TOPIC:

Two more photographs of those involved in the April 1902 engagement at Moolman’s Spruit.

Edward Maxwell Perceval – the man in overall command on 20 April 1902 - photograph taken post Great War and courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery:



Francis Savage Nesbitt Savage-Armstrong – whose diary provided one of the three accounts in the SAMHS article - taken between the ABW and Great War and sporting his QSA & KSA and his Great War grave when he commanded the 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment.



Again moving to the other end of the social spectrum we have 5041 Private Ernest Jerome Rochelle, one of the 28 prisoners who all seem to have been released the same day. Ernest was born in Bloxwich in the Black Country where his father was a hewer of coal. Ernest attested for 12 years service in the South Staffordshire Regiment on 10 May 1897 aged 18 years and 8 months. At the medical he was measured as being 5 ft 3½ inches tall and weighed 9 stone. He gave his occupation as “Collier”. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion who did not leave South Africa until May 1904. Meanwhile in August 1903 his father was crushed underground by a fall of coal in Honey Bank Colliery, Essington near Wolverhampton. They reckon a piece of coal weighing a ton fell directly on him crushing his chest, breaking all his ribs which punctured both lungs. He was rushed to hospital but expired on the way. The 1921 Census found Ernest a married man with five children aged between 3 and 13 and working as a “Coal Miner (hewer)” at Honey Bank Colliery, Essington near Wolverhampton. He lived to be 71.

Good morning Elmarie,

Following the revelations & discoveries of yesterday my mind is full of questions this morning. Many relate to the photo of the plaque (for want of a better word) you posted relating to the 20 April 1902 engagement at Moolman’s Spruit.

Where is the plaque located? – I presume on the site itself, thus does it have any co-ordinates attached to it?

It is attached to a wall which I presume is a rare commodity on farms of the veldt. Thus is it attached to a building once owned by Andries Olivier?

It is dated April 2001. The SAMHS article was published in June 2001. Is the proximity of these dates a coincidence or was there a group of people taking an interest in the 1902 engagement in 2001?

Whilst the number of British Prisoners are mentioned there is no mention of the numbers wounded – based on the SAMHS article this would be 15 British and 51 (53-2) Boer. Why?

So is the purpose of the plaque to commemorate the 10 fallen and/or to obliquely say on 20 April 1902 the Boers very much got the better of the British?

Regards, David.

David,

The community erected a monument a few years ago to all those who died in the battle of Moolmanspruit. Pres M.T. Steyn of the Orange Free State's great-grandson Adv Colin Steyn unveiled the plaque during a tour of the battlefields.

Elmarie, thanks for the clarification – the photo would suggest the site of the engagement was some way in the distance on the photo posted by EFV.

Just trying to identify the 15 British wounded. The three officers were all Lieutenants in the IY and were baptised Francis Arthur Montague Rawes, Ernest William Thain & William Halfenden Selfe Leonard. The last two were in the 3rd (Gloucestershire) Company of the 1st Battalion IY. Rawes originally enlisted in February 1901 as a Trooper in the 27th (Devonshire) Company, 7th Battalion IY and was commissioned later in the year to the 1st Battalion IY where, according to Medal Rolls, he served on the Battalion Staff.

Rawes had a rather remarkable life:

Born in 1882 in Cornwall and raised in Devon. Attended Sherborne School. After the ABW he returned to England in June 1902 on the Orcana. In 1906 he returned to South Africa and married in Pretoria the following year. Then back to England where he tried his hand at poultry farming in Cambridgeshire. In early 1914 he sold the farm and went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where he tried his hand as a Tea Planter. In 1915 he returned to England and enlisted and served in France as a pilot in 53 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. By the end of the Great War he was stationed at Polegate Airship Station in Sussex piloting airships.

He divorced in 1919 and remarried 3 years later. Not sure what he did for the next period but in WW2 he served at home in the RAF and ended the war commanding No 2 Motor Transport Company as shown in the photo below, where he is centre of the front row. He died in Chichester, Sussex in 1960.



His biographer on Ancestry is aware he was wounded at Moolman’s Spruit and has attached the photo of the 2001 Plaque to his profile.

Finally I can confirm, despite their lack of mention in any of the three accounts in the SAMHS article, that the MIC of the 1st Worcesters were definitely involved on 20 April 1902 and their man who was wounded was 2933 Private George Payne, who was born in the Black Country in Staffordshire.