the last war.

I think I may well consider myself to come under the heading of the latter, and yet I think I am not speaking incorrectly when I say that there are officials now holding office who have only been in the service for half the time that I myself have been.

I do not for one moment wish it to be thought that what I am saying I say maliciously, but unless an official has been in the habit of conducting his work in a dilatory or unsatisfactory manner, I cannot see any reason for departing from what one would suppose was the natural method of retrenchment.

In view of these remarks is it possible for a decision such as has been arrived at in any case to be re-considered, I shall feel extremely grateful if such a course can be taken.

I have the honour etc. etc.”

This letter was forwarded by the Regional Magistrate under a memo from himself which intimated that, if possible Reynolds’ services should be retained as it would be “a pity to lose the services of such an efficient official as Mr Reynolds has proved himself to be.” This wasn’t all – mention was made that a petition was being “got up” in the district to retain his services.

This petition written in Dutch and signed by all the prominent Burgers in the district was directed to Louis Botha, the Prime Minister himself. Faced with a barrage of public resistance to their decision the Law Department hastily penned a letter stating that,

“The Governor General in Council has been pleased to approve of the retention in service of Mr H.J. Reynolds”

Reynolds lived to fight another day as the saying goes and continued with his work until, in January 1909 he was transferred to Schweizer Reneke where he was made a Justice of the Peace and Acting Public Prosecutor. All went quiet on his front until 1915. It will be remembered that South Africa had entered the Great War on the side of the Empire in 1914 and had been tasked with the immediate invasion of German South West Africa to remove any potential German threat emanating from there. This war, as was the case with the Boer War before it, stirred the patriotic blood of a now 45 year old Reynolds. One can thus imagine how, feeling left out of the action, he had applied for leave to join the fray only to be refused. This prompted a letter to Lord Buxton the Governor General which Reynolds wrote from England on 5 September 1915,

“Your Excellency

I know this is a most irregular mode of procedure, but the matter to me is a vital one, hence my appeal to yourself direct. I am a Clerk in the Law Department (Transvaal), and was stationed at Schweizer Reneke, Bloemhof District, but am on six months leave in England. I applied three times to be permitted to volunteer for the South West campaign, but was refused, and when the general surrender was taken, and our men came back. I applied for six months leave to proceed to England, which to my agreeable surprise was granted.

My sole reason for so applying was to join the forces here, and I submit that the Department, in such stirring times as these, when nothing is breathed of but the Great War, have surmised my reason for asking for leave, yet no warning was given me. On my arrival here I straightaway applied, through the High Commissioner, for extended leave, never doubting but that it would be granted, but the reply received from Pretoria was to the effect that such leave could not be granted. I felt sure that you can imagine what a blow this has been to me. After all what does extended leave mean to the Department. There cannot be so very many men on leave in England, and those who are may not all be fired with the same desire. I understand that no salary would accrue to me, after my present six months were up, during the period of extended leave, and I am prepared to go to any ends to obtain it. I will forego my pension for my past service (13 years) if necessary. I would pay a substitute if I could afford to – indeed I could manage somehow to pay say £8 per month towards a 3rd Class clerk’s salary to do my work, as my post was really a 3rd class one. Although I myself am a 2nd grade clerk. In fact I will do anything that is within the bounds of possibility to do – during the Rebellion I did military as well as official work, helping in every way that was possible, and when that time of stress and anxiety was over, though official work was doubled, no extra assistance was forthcoming nor did I ask or wish for it.

I am not blowing my own trumpet, but merely pointing out that surely I deserve some little consideration, seeing that some 150 officials in the Law Department in the Union were permitted to go to the South West campaign, and those that stayed behind had their full share of the official duties and anxiety. Let me earnestly entreat Your Excellency to ask the Minister for Justice to reconsider my application. I know how you yourself must be overburdened with work, but I feel sure you understand my feelings. We are both Englishmen and in this time of national anxiety, when Lord Kitchener is calling for men, surely the Colony can allow one of her civil servants, who is only too willing and anxious a few months extended leave.

Your Excellency I have never before nor would I at any time make use of the Craft for the purpose of trading, but in this matter I ask you believing you to be a Mason, as a brother mason, to do your utmost to obtain for me the extended leave I crave.

As the matter is naturally urgent, an already almost two months of my present leave has gone by, may I ask that it may be expedited. If it would be possible for a cable to be sent to the High Commissioner, London, I would gladly defray the expense.

I remain Your Excellency’s obedient servant etc. etc.”

The reader could be forgiven for thinking that Reynolds’ must have been deranged – why such an emotional and pathetic entreaty? Clearly he felt very strongly that he had a contribution to make but was deluded into thinking a few months of extended leave would carry him through to the end of the war. On this occasion his written appeal was unsuccessful with the response coming that,

“Mr Reynolds is at what is known as a one man post. It is impracticable to spare Mr Reynolds for Military Service or to replace him by a substitute.”

Once Reynolds had been made aware of the outcome his final letter read, “Your Excellency, I have the honour to thank you for your reply to my cable with reference to extended leave, as also to thank you for the trouble you have taken in the matter. I take it however that I must bow to the inevitable and return to my civil duties.”

Nothing further was heard from Herbert John Reynolds again.










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Another very worthy Mr Reynolds!

Yes Mr. Reynolds, you may blow your own horn......

You deserve it......

M.

Hello Rory – I was delighted to come across your 6 year old post and be able to view one of the medals awarded to 4146 Corporal Herbert John Reynolds. Living in Pembrokeshire, I am currently carrying out an analysis on the first contingent of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry. Herbert is the third I have come across to date whose service with the IY was double-barrelled.

I have come to the tentative conclusion that Herbert did serve in WW1. This is based on the records of the Gladwys Masonic Lodge of Schweizer Reneke, Transvaal – I have attached the relevant page which I found on FMP. As you can see he was initiated into the Lodge on 21st October 1911 and in December of that year paid dues of 7 shillings and 6 pence into the Lodge funds. He retained his membership during 1912, 1913, 1914 & 1915 but in December 1916 the customary mark is replaced by what looks like “WS” and this is repeated in December 1917. Then on 16th March 1918 he resigned his membership of the Lodge. "WS" appears against other names but only during the years 1916, 1917 & 1918 – thus I would suggest “WS” stands for “War Service”. I have done military searches for Herbert and whilst there are several WW1 medal rolls for Herbert John Reynolds and numerous for H J Reynolds I have no proof any of them refer to “our” man. I also looked for the others names annotated “WS” but had no success except for learning that the son of Sedgwick Cameron was killed in action in WW2 whilst serving in the SAAF.

By the way Herbert was definitely born in 1879 and that can be worked out from the ages he gave when attesting, 20 years 6 months on 9th February 1900 & 22 years 4 months on 17th October 1901. In addition the birth of a Herbert John Reynolds was registered in the Bristol Registration District in Q3 1879. Inadvertently in your narrative you have added 10 years to his age – on 22 June 1907 he would have been only 27 years of age when facing redundancy, on 5th September 1915 he would have been 36 years when facing work related impediments to serving in WW1 – at least his age would not have been an impediment.

The correspondence you have is intriguing but by the end of it, when he is in the UK, I found I was muttering why not just walk into the nearest recruiting office and sign up and then inform your employer back in SA, especially as he had already admitted to not being bothered about losing his pension. He seems to lack common sense as he initially informs his boss that he only sees his new job in the Law Dept as short term as he really wants to be a farmer, an aspiration he does not achieve in the next decade, and later, in effect, tells his superiors he is overpaid!

Herbert’s service in the ABW was commemorated in Bristol in his absence on 3rd November 1902. Lord Methuen unveiled a memorial in St Stephen’s Church listing first the fallen and then those that had served and survived. His father attended the unveiling – I have marked both their names with yellow crosses on the attached extract from the newspaper article. I have visited St Stephen’s and could not find the memorial and there was nobody to ask what had happened to it. I can email a PDF of the whole article if you are interested.

I did look for evidence that Herbert had returned to the UK and especially whether he attended his father's funeral in 1919. All I could find was a notice of his father's death saying the funeral was next Thursday and he had died whilst residing with his daughter Alice. His probate record shows he appointed his other son (who was younger than Herbert) as his executor along with a doctor.

Regards, David.