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Officers of the
1st Battalion |
Drummers of the
1st Battalion |
Officers of the
1st Battalion |
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Drummer of the
3rd Battalion |
NCOs of the
3rd Battalion |
Officers of the
3rd Battalion |
Sergeant of the
3rd Battalion |
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This page contains the service of the 2nd and
3rd Battalions.
The 2nd Battalion sailed on the Dunera on 18th March 1900, and arrived at
the Cape about 11th April. Along with the 2nd Scots Guards, 2nd East
Yorkshire Regiment, and 1st Leinster Regiment, they formed the 16th Brigade
under Major General Barrington Campbell, and part of the VIIIth Division under General
Leslie Rundle.
The division arrived while Lord Roberts was still in Bloemfontein, but
worried by the raids which the enemy had made with success at Sannah's Post
and Reddersburg. Wepener was still blockaded, and the division was
accordingly railed to the Springfontein-Edenburg district, and immediately
took the field at Orlogspoort and Dewetsdorp. There was no severe
fighting. The enemy held strong positions about the latter place; but
the force employed was overwhelming, and the Boers retreated from these and
from the neighbourhood of Wepener, which was relieved on 24th April.
The division followed General French to Thabanchu, which they occupied on
28th April, a few days before Lord Roberts commenced his northern advance on
Pretoria. The division now followed Ian Hamilton, who commanded the
army of the right flank, and Colvile, but rather to their right rear.
Hence they were generally a long distance from the railway; and as we had
still great scruples about commandeering, and transport was ill to get, Sir
Leslie Rundle's division was soon known all over the world as "the starving
VIIIth". The work they
had to do from now till the end of the campaign was not of the
glory-begetting sort, but they did it faithfully with a minimum of
grumbling.
General Rundle did not remain long at rest at Thabanchu. A few days
after his arrival there he commenced to spread out his division so as to
hold the country on Lord Roberts' right rear. On 15th May M'Quetling's Nek and the
Modder Poort were occupied, then ClocoIan and Ladybrand. On the 26th
he occupied Senekal, and on the 28th he received a message from Colonel
Spragge that his battalion of Yeomanry were hard pressed at Lindley.
It is well to recall the general position at this time. Lord Roberts,
with two divisions and a large force of cavalry and artillery, had moved up
the railway to the Vaal. Ian Hamilton, with a division and a brigade
of cavalry, had accompanied him on his right flank via Lindley and Heilbron.
Colvile, with a brigade and less than 100 mounted men, had followed
Hamilton, and found it difficult to pass out of Lindley. Spragge, with
500 Yeomanry, had moved from the railway to Lindley to join Colvile; but the
latter had left, and when he got Spragge's call for help, had found himself
unable to give it. As regards the enemy, the whole fighting force of
the Free State was massed in the Senekal-Lindley-Bethlehem district.
South and west of these points the country was practically free from Boers.
South-east of Senekal they were, however, stoutly opposing Rundle's right.
Lord Roberts says: "General Rundle could not go to Spragge's relief, as
he had been called on to support Brigadier General Brabant in the direction
of Hammonia, nor could he leave Senekal until the arrival of Major General
Clements, who with a portion of his brigade was proceeding to that place
from Winburg. Under the impression, however, that he might indirectly
relieve the hostile pressure on Lieutenant Colonel Spragge's detachment,
General Rundle, with a force of six companies of Yeomanry, two field
batteries, Major General Campbell's brigade, and the 2nd Royal West Kent
Regiment, moved out four miles on the Bethlehem road and encountered the
enemy, who were in considerable strength, at Kuring Kraus. After an
engagement (generally known as Biddulphsberg) which had no decisive result,
General Rundle fell back on Senekal, his casualties amounting to 30 killed
and 150 wounded".
This reference is unsatisfactory, and the unofficial accounts of the
engagement are more so. On the 28th it had been seen that the enemy's
position was strong, but on the 29th an attempt was made on his flank.
The hill was shelled heavily, but our field artillery were, it is said by
'The Daily Telegraph' correspondent, who was present, unable to silence one
Boer gun. During this artillery 'preparation' several fires were
started in the 4-foot-long grass,—one fire the same correspondent attributes
to the carelessness of a Yeomanry officer. The infantry now advanced,
the Grenadiers leading; but these fires embarrassed them greatly, causing
the most horrible suffering to, and indeed the death of, many wounded men.
After approaching the foot of the hill the troops were withdrawn. The
correspondent imagined (on the 31st) that the action had relieved Spragge
and helped Lord Methuen. As a matter of fact, its only result was that
it gave the VIIIth Division,
still strange to South African fighting, lessons they seem to have required,
and fortunately did not forget.
All accounts agree that the Grenadiers behaved with the most perfect
steadiness throughout a very trying day. Their losses were
approximately 35 men killed and 5 officers and nearly 100 men wounded.
Colonel Lloyd was wounded three times, the last in the abdomen. It was
while holding his hand on his colonel's wound that
Drummer Haines had his arm smashed.
A week after this battle was fought Lord Roberts occupied Pretoria, and
having by the action at Diamond Hill (11th and 12th June) driven the enemy
back from the east of the capital, he at once commenced a series of
operations with the view of surrounding the Boer forces in the north-east
angle of the Orange River Colony. A strong column under Sir A Hunter
was sent via Heidelberg and Frankfort towards Bethlehem (see 1st Sussex
Regiment). Clements and Paget moved towards, and after stiff fighting
occupied, Bethlehem on the 7th July (see 1st Royal Irish Regiment).
Rundle's division, also placed under the general direction of Sir A Hunter,
occupied a line from Biddulphsberg to Ficksburg, ready to move inwards —
i.e., north — at same time preventing the enemy from breaking south.
The entrances to the Brand water basin at Slabbert's Nek (see 1st Royal
Irish), Retief Nek (see 2nd Black Watch), and Golden Gate having all, after
severe fighting, been secured, Hunter and Rundle moved on Fouriesburg,
whither Prinsloo and over 4000 Boers had retired. Driscoll's Scouts of
the VIIIth Division, after a
forced march of twenty-five miles from Commando Nek, boldly entered the town
on 26th July, other troops followed, and Sir Archibald Hunter himself
arrived on the scene. The enemy had meanwhile retired in a
north-easterly direction to Golden Gate, where Macdonald was in command.
General Hunter followed on the 28th, and on the 30th Prinsloo and over 4000
men surrendered. Thereafter the VIIIth Division provided
garrisons for Senekal, Bethlehem, Fouriesburg, Ladybrand, and Thabanchu.
Until the close of the campaign the division remained in this district,
which, from its mountain fastnesses and fertile valleys, was the chief
stronghold of the enemy in the Free State.
On 26th October 1900 Rundle, moving from Bethlehem to Harrismith, had
stiff fighting with a strong force of Boers who held hills commanding the
road. The troops engaged that day were the 2nd Grenadiers, 2nd Scots
Guards, and Hampshire and Gloucestershire companies of the Imperial
Yeomanry. The position was cleared "in spite of a very stubborn
resistance", Rundle's losses being 3 killed and 20 wounded. During the
two years and one month, commencing 20th April 1900, some part of the
division was almost daily engaged. They had no great battle, but
unceasing hard work and constant need for watchfulness. It is to their
credit that they had no disasters or surrenders. At Tweefontein (25th
December 1901) the disaster took place in Rundle's district, but the
garrison was mainly Yeomanry. In dealing with that affair Lord
Kitchener hinted that there had not been sufficient watchfulness. It
would be tedious, indeed impossible, to recount the innumerable moves made,
and little actions fought, by Rundle's troops. Some of the battalions
were always on garrison duty, and others trekking with columns to denude the
country of supplies, to take convoys to the garrisons and to the mounted
columns, and to capture commandos, while blockhouse-building also occupied a
great part of their energies between August 1901 and the close of the
campaign. During that period the 2nd Grenadiers were mainly employed
in the Brandwater basin or about Harrismith and Bethlehem. Thirty
three officers and 36 non-commissioned officers and men of the Grenadier
Guards were mentioned in Lord Roberts' final despatches of April and
September 1901. These mentions embraced both the 2nd and 3rd
Battalions. In Lord Kitchener's despatches during the war 2 men of the
2nd Battalion were mentioned, and in Lord Kitchener's final despatch 8
officers and 9 non-commissioned officers and men of the Grenadiers were
mentioned.
The 3rd Battalion sailed from Gibraltar in the Ghoorkha on 25th October
1899, and arrived at the Cape about 15th November. Along with the 1st
and 2nd Coldstreams and the 1st Scots Guards they composed the 1st or Guards
Brigade, under Major General Sir H E Colvile.
This brigade and the 9th Brigade, formed partly of troops in South Africa
when the war broke out, were the infantry of Lord Methuen's force when he
advanced from Orange River Bridge about 21st November. The other
component parts of his force were the Naval Brigade, 9th Lancers, two
companies Mounted Infantry, and the 18th and 75th Batteries RFA. On
the 22nd Lord Methuen reconnoitred the extensive and very strong position
held by a Boer force of from 2000 to 2500 men near Belmont. The
general's orders for the 23rd were, briefly, that at 3 am the Guards Brigade
were to advance on a hill called Gun Kopje, the 9th Brigade to advance on
the west side of another hill called Table Mountain. The 9th Brigade,
having secured Table Mountain, to advance along the high ground from east to
west. In the darkness the Grenadiers seem to have slightly lost
direction, and became committed to a frontal attack on a hill actually
intended to be taken by the Coldstreams. This probably made little
difference in the total casualties, as Lord Methuen's force was not strong
enough or sufficiently provided with mounted men to actually outflank his
opponents and threaten their rear. Lieutenant Colonel Crabbe was
wounded, and Major Kinloch took command of the battalion and headed the
assault on the second or final position. The behaviour of the
battalion in the seizure of the hill seems to have gained the praise of
everybody who saw them.
In regard to the alleged loss of direction, it should be stated that the map
served out was not at all correct, and this was the real cause for the
Grenadiers not arriving at the point Lord Methuen intended.
General Colvile, in his 'Work of the IXth Division', 1901, pp 3, after
explaining how the wrong hill came to be assaulted, says: "That was how
Belmont became a soldier's battle, and a very good one too. The men
did for themselves what no general would have dared ask of them, and in four
hours had taken a position which, had the scheme been followed, might not
have yielded in twelve. ... It was a fight of which all who took
part in it had good reason to be proud—regimental officers and men of
themselves, and generals of their troops". The losses of the
Grenadiers were very severe, being approximately 2 officers and 23 men
killed and 7 officers and 97 men wounded: they had practically one-half of
the total losses of the force engaged. The position assaulted by the
Grenadiers was in their hands before 5 am, and by six o'clock the enemy had
been driven from their last ridges. By 10.30 am the force was back in
camp. Fifty prisoners, 100 horses, 64 waggons, and some cases of
big-gun and rifle ammunition were captured. Lord Methuen continued his
advance on the 24th, and on the 25th fought the battle of Enslin or Gras Pan
(see 1st Northumberland Fusiliers). The 9th Brigade and Naval Brigade
did the attacking, and the Guards Brigade had no fighting and incurred no
loss.
The advance was again continued, and on the 27th Lord Methuen
reconnoitred Modder River. From what he saw, or did not see, he
thought the Boers had retired to Spytfontein (beyond Magersfontein), and he
resolved that he would leave a battalion to cover the rail-head and march
east via Jacobsdal to attack the Boer left flank. Early on the 28th he
learned that the village of Modder River was strongly held, and he made up
his mind that it had to be taken. He advanced the division, which had
been augmented by the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, in
widely extended order. The 3rd Grenadiers had a front of practically a
mile. The Guards Brigade on the right were to develop the attack
first. The 1st Scots Guards were on the right of the brigade, the 3rd
Grenadiers in the centre, and the 2nd Coldstreams on the left to keep touch
with the 9th Brigade. The 1st Coldstreams in reserve at the right
rear. "At 8.10 am a sudden and very heavy fire announced that the
enemy held the river in great strength, and perfectly concealed. Many
casualties now occurred, and the Scots Guards maxim detachment was
completely wiped out". The 1st Coldstreams now prolonged the line to
the right, but there the Riet River prevented further advance. Most
gallant attempts were made to find a passable drift, but without success.
The brigade had simply to lie down about 800 yards from the river and await
events. Fortunately the 9th Brigade (see 1st Northumberland
Fusiliers), having successfully assaulted some buildings and little hills
which commanded a ford, were able to throw some men across, and in the
afternoon a portion of the village had been taken. About 5.30 pm Lord
Methuen was slightly wounded. General Colvile took over the command,
handing the Guards Brigade to Colonel A H Paget. After dark the enemy
retired, getting away all their guns. Our own artillery—the 75th,
18th, and 62nd Batteries — had done splendid work. The 62nd only
joined the force during the battle, having marched from Belmont. The
total casualties were about 475. The Grenadiers lost 12 men killed and
3 officers and 50 men wounded. Two officers, 2 non - commissioned
officers, and 1 private were mentioned in Lord Methuen's despatch of 1st
December 1899.
On 10th December Lord Methuen subjected the Boer position at
Magersfontein to heavy artillery-fire, and arranged to assault it at dawn
next morning. The action is dealt with under the 2nd Black Watch, the
regiment which was to have led in the assault, and which will for
generations remember that awful morning. On the 11th the Guards
Brigade protected the right and rear of the Highlanders over a front of
about two miles, the Yorkshire Light Infantry being on the extreme right.
The two Coldstream battalions were pushed well into the main action,
especially the 1st Battalion, which lost heavily. In the afternoon the
3rd Grenadiers were ordered to be ready to assault the Boer position at
dusk, but Lord Methuen ultimately determined not to attempt another assault.
On the 12th the Guards covered the retirement of the Highland Brigade, and
it is to be hoped they never will have a sadder task. The losses of
the Grenadiers on the 11th were trifling.
For the ensuing two months Lord Methuen's force had rather an unexciting
time. When on 11th February Lord Roberts commenced his eastern
advance, the Guards, under General Pole-Carew, were left at Modder River;
but on the evening of the 18th they were ordered to advance to Klip Drift,
and after Cronje's surrender on the 27th they had to move forward again,
arriving at Osfontein on 6th March. They now formed part of the centre
of the army in the advance eastwards, but they were not seriously engaged at
Poplars Grove (7th March) or Driefontein (10th March) (see 2nd East Kent
Regiment). On the 13th the brigade marched into Bloemfontein, On the
15th the 3rd Grenadiers and 1st Scots Guards entrained for Springfontein to
join hands with Gatacre. This was done without any fighting, and the
brigade was shortly afterwards stationed at Glen, north of Bloemfontein.
It was here that the unfortunate affair occurred when (on 23rd March)
Colonel Crabbe, Captain Trotter, and Lieutenant the Honourable E Lygon of
the Grenadiers, and Colonel Codrington, Coldstream Guards, rode eight or
nine miles beyond their camp without an escort except one trooper.
They were fired on: Lieutenant Lygon was killed, and the others all severely
wounded. The Boers took care of them and sent them in next day.
After De Wet's successes at Sannah's Post (31st March) and Reddersburg
(3rd April) the Boers invested Wepener, and a very elaborate moving of
troops into the south-east of the Orange River Colony took place.
Major General Colvile's IXth Division from Bosnian's Kop, Major General
Pole-Carew with the Xlth Division, composed of the Guards Brigade under
Colonel Inigo Jones as brigadier, and Stephenson's 18th Brigade, taken out
of the Vlth Division, from Bloemfontein, General Chermside's IIIrd and Rundle's
VIIIth Divisions from about
Reddersburg, Generals Hart and Brabant from Aliwal North, all moved into the
southeast of the Orange River Colony. Before such an overwhelming
strength the Boers fled, and Wepener was relieved on 24th April, the British
force employed being much bigger than that available for relieving
Ladysmith.
In the beginning of May Lord Roberts was ready to advance to Pretoria.
He moved out on the 3rd. The infantry accompanying the
Commander-in-Chief were Pole-Carew's Xlth and Tucker's VIIth Divisions; the 3rd
Cavalry Brigade joined him on the 8th; Hutton's Mounted Infantry, and
afterwards General French with the 1st and 4th Cavalry Brigades, were out on
the left flank, while Ian Hamilton and Colvile were far out on the right.
The flanks had heavy fighting, especially Ian Hamilton (see Duke of
Cornwall's Light Infantry), and Colvile had also much to do (see 2nd Black
Watch); but the centre was barely opposed, and had nothing worthy of being
called a battle between Bloemfontein and Pretoria.
On 3rd May Brandfort was occupied. On the 6th May the Yet River was
crossed and Smalldeel occupied. On the 10th the Zand River was
crossed. On the 11th Geneva Siding was reached. On the 12th
Kroonstadt was entered, and the force halted till the 22nd. On the
23rd the Rhenoster River was reached. On the 24th Vredfort Road
station was occupied, and on the same day French and Hutton crossed the Vaal.
On the 25th Ian Hamilton crossed the front of the army of the centre and
moved forward on the left. On the 27th Lord Roberts crossed the Vaal,
and after two marches reached Germiston on the 29th. This day Ian
Hamilton had very heavy fighting (see 1st Gordons). Early on the 31st
Johannesburg surrendered and the
VIIth and Xlth Divisions marched in. On 3rd June the advance was
resumed, and on the 5th the capital was entered.
The enemy still lingered east of Pretoria, and had to be driven farther
back: with this object the stiff battle of Diamond Hill was fought.
The troops engaged were, from the left, French with the 1st and 4th Cavalry
Brigades, and Hutton's Colonials, Henry's Mounted Infantry, the Xlth
Division, with naval and siege guns, Ian Hamilton's column, Broadwood's 2nd
and Gordon's 3rd Cavalry Brigades. French could not get round, and an
attempt to outflank by the cavalry on the right was also unsuccessful; but
Bruce Hamilton's 21st Brigade (see 1st Sussex) did splendid work, and seized
Diamond Hill on the 12th. Fighting continued till dusk, but on the
13th it was found the Boers had fled. The Guards Brigade supported
Bruce Hamilton's, but were not heavily engaged on either the 11th or 12th.
After the battle the Xlth Division remained east of Pretoria. About
the middle of July the advance towards Koomati Poort was commenced, but
again the centre had no heavy engagement. Middelburg was occupied on
the 26th, and the Xlth Division was distributed along the line between that
town and Balmoral.
The operations against De Wet necessitated another halt, but about the
middle of August Lord Roberts was ready to move east again. On the
24th Pole-Carew's division entered Belfast, beyond which lay the Boer
position, one of the greatest natural strength, stretching for twenty miles.
An attempt by French and Pole-Carew on the enemy's right made little
progress, but on the 27th Buller's troops, chiefly the old Ladysmith
garrison, drove the enemy from Bergendal, near his left (see 2nd Rifle
Brigade), and after this defeat the Boers did not make any great stand. Koomati Poort was entered by
the Guards Brigade on 24th September, after a march of exceptional
difficulty.
On 28th September General Pole-Carew held a review in honour of the
birthday of the King of Portugal, and a few days afterwards the Guards
Brigade entrained for Pretoria, where it was concentrated in the beginning
of October. The 3rd Grenadiers were present at the ceremony of
proclaiming the annexation of the Transvaal on 25th October. Within
the next few days the 3rd Grenadiers, 1st Coldstreams, and 1st Scots Guards
were despatched from the Transvaal to Cape Colony to watch the drifts on the
Orange River, as De Wet was now making an earnest endeavour to get into the
colony.
In the middle of December Kritzinger with 700 men and Hertzog with 1200
got across the Orange River. Many columns were organised to pursue
these commandos, and the Grenadiers under Colonel Crabbe and the 1st
Coldstreams under Colonel Henniker now took up a new role, and one which
they were bound to find the most trying and tiresome of all their
experiences in South Africa. On 10th September 1901 Colonel Crabbe's
column surprised Commandant Van der Merwe, who was killed and 37 of his
followers, and much ammunition, etc, captured. In his despatch of 8th
October 1901 Lord Kitchener says: "I must also make allusion to a very
gallant stand made on the 17th September by 9 men of the 3rd Battalion
Grenadier Guards under Lieutenant M Gurdon-Rebow, who found themselves
attacked by some 30 to 40 of the enemy near Cypher Kuil. A summons to
surrender was refused, and it was not until Lieutenant Gurdon-Rebow and one
man had been killed and two others dangerously wounded, as the result of
three hours' fighting, that the remaining men were overpowered and captured.
The sergeant of the patrol was drowned in a gallant attempt to cross the
Carolus River in search of help".
On 16th December 1901 some men of the 3rd Grenadiers wounded and captured
Commandant Kritzinger and 12 followers.
As late as 3rd February 1902 Colonel Crabbe's column, mainly the Guards
Mounted Infantry, had very severe fighting in the Fraserburg district.
To give details of the endless chasing and skirmishing would be
absolutely impossible, and even if possible, it would be profitless.
Good work was often done, and the Guards certainly helped to make the
invasion by De Wet and his assistants a very fruitless effort.
The end of the war found the Guards still trekking about the and region
of Western Cape Colony or occupying blockhouses and posts. The 3rd
Grenadiers for many months held the line from Hanover Road towards De Aar.
As to mentions by Lord Roberts, and by Lord Kitchener in his final
despatch, reference is made to the 2nd Battalion.
