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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 5 years 11 months ago #58223

  • Peter Jordi
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Hi

I hope this note concerning Tafelkop and Captain Jeffcoat's will is not too long.

After his death from wounds at Tafelkop, Captain H J P Jeffcoat, RHA Pom Pom Section, is now buried at Frankfort cemetery. He was mentioned in despatches on 25 April 1902 in the London Gazette at page 2765 for Tafelkop.

The termination of the drive on 13 December 1901 brought the columns of Rimington and Damant into the area near the blockhouse line at Heilbron. The blockhouse line from Heilbron and Frankfort was complete and was being pushed eastwards to Tafelkop and Vrede. The force under General Edward Hamilton covering the construction of the line reported on 16 December 1901 that it was meeting Boer resistance. A few members of the East Lancashire Regiment were killed in the vicinity on 16 December 1901. It seems that the Boer council of war determined that the Boer forces should concentrate in the north-east of the Orange River Colony and use their mobility to attack isolated detachments, in particular those covering the extensions to blockhouse lines. (See page 875 of After Pretoria: The Guerrilla War).
`Kitchener, therefore, ordered Rimington and Damant to move out from Heilbron, where they were resting after the drive, and to clear Hamilton’s front. They started on December 17. The force troubling the blockhouse work consisted of 300 men of the Vrede commando, under Wessel Wessels and Commandants Ross and de Kock. Fresh from the Council of War and de Wet’s bellicose exhortations, Wessels was seeking an opportunity for some damaging stroke. His chance occurred on the 20th. At dawn on that day Rimington and Damant, after a difficult night march from Frankfort in thunder, rain and hail, were a little to the north of Tafel Kop, a very conspicuous conical hill rising 600 feet above the plain and commanding a wide view of the Wilge River valley.’ At least two members of the 6th Dragoons, Pte. F Kemp and Pte. W Stanley, were killed by lightening during the approach march to Tafel Kop. ` A report, perfectly well founded, was now received that a commando of 300 Boers was between Tafel Kop and the Wilge. Rimington and Damant arranged accordingly to wheel round the kop and to sweep on a broad front towards the river. The two columns swung around the eastern shoulder of the hill and then separated, but, unfortunately, without keeping touch. Both leaders were accustomed to work together and to take tactical liberties with a persistently evasive foe, but on this occasion, they undervalued their antagonist, who happened to want to fight. Two small tributaries of the Wilge, the Riet Spruit and the Kalk Spruit, rise in the neighbourhood of Tafel Kop, and diverging slightly, joined the main stream about ten and twelve miles, respectively, to the westward of the kop. Rimington rode down the southernmost stream, the Kalk Spruit, and on sighting a party of Boers to the south, threw out his left still further in that direction. Damant advanced in widely extended order along the Riet Spruit. At Sweet Home he came into contact with 100 Boers and pushed them westwards over the farm Bacchante. Here he halted to wait for Rimington, whose nearest troops were now some miles to the south. Damant’s force was a small one, comprising only three weak squadrons of Damant’s “Tigers” [as Damant’s Horse were known] and three companies of Yeomanry (30th, 31st and 91st), about 550 rifles in all, together with two guns of the 30th Battery and a pom-pom. When Damant halted, his line had become inordinately extended. He himself, with his staff, the three guns, a Maxim and an escort composed of the 91st Company of the Yeomanry and 45 Damant’s Horse were nearly at the summit of a long flat-topped hill with a steep descent to the west, overlooking the Wilge. This was about the left centre of the line. “A” Squadron of Damant’s Horse under Lieutenant Guy Wilson, was on the left, at the southern foot of the hill and out of sight. “B” and “C” squadrons were on the right, widely extended, and still further to the right were the 30th and 31st Companies of the Yeomanry. The whole line covered about four miles. From where Damant stood, he and his staff could see the valley of the Wilge, spread out before them and the river itself flowing in its deep fissured bed some three miles to the west. Parties of Boers were seen to be making their way across it or riding up and down the banks. Nor were these the only object of interest. In the plain, about a mile to the right front, five small bodies of mounted troops were drawn up in regular formation. All present seem to have assumed that they were the Yeomanry of General Edward Hamilton, who, from his base at the head of the blockhouse line, had arranged to demonstrate towards Tafel Kop. As they were drawn up in the formation used by Yeomanry the view taken was a natural one. Presently they began to move in a leisurely way towards the hill occupied by Damant, throwing out scouts and skirmishers, who appeared to be dressed in khaki, and actually firing occasional volleys at the Boers near the river. Their course led them close to “B” Squadron of Damant’s Horse, and Captain Scott, which was posted at the northern foot of the long hill on which the guns and staff were situated. Scott felt no suspicion until the squadrons drew near. Then it was suddenly realised that they were Boers, and fire was opened. But it was too late. The perpetrators of this audacious ruse broke into a gallop at the first shot, and, still keeping their general direction, passed Scott’s front and disappeared behind the steep slopes of the hill. Damant, too, had seen them, and in a flash perceived the object of the ruse and the peril of his own small party. He was not occupying the highest point of the hill. Directly to his front a portion of the crest rose to a rugged irregular cone, covered with rocks and long grass and commanding the lower ground where the guns and their escort were posted. The limbers were safe in the rear, on lower ground still. Guessing rightly that the Boers had left their horses on the level and were climbing up the slope to gain the commanding crest, Damant collected some Yeomanry and hurried across to forestall them. The Boers were there before him. Ross, leading the foremost of some 200 men, had already reached the summit and in a few minutes the advanced British party, the guns and the rest of the escort, all being in open ground without a particle of shelter, were under a deadly fire, delivered at short range from behind the excellent cover. The fight that followed rates with Baakenlaagte for the magnificent spirit shown in maintaining a hopeless defence against heavy odds. The guns were worked till the last gunners were shot down at their posts - “they lay,” says an eye-witness, “in heaps round the guns.” The Yeomanry, fighting no less gallantly, were nearly exterminated. Damant was hit in four places; the staff were all killed or wounded; of nine offices on the hill only one was not disabled. This was Lieutenant Maturin, the officer commanding the artillery, who although he received a bullet through his side, resolved to save the limbers and managed to gallop them away with the loss of some of the drivers. He then rode off to communicate with Rimington. (He was mentioned in despatches and received the D.SO. London Gazette April 25, 1902 at page 2765). After nearly an hour’s fighting, the Boers crowded down and took possession. The teams and limbers having disappeared, they could do nothing with the guns, but they smashed the Maxim, rolled the pom-pom over the crest of the hill, and began to pillage the dead and wounded. So suddenly and under such strange circumstances had the affair happened, that a considerable time elapsed before any organised relief could be sent. Rimington, though he had turned northward as soon as he heard the firing, was too far away to be of any use. Guy Wilson, unable to see what was going on, had been so completely deceived that, until he heard of the disaster, he imagined that Damant had ambushed the Boers. Captain Scott, with the two other squadrons of the Damant’s “Tigers”, felt himself not strong enough to assault the position unaided, and some time elapsed before he was able to call in the 30th and 31st Yeomanry from a distant position on the extreme right. As soon as this was done he led the united force against the hill and very gallantly retook it. The Boers made no determined stand and after slight loss fled. Soon afterwards Rimington came up; but the enemy by this time was too far off for pursuit. The British casualties were 78 - 33 killed and 45 wounded - out of a total of 90, which included a detachment of native scouts. Captain Gaussen, commanding the Yeomanry, Captain Jeffcoat, of the staff and Lieutenant Shand, of Damant’s Horse, were killed. Among the wounded were Major Webb, commanding Damant’s Horse, and Lieutenants Armstrong and C. Wilson. The Boer casualties were 20 or 30. Colonel Damant survived his wounds, and ere long was fighting again with as much spirit as before. The incident was one of a sort that was bound to happen occasionally in operations of this kind. If Damant’s line was dangerously extended and Rimington was out of touch, it was because both leaders had found by experience that it generally paid to take such risks. As to the ruse devised by Wessels, the ingenious idea of manoeuvring like Yeomanry and firing at his own men certainly deserved success.’ (Times History V at 413-427).

William M’Kenzie of the 31st Imperial Yeomanry attached to Damant’s column wrote a letter dated 25 December 1901 from Frankfort stating that `the column had accomplished some of the hardest and most trying marches that had yet been done in the country. During a six day’s trek seventy-five miles were covered in one day, and both men and horses were without food for thirty-six hours. This was on account of the waggons falling miles behind when they were endeavouring to hem in a commando of Boers. Innumerable other columns were also in pursuit, but the Boers managed to elude all of them. A number of prisoners, however, along with about 1000 head of fine cattle, were captured.’ The 31st Imperial Yeomanry were placed on the right of a line of attack stretching about two miles in length. Once apprised of the attack on Damant’s men they galloped to the ridge and some `horrible sights - pitiful to look upon - were seen. Twenty-eight fellows were strewn on the ridge around the guns dead. They principally belonged to the Sharpshooters (91st). A large portion of the offices were either killed or wounded, and Major Damant was found stretched beside his guns, shot in five places. Trooper M’Kenzie described the fight as pure murder, the enemy lining the ridge in hundreds, and pouring in a fire from a distance of about 30 yards. The bulk of the casualties were accounted for by explosive bullets. One poor fellow was shot through the left cheek, and the bullet tore away the whole of his lower jaw, while another had a hole in his breast, which would have admitted one’s hand.’ (Dundee Courier, 30 January 1902 at page 5).

It is mentioned in The 3rd County of London (Sharpshooters) Imperial Yeomanry, a history of the corps of Sharpshooters over the period 1900-1905 which included the 91st Squadron of the Imperial Yeomanry, that ‘all the gunners were killed except two who were wounded. Of the Field, Maxim, and Pom-pom detachments, and of the forty officers and men of the Sharpshooters composing the gun escort one officer and man alone were unhit, all the rest were killed or wounded.’ It refers to the Morning Post, which it quotes as saying: ‘No engagement for some time past has been more creditable to the gallantry of the British arms.’ (At 53-54).

Whilst the Boers were in possession of the battlefield it seems clear that they violated the laws of war. ` There is too much reason to believe also, that considerable brutality was shown by those Boers who carried the kopje, and the very high proportion of killed to wounded among the British who lay there corroborates the statement of the survivors that several were shot at close quarters after the resistance had ceased.’ (The Great Boer War, Conan Doyle at 692-3). This is confirmed by a letter published in newspapers at the time:

The Boers and the Red Cross

The following letter has been received by Mr William Maddocks, of Bishop’s Stortford, from his son, Private Arthur Maddocks, of the 16th Lancers, attached to the pompom section of Damant’s column. Writing from “No. 10 Hospital, Norvals Pont, Cape Colony, he gives the following account of the engagement at Tafelkop, Orange River Colony, on the 20th December, when Colonel Damant’s column was surprised and sustained heavy casualties, and incidentally confirms the account of the murder by a Boer of a member of the Ambulance Corps published in the “Times” of the 3rd ultimo, on the authority of the Canadian volunteer:- “Just a few lines to let you know, that my wounds are healing up and that I shall soon be out of hospital again. I was wounded in six places two in the left foot, two in the right hip, one in the right arm, and one through the right lung. They were only 40 of us on the Ridge at Tafelkop, with two guns and one pom-pom, when 800 Boers, charged us. They would give no quarter, shooting us down like rabbits. They shot one of our Red Cross men in cold blood. He was dressing one of the wounded when a Boer fired at him and missed. He stood up and pointed to the red cross on his arm, but the Boer fired again, and the poor fellow fell shot through the heart. I was lying on the ground bleeding a few yards away, and the Boer about four yards away with this occurred. Captain Jeffcoat, who was in charge of our pom-pom, had an explosive bullet in his stomach, and died an hour afterwards. One of our gunners, who was only shot in the left arm, made Captain Jeffcoat’s will, and he left the two survivors £50 each. All were killed except the gunner and myself. One Boer stood about two yards away from me, and was going to blow my brains out when General M Botha came up and ordered him not to shoot me, as I was a brave man. They then left. The other gunner and myself had stuck to the pom-pom to the last, firing point blank until we were both shot. The Boers could not take the guns away, as the drivers had taken the limbers back to camp, and I shot the horses”. (The West Australian, Perth, Saturday, 12 April 1902 at page 2).

Conan Doyle refers in his commentary on Tafel Kop to `those who are caught in the vortex of the cyclone.’

A slightly different version is given in the Coventry Herald of 7 February 1902 of how Captain Jeffcoat came to make out his will:
A Canadian Volunteer, the son of an English clergyman, describing the mishap which occurred to Damant’s Horse at Tafel Kop on December 21, writes: “There were only two out of the 15-pounder guns’ crews who came out unwounded; all the rest were either killed or seriously hurt. They lay around the guns, one with a shell in his hand, another with a sponge, each man at his post doing his duty when he fell - a truly grand picture of pluck. The captain of the pom-pom made his will on the ground before he died, and left £50 to each man of his gun’s crew who survived. There are three to benefit by it, two of them badly wounded.”

The will is held in the Cape Archives under Source MOOC, Type Leer, Volume No. 6/9/444 System 01, Reference 480 Part 1 Description Jeffcoat, Henry Jamison Powell. Will.

Jeffcoat’s will was written into a pocketbook. A covering letter accompanies it:

The Master of the Cape Town
Supreme Court 7th July 1902
Cape Town

Sir,
I beg to hand you herewith pocket book containing the Last Will of the late Captain Henry J. P. Jeffcoat, who was killed at Tafelkop near Heilbron on the 20th December 1901, and in terms of said Will I request that Letters of Administration may be granted to me.

I enclose death notice, stamp 10 S for will and form Letters of Administration as well, also inventory showing that the total assets in the Colony are worth £4056 S.tg

I have the honour to be
Sir,
Your Obedient Servant
ACJ Jeffcoat Capt
Royal Fusiliers

Accompanying it is a note as follows:

I Algernon Cantley Jeffcoat Captain in the Royal Fusiliers declare that Captain Henry Jamieson Powell Jeffcoat who was killed on the 20th December 1901 at Tafelkop near Frankfort in the Orange River Colony was my brother and that I was present when he died. He told me before he died that he had made a will.
I am well acquainted with the signature of my late brother and I declare that the will contained in a pocket-book produced is his will and bears his signature.
A C Jeffcoat (signed)
Royal Fusiliers Master of the Supreme Court 8th February 1902

The Will read as follows:

This is my last Will & Testament
I Ind Gordum [not fully legible] Dark Dickinson Holmes I bequeath these 5 men £50-0-0 clear of succession duty the residue of my estate I bequeath to Algernon Cantley Jeffcoat appoint him ext (illegible) executor of my will.
Signed H D P Jeffcoat Capt. R.A.
Witnesses Driver Arthur James Dark S S - Ind
83861 Shoeing Smith Ind A E R.H.A
25805 Dr Dark A. J R.H.A
12478 ditto Holmes H A.S.C
4303 Collingwood I R.H.A
4303 Maddocks A 16th Lancers

Ind was awarded the Victoria Cross for Tafelkop and Dark was mentioned in despatches for it. 4992 Dvr J Dickenson of `I’ Section Pompom Section, RFA was killed at Tafelkop. 2036 Gnr T Collingwood R.G.A was awarded the DCM for Tafelkop, but there is a reference to 2026 Gnr J Collins 2 Section Pompoms, RFA being dangerously wounded at Tafelkop. 12478 Pte H Holmes ASC was slightly wounded at Tafelkop. 4303 Pvt A B Maddocks 16th (The Queen’s) Lancers suffered a severe wound at Tafelkop. (Palmer, The Boer War Casualty Roll 1899-02 at pages 186, 137, 338, 440.)

Casualty reports were published on Christmas Day in England:
Sad Reading at Christmastide
Colonel Damant’s Fight

Tuesday night’s list contained the following particulars of casualties at Tafel Kop, Orange River Colony, December 20. This was the fight in which Colonel Damant’s forces were engaged at very close quarters with 800 Boers under M. Botha, the enemy having been at first mistaken for squadrons of Imperial Yeomanry. The chief sufferers were Damant’s Horse (formerly Rimington’s Guides) and one of the Sharpshooters’ Companies of Imperial Yeomanry. Our loss seems to have been 27 killed, and 4 since dead: and 30 wounded:-

39th Battery Royal Field Artillery.
Killed:- 32018 Bombr. S. Middleditch, 34636 Bombr. H Clark, 24303 Acting Bombr. H E Balls 57589 F Morgan, 7305 J O’Neil. Severely Wounded:- 6976 Sgt. J Taylor, groin, left arm and head, 12967 Cpl J. W Curran, 52577 J Bromwitch, both thighs, 49214 T Amphlett right groin, left hand. Slightly Wounded:- Lieut R C Maturin, right side; 20133 M Curran, 83040 O’Donoghue.

Royal Field Artillery Pom-Poms
Killed:- Capt H J P Jeffcoat, 8297 Cpl. E G Godwin, 72336 E George, and 4992 J Dickinson.

Royal Horse Artillery
Dangerously Wounded:- 2026 John Collins Wood, hip and ankle.

Damant’s Horse
Killed:- Cpl Thomas Buff [actually Duff], Trp. Alfred B Forsyth, Trp. George F. Melville. Wounded Since Dead:- James Stewart and Daniel Hopkins. Severely Wounded:-Sgt. James Carsons, left shoulder; John E Speechley, face and shoulder; James Combe, groin and arm; Robert Dunham; William Overberg. Dangerously Wounded:- Col. J H Damant, shoulder, stomach, fire and foot; Lucas Maritz, chest and right arm. Slightly Wounded:- Lieut C H A Wilson; Jacob Koen, shoulder; Thomas Gavin, neck; Abraham Lawrence, left side.

30th Co Imperial Yeomanry (Pembroke)
Killed:- 20255 Pte. S M Evans.

31st Co Imperial Yeomanry (Montgomery)
Severely wounded:- F Forrest.

91st Co Imperial Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)
Killed:- Capt. C L Gaussen, 31583 Sergt H S Greenhill [apparently Greensell], 21687 Sergt. E C McKechnie, 31456 Sergt F E Geary, 28390 Corpl. A Grant, 31503 R Fenn, 30019 D L M McGregor, 31426 C J Johnson, 38431 A A Riley, 31462 F New (transferred from 71st Co Imperial Yeomanry), 31444 W J Parker, 32836 H W Norman. Wounded Since Dead:- 33034 G H Conves, 32793 Corpl. H Freakes. Dangerously Wounded:- 33036 F C Williamson. Severely Wounded:- 31464 W D Ballamy, 31566 W J Granger, 31534 E H Gerard, 31543 J W Havers, 29396 W J Heath, 31584 E E Langham, 31457 W S Williamson. Slightly Wounded:- Lieut. l W Armstrong, 31585 A Gray, B A Frost, 21502 T Forrester, 31534 E H Gerard, 33024 H J Gower, 31578 T C Hilliar, 31439 F H Morris, 31555 F Quincey.

Special Signalling Corps
Killed:- Corpl. Boff, Scots Greys, Pte Procter, 11th Hussars. Severely Wounded:- 4856 Pte. Helms, Oxford Light Infantry and W Coombe, 18th Hussars.

Royal Munster Fusiliers (Attached)
Dangerously Wounded:- Capt. G A C Webb.

Cameron Highlanders (Attached)
Wounded Since Dead:- Lieut W J Shand.

(Yorkshire Evening Post 26 December 1901 at page 3).

Also killed was S Sgt. J E Gibbons of the Royal Army Medical Corps.

It was also reported that the Boer losses were much heavier than was at first believed. `According to apparently reliable information the enemy had 14 killed and over 30 wounded.’ (Gloucester Citizen 30 December 1901 at page 4).

An officer’s letter published in the Northampton Herald on 16 February 1902 states:
We had just got back to Frankfort, after a six days’ drive in conjunction with Elliot’s various columns. We were promised an easy time until Christmas, to give the horses a chance to pull round a bit, when General Hamilton, who is superintending the erection of the line of blockhouses between Frankfurt and Standerton via Tafelkop, sent in to say that Roos, Steenkamp, and Grobelaar were holding him up some eight miles short of Tafelkop, and that he could not get on with his blockhouses. He had the East Lancashires, one gun, and the 33rd Yeomanry with him, who covered the building parties. A few men had been shot and more taken prisoners. Though perfectly safe in his intrenched camp, he could not get on with his work; would we come out and clear the situation for him? Rimington, Wilson, and Damant went out as strong as possible, with every horse that could lift a leg after the killing work of the previous week. Just as we started a wire came from Bruce Hamilton saying Louis Botha, with 200 men, mostly in khaki, had gone south to reinforce Roos.

We started at sundown, all the guns on the road in the centre, Damant on the right, Rimington and Wilson on the left; all in columns of troops and closed up together. The weather was awful: thunder, hail, and rain. Twice we were stopped for two hours, each time the horses refusing to face it. The water stood on the veld over the tops of our boots, so every one had to remain mounted. After the second storm cleared off there was a splendid lunar rainbow. On again as soon as the weather would let us, squelching through mud and water. At daybreak, 4 a.m., we were in sight of Tafelkop and made a sweep right round it, keeping the kop on our right hand - Damant extended along the front, Rimington and Wilson massed in support about a mile behind, the 31st on the extreme right next the kop. After about nine or ten miles of this work, driving some small parties of Boers out of farms as we came up to them, Rimington suddenly left us and went off to our left after a big party of Boers. We could hear him shelling away on our left rear, but we continued our circle round the mountain. By this time our front had extended to about seven miles, and no support. I told you I was on the extreme right, and about 7.30 came in sight of the blockhouse camp, about five miles on my right. Soon after, our line halted. … Watching through my glasses, I saw, by the way our shells exploded immediately, they left the guns that we were firing case. Four shots were fired, then about a minute’s heavy musketry, and then I mounted and brought my squadron in towards the centre at a gallop.
On the way I met Scott, of Damant’s Horse, who said all the guns were taken, their staff and escort to guns all killed; would I come and help to retake the guns? As I was mounted I managed to get my lot in front, Scott’s squadron following me, and the 30th behind them. As Scott knew the ground he, with young Smythe, of Damant’s, gave a lead, the ground being bad, stony, and several nasty dongas. As we approach the ridge on which the guns were, the Boers streamed off it - not away from us, but immediately across our front. I changed direction half left and went at an angle at them. Directly they got some cover they began firing at us. … We drove the Boers out of some farm-buildings and off a stony kopje, from behind which they were firing at us. They cleared, leaving the pom-pom and Maxim; and from the ridge I actually thought for some time that I had made a mistake and been fighting our own men; they were addressed in our uniforms and some wore the tiger-skin, the badge of Damant’s Horse, round their hats. After they had got away we went back to the ridge, where the disaster had occurred.
What had happened was this. When Rimington swerved off to our left rear, Damant went straight on, on the original plan of action, his front becoming longer and more attenuated as he went further, until in the centre, with two guns, the pom-pom and the Maxim, there was only left his staff and the gun escort - furnished by the 91st Imperial Yeomanry, under Gaussen. Some half-dozen men as scouts went up the hill, and, finding it, as they thought, unoccupied, Damant and his staff rode up, dismounted, and began looking about through their glasses. He saw Boers on the next ridge and ordered up the guns to fire at them … got his guns into action, and had fired two shots at the far party of Boers, when about two hundred Boers sprang up out of the long grass, all amongst the party, and rushed them. At the same time the Boers on the left, whom Damant mistook for Guy Wilson’s squadron, charged down. Exactly as to what happened then every one has his own yarn, as it appeared to him. The result when we got up to the guns was this - gunners all killed except -- and one corporal (both wounded); pom-pom, officer and men all killed; Maxim, all killed; 91st (the gun escort), one officer and one man not hit, all the rest killed or wounded; staff, every officer hit and nearly all the men.
I had only two men there attached to the staff, both badly wounded; -- had a lucky escape. When Damant saw there was no chance of saving the guns, he told him to get the limbers away. This he did, though he had a bullet in his stomach, with the assistance of one 91st man and some of the drivers. One driver took a limber with its six horses out of fire alone, though hit twice. So both limbers were saved, and the gun horses being got away the Boers could not take the guns or ammunition. … The pom-pom horses were all shot, so they could not get that far before I got in at them and made them drop it, and the Maxim they also dropped. So they took nothing away, not even disarming all the men. They were otherwise engaged robbing the dead and wounded, and in many cases finishing the latter off. … After the surrender the Boers made the unwounded men empty their pockets and then shot them. One native scouts was there; they would not waste lead on him, and amused themselves by beating his brains out. At last Botha rode up and stopped the butchery, actually sjamboking one of his men who was kicking a wounded 91st man about the head. The gunners were piled up on their guns as they fell, but one expects the artillery to do well in a reverse. What pleased me, and I hope will be noticed by those papers at home who indulge in scoffs at the Yeomanry [was] that the gun escort - the 91st Sharpshooters - were all killed or wounded, barring one man who assisted to save the limbers and one officer whose life was saved by Botha as the Boers were putting him up for execution. We buried thirty this morning, and two Inniskillings who got killed by lightening on the return to camp. (Quoted at pages 325-329 in The Call to Arms 1900-1901, H Seton-Karr).
The following user(s) said Thank You: djb, QSAMIKE, Henk Loots, BereniceUK, Sharpshooter

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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 5 years 11 months ago #58237

  • QSAMIKE
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Hello Peter

No additional information or research shared is to long it is just greatly appreciated by us all......

Mike
Life Member
Past-President Calgary
Military Historical Society
O.M.R.S. 1591

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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 3 years 8 months ago #70551

  • Kathy re Coppock
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Hello Peter,

Thank you for this. My Grandpa served in the 91st (Sharpshooters) so was at Tafel Kop. No family reports of injuries sustained and no such injuries reported in paperwork downloaded with his attestation papers from Ancestry. There are medical records with those which record that he went down with severe 'enteric fever' at the end of 1901, admitted to the General Hospital at Norvals Pont, then transferred to the Stationary Hospital at Heilbron 5.2.1902, then shipped to England, arriving 18.3.02. It looks as though he was discharged from hospital in England on 29th March and his discharge papers from the army are dated 19th April "on his own request", probably insufficient time for him to return to service in SA.

Grandpa received three bars aside from the SA 1901 and 1902: Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal. I matched Tafel Kop with Orange Free State. That seems to be correct. I'm searching for the 91st's engagement in Cape Colony.

Kathy

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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 3 years 8 months ago #70554

  • Peter Jordi
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Hi

In the text of my note on Tafelkop given above you will see a mention of The 3rd County of London (Sharpshooters) Imperial Yeomanry, a history of the corps of Sharpshooters over the period 1900-1905. It is a short book dealing with the unit. You may find what you are looking for in that book.

Broadly speaking, an imperial soldier such as your Grandpa, present at any time in the Cape Colony between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902 could expect to receive the Queen's medal with the Cape Colony clasp. The soldier need not have been involved in a specific engagement. The same applies to the Orange Free State clasp, except that the commencement date is later. On the home page to this fantastic site you will see reference to the detailed requirements for the award of the Queen's medals.

Best regards Peter Jordi

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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 3 years 8 months ago #70559

  • Kathy re Coppock
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Hi Peter,

I found a book by Boris Mollo: The Sharpshooters 3rd county of London Yeomanry 1900-1960, Kent and County of London Yeomanry 1961-1970. Could this be the same book, but updated? Or is the book you are referring to by a different author? The above is listed by the Imperial War Museum. Amazon list it here , but currently unavailable.

Best regards,

Kathy

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TAFELKOP: CAPTAIN H J P JEFFCOAT'S WILL 3 years 8 months ago #70560

  • Elmarie
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Elmarie Malherbe
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