Three – CGHGS medal one bar: Bechuanaland (Pte. H.S. Tytherleigh, D.E.O.V.R.); QSA five bars: RoK, Paard, Drief, Joh, DiaH (3213 Serjt. H.S. Tytherleigh. Kitchener’s Horse); KSA two bars: SA’01 & SA’02 (571 S.Q.M. Sjt. H.S. Tytherleigh. Border Scouts.)
The well known Pretoria military researcher Dewald Nel is currently endevouring to tie up the story of one of my “Duke”recipients who served with Robert’s Horse but here is writeup of another recipient who served with Kitchener’s Horse.
David Biggins has previously posted a photograph of the medal trio.
Much even most of the movement of the various mounted units in which Herbert Tytherleigh served are quoted directly from Stirling’s Colonials in South Africa and his movement from being a member of an Infantry Unit (The Dukes) gives a good illustration of the extent to with many colonials served during the war. Besides any political convictions the opportunity to take part in a wild adventure with horse and rifle, and also to be paid a fair salary, was of course a fairly attractive proposition for many young men of that era.
Herbert Stanley Tytherleigh was born in Surrey, England on 27 February 1873. He was the eldest son of Charles Tytherleigh and Ann Penelope Watkins who were married in the Old Church, Saint Pancras in London on 20 November 1864. Herbert’s father Charles is recorded in the 1891 Census as being a ‘Butcher’ and that is the ‘trade’ recorded alongside his name when Herbert first travelled to the Cape Colony aged 23 years aboard the Athenian which departed from Southampton on 14 November 1896. He initially settled in Graaff Reinet but then moved to Prince Albert in the Cape Colony where he married Grace Maria Emma Dyason on 29 July 1901. Grace was the daughter of John Dyason who was born in Cape Town on 23 February 1838 and Gertrude Catherina Botes who was born in Prince Albert on 23 October 1834. Herbert was recorded as a “Store Clerk” on his marriage certificate. He later became a civil servant being employed as a Mining Claims Inspector. He died as a result of valvular heart disease in Bloemhof in the Transvaal on 13 May 1942. He was survived by his wife Grace who died on 21 November 1955. It would seem that she and her husband Herbert had no children. Herbert was clearly a keen Mason and had been initiated into the Royal Edward Lodge, Lodge No 3070, in Christiana in the Transvaal on 3 June 1919. He is later recorded as serving as the Right Worshipful Master of the Bloemhof Lodge (No 1250) in 1933-34.
Herbert is included in a named photograph held in the Cape Archives under AG7838/75 titled “Field and Administrative Staff, Diamond Rush, Lichtenburg, Transvaal.” in which he is described as a “Claim Inspector”.
Herbert served with the Dukes in Bechuanaland in 1897 and although nothing further is known about his voluntary military service at that time one might presume that he continued serving in the Regiment and was one of those pre-war members of the Dukes who were transferred to serve with Kitchener’s Horse during the Anglo Boer War taking part in the Relief of Kimberley and subsequently the Battle of Paardeberg and the occupation of Bloemfontein before continuing on the march northwards to Pretoria. The clasps earned on his five bar QSA medal are the same as those earned by his Dukes “colleague” Lieutenant Arthur Strachan.
It seems however that perhaps his initial war service during the Anglo Boer war (although possibly not active) was with the Oudtshoorn Rifles. After all it is known that he settled in Graaff Reinet and married in Prince Albert in July 1901.
He later served as a Sergeant (No 3213) with Kitchener’s Horse with whom he earned his five claps on his QSA medal before being discharged on 18 December 1900 serving until his “time expired”. From his clasp entitlement it is clear that he joined Kitchener’s Horse in December 1899 and served for his full enlistment period of 12 months. Kitchener’s Horse was formed, chiefly “from men who have found their way to South Africa from various parts of the world”. It was initially intended to call Kitchener’s Horse and Robert’s Horse “The second and third regiments of the South African Light Horse”, but their name was changed as a compliment to the new Commander-in-Chief and his chief of the staff. Both Kitchener's Horse and Roberts' Horse were employed in the operations undertaken by Lord Roberts in February 1900 for the Relief of Kimberley and in his advance to Bloemfontein; but one squadron of Kitchener's Horse was left on the lines of communication, and was utilised as part of the force with which Lord Kitchener and General Settle put down the rebellion in the Prieska district during March and April.
On 9th February the Mounted Infantry Division, under Colonel Hannay, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, left Orange River station. After some fighting, the Division reached Ramdam on the 12th, where Lord Roberts was concentrating his army; but the bulk of Kitchener's Horse had preceded the rest of the Mounted Infantry, and had joined General French before midnight on the 11th. At 2 AM on the 12th they set out with French for Dekiel's Drift, on the Riet. On the 13th, General French, who had crossed the Riet River on the 12th, left a squadron of Kitchener's Horse at Blaauwbosch Pan, about eight miles north-east of Dekiel's Drift, on the Riet, in order to protect the wells until the infantry, who were following, should arrive. Unfortunately, the infantry took a different course, and instead of them a large force of Boers turned up, who attacked the squadron and compelled their surrender after they had made a very creditable defence in a farmhouse for two days. Lieutenants Carstens and Buchanan were killed in action about this time. Another squadron was part of the slender escort of the convoy which was lost on the Riet on the 13th. The convoy is said to have been seven miles long, and the escort, left to see it over a most difficult drift with Boers all round, was 300 strong. The escort was not captured. Notwithstanding this bad luck, the corps did excellent work before Bloemfontein was reached. About one half of the regiment was with Colonel Hannay when Cronje was discovered to be trekking across the front of the Vlth Division on 15th February, and they took part in the pursuit and the other operations which led to his capture. On 7th March they were engaged at Poplar-Grove. Five officers and five non-commissioned officers and men gained mention in the despatch of 31st March for good work on the way to Bloemfontein. According to the official statement, the strength of the corps when it entered Bloemfontein on 13th March was 26 officers, 402 men, 270 horses, and 2 maxims.
About the beginning of March Kitchener's Horse had been, along with the 6th and 8th Regiments of Regular Mounted Infantry, the City Imperial Volunteers Mounted Infantry, Nesbitt's Horse, and the New South Wales Mounted Infantry, put into the 2nd Brigade of Mounted Infantry under Colonel P. W. J. Le Gallais, 8th Hussars, a splendid officer, who led his brigade to victory on many occasions, but who afterwards fell at Bothaville, 6th November 1900, in the moment of success. The regiment fought with Le Gallais and General Tucker at the battle of Karee Siding on 29th March 1900, and they were attached to Ian Hamilton's force, which, towards the end of April, set out first to clear Thabanchu and thereafter take part in the northern advance, during which the regiment, along with the 2nd Mounted Infantry Regulars and Lovat's Scouts, was in the 6th corps under Colonel Legge, who was afterwards killed at Nooitgedacht.
Mr Churchill, in his Ian Hamilton's March relates that on 26th April Kitchener's Horse and a company of regular mounted infantry were told to hold a kopje near Thabanchu for the night, but about dusk they were ordered to retire. This the Boers endeavoured to prevent, attacking the force with great determination: however, the attack was driven off, and the little body got into camp during the night. Captain F J Warren was severely wounded, 1 man killed, and several wounded. On the 30th, at the battle of Houtnek, the regiment, with great boldness and skill, seized Thoba Mountain, and it was during the enemy's attempt to regain this commanding position that a party of about 12 Gordon Highlanders and 13 of Kitchener's Horse under Captain Towse of the Gordons made the famous stand and bayonet charge. The incident is admirably described in Ian Hamilton's March by Mr Churchill, who was a spectator. Captain Towse, blinded by a bullet in the hour of triumph, was awarded the Victoria Cross. Lieutenants Parker and Munro and 5 men of Kitchener's Horse were killed, and Captains Ritchie and Cheyne and 8 men were wounded at Houtnek. In his telegram of 2nd May Lord Roberts remarked: "Kitchener's Horse is spoken of in terms of praise". On 4th May Ian Hamilton was again engaged, "and succeeded in preventing a junction of two Boer forces by a well-executed movement of some of the Household Cavalry, 12th Lancers, and Kitchener's Horse, who charged a body of the enemy and inflicted serious loss. They fled leaving their dead on the field, and their wounded to be attended by our doctors" (see Lord Roberts' telegram of 2nd May). In this affair Lieutenant Patrick Cameron was mortally wounded. The Standard correspondent drew attention to the good work of the regiment at the crossing of the Zand River on 10th May.
The regiment was present at Ian Hamilton's other actions on the way to Pretoria and at Diamond Hill (11th and 12th June). They started as a portion of Hunter's force designed to surround Prinsloo, but like Roberts' Horse were detached to pursue De Wet. On 24th July the regiment lost 9 men wounded at Stinkhoutboom. but about the same date they captured 5 of De Wet's waggons. When De Wet left the Reitzburg Hills Kitchener's Horse again crossed to the north of the Vaal and operated under Ridley, Hart, Clements, and other commanders in the district west of Johannesburg and Pretoria. In the despatch of 10th October 1900 Lord Roberts mentioned that "De Lisle's corps of mounted infantry was withdrawn from Clements' column and moved by rail on 17th September to Rhenoster, where it was joined by 250 men of Kitchener's Horse from Kroonstad". The work of De Lisle's men is briefly sketched under the 1st and 2nd New South Wales Mounted Infantry. This portion of Kitchener's Horse took part in the pursuit of De Wet on the south side of the Vaal and other operations under General C Knox in the Kroonstad district during September, October, and November, and were present on 27th October when 2 guns were captured at Rensburg, and in the very successful action of Bothaville on 6th November when 6 guns, a pom-pom, a maxim, and 130 prisoners were taken.
Another portion of the corps was employed in the Eastern Transvaal, and frequently had odd casualties about Brugspruit in September and the first half of October. They took part in French's march from the Delagoa Railway to Heidelberg in October 1900, — a march which only a great leader could have brought off successfully, having regard to the strength of the enemy in the district at the time. The fighting was continuous and the strain on all most severe. In Lieutenant Colonel Watkin-Yardley's 'With the Inniskilling Dragoons', page 217, speaking of the arrival of the force at Heidelberg, he says: "Lieutenant Elphick, with his troop of Kitchener's Horse, which had requested to be attached to the Inniskillings at Machadodorp, and fought gallantly with us throughout the march, also left the column". On this march the troop lost Sergeant Hunter killed, 2 wounded, and 2 missing.
A detachment which had remained in the Gatsrand and Krugersdorp district on the north side of the Vaal operated throughout September with Clements and Ridley, and had sharp fighting under General Hart on 23rd and 24th November 1900, when they lost 2 men killed.
This portion of the regiment was with General Clements when he was attacked and met with disaster at Nooitgedacht in the Megaliesberg on 13th December 1900. It will be remembered that a high hill commanding the camp, and which was garrisoned by 4 companies of the 2nd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, was assaulted by the enemy in great force and was captured. Kitchener's Horse and the 2nd Battalion Mounted Infantry were on the west or left front of the camp; the enemy attacked upon this side in the most determined manner, and although some pickets were captured or wiped out entirely, the attack on the west was driven off, the enemy losing very heavily in his endeavour to push into the camp from that direction. When, however, it was seen that the high hill commanding the camp had been captured by the enemy, the General decided to retire. With difficulty General Clements got away his guns and most of his ammunition, but the camp was left standing and some stores were lost. The losses of Kitchener's Horse were severe: Lieutenant Skene and 8 men were killed, and Captain Stevenson and about 12 men wounded and about 40 taken prisoners. Some of the latter were wounded. Several mentions were gained by the corps on this occasion, and those who were present praised very highly the conduct of Kitchener's Horse and their old comrades the 2nd Battalion Regular Mounted Infantry, also the 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
The regiment, sadly reduced in numbers, operated in the second phase of the war chiefly in the Western Transvaal, and had a few casualties on various occasions. A reference in the despatch of 8th May 1901 to a very valuable bit of work by men of Roberts' Horse and Kitchener's Horse has already been quoted under the former corps. Both regiments were for a time in a column under Colonel Hickie (despatch of 8th July 1901), and continued to do good work in the Transvaal. On 8th and 9th July both Roberts' and Kitchener's Horse were sharply engaged and suffered casualties. They were, during the next few months, constantly in touch with the enemy, and often suffered losses, as on 4th November 1901, when Kitchener's Horse had 5 men wounded at Vaalbank.
After his service with Kitchener’s Horse Herbert Tytherleigh then served as Quarter Master Sergeant No 165 with Warren’s Mounted Infantry from 19 January 1901 to 23 July 1901.
This corps, (Warren’s Mounted Infantry) which was about 3 squadrons strong, was raised in December 1900, and was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel F J Warren, who had seen service as a Captain with Kitchener’s Horse.
Warren's MI were in the western district of Cape Colony in April 1901, and the despatch of 8th July 1901 shows that in May and following months 2 squadrons were attached to the column commanded by Colonel Henniker, afterwards by Colonel Doran, the principal work of which was to pursue scattered commandos. Sometimes a few prisoners were taken, but the corps do not seem to have been in any satisfactory stand-up fight.
Captain Bates was wounded at Oorlogspruit on 8th June, Lieutenant J T Jansen and Sergeant Pearson were killed at Platt Drift on 15th June, and there were some other slight casualties at different times. The whole of the war service of the corps was in Cape Colony.
Herbert Tytherleigh then joined the Border Scouts and served with them as Squadron Quarter Master Sergeant (No’s 37849 and 571) from 31 August 1901 to 31 July 1902. Here one may note that he evidently returned to his home in Prince Alfred where he got married on 29 July 1901 – A month later he was back in the saddle with the Border Scouts!
The Border Scouts were originally raised at Upington in May 1900 as a local defence force.
In November 1901 the Border Scouts were ordered to return to the north-western district, as several commandos had moved north. On this trek they had a running fight with Van Reenan's commando, but owing to the horses being in a miserable condition only two prisoners were captured. They arrived in Upington in December, after having been as far south as Piquetberg Road Station. On one occasion they had been snowed up for three days in the hills near Sutherland.
The regiment received no pay during the time it was on column, and Major Birkbeck (4th Scottish Rifles), the commander, found on his return to Upington that all communication between that place and De Aar had been cut for several months. The wire was down for miles, and post-carts had been captured by the enemy, while there was hardly enough food for the garrison for one month, apart from the civilian population; lastly, there were not twenty pounds of money in the town. Meat rations became the order of the day, and remained so until the corn ripened at Keimoes, on the banks of the Orange, thirty miles from Upington. At this time there were about 600 rebels under arms in the district, while several commandos were being pushed into it by the columns in the south. On one occasion at this time 60 Border Scouts, under Captain Bracy Ramsbotham, DSO, did a good piece of work. They had gone out to get sheep, and, hearing of the enemy, they succeeded in ambushing a party of 80 Boers under Conroy. The enemy fled, almost after the first volley, being completely surprised. They left 15 dead and 8 severely wounded.
The regiment not having drawn any pay for many months, and the authorities stating it was impossible to get money safely through, Major Birkbeck decided to make his own money. A block stamp was cut out of wood to represent a jackal, as that animal's skin was worn on the men's hats. Underneath was written, "Issued by Paymaster Border Scouts, pay to Bearer"; then signature, John Birkbeck, Major, OCBS. The notes were issued for £5, £2, 10s, and 2s on cloth, and as few of the men could read, ink of a different colour was used for each value. Cloth, like everything else, began to run out, so that in the end blinds, bed-sheets, and table-cloths were commandeered and torn up to make into money. £45,000 worth was issued and in circulation. It was the current coin of the district, the Post Office and Savings' Bank accepting it. The Civil Commissioner used it, while the traders took it or gave it as change. The notes were not redeemed until after peace was declared. Many were cashed far from the district; for example, the Standard Bank alone cashed many hundreds at Cape Town, and a few were presented even in Natal.
In January 1902 General Smuts came into the district to organise the Boer forces: he had the commandos of Maritz, Latagan, Conroy, and Louw. The Border Scouts were now divided as follows: 350 at De Aar for convoy duty, 50 at Prieska, 150 at Kenhardt, and a like number at Upington. The only other troops at these last two towns were Native Town Guards, each 100 strong, armed with very old rifles, mostly useless. Conroy seized this opportunity to reap the harvest at Keimoes, for the ripening of which Upington had been wearying. News came that he was cutting the wheat and building trenches on the kopjes. He had with him about 100 men. The same evening Major Birkbeck marched for Keimoes with 100 of the Scouts mounted on half-starved horses. He arrived at Keimoes while it was still dark; dividing his force, he crept up the kopjes occupied by the enemy. At the first sign of dawn Captain Tabuteau shot a Boer who stood up within a yard of where he himself was hiding, and in a few seconds, it was found that Boers and Border Scouts were lying mixed up amongst the rocks. No one could move an inch. Unable to move, both parties lay still all day, and when it was dusk orders were shouted to the Scouts to fix bayonets and be ready to charge: a previous signal had been arranged and a place to reassemble fixed. The latter signal having been given after dark, and the Scouts having reassembled, some men were sent into the village of Keimoes: they found that the Boers had fled. Captain Tabuteau remained out with 50 men, the others returning to Upington; 3 Boers were buried on the following morning. The Border Scouts lost 2 mortally wounded, and 20 others slightly wounded. The regiment now brought in and stored at Upington 1500 sacks of grain—a task which could not have been accomplished but for the marvellous scouting which prevented all interference with the working-parties or enabled them to beat off the attacks. Much has been heard lately of the qualities needed in scouts. A British officer who served with this regiment says that the men could always tell whether distant dust was made by ostriches, springbok, locusts, or mounted men, and never made a mistake in their judgment. If a party of horsemen had passed over the road, they could roughly estimate the number, and could tell how many horses were ridden and how many led. They travelled by night as easily as by day, always going straight across country and never on the track. Not a waggon of any sort accompanied the regiment, the blanket being under the saddle and an overcoat strapped in front. They carried no cooking-pots nor food, as when on trek they only used meat. Spare ammunition was carried on horses.
The regiment's record is one of which they had every reason to be proud. They lost 1 officer killed and 1 wounded, 19 non-commissioned officers and men killed and over 100 wounded, but not a single man ever surrendered, although many times an unwounded man lay by a wounded comrade till dark. Not a single despatch rider was caught, although several got in only on wounded horses or on foot. These despatch riders had to cross from Kenhardt to Upington and Prieska once or twice a week, often on starved horses.
Various Archival references in the Transvaal refer to H.S. Tytherleigh, namely “Subsistence and Transport Allowance”; “Leave Application”; “re: Motor Bicycle”; and perhaps “Transfer of Mr Tytherleigh to Vereeniging”. So there is still some research to do.
At the age of 50 years Herbert visited Britain with his wife returning to South Africa aboard the SS Barrabool on 6 September 1923.
He died whilst living in the Transvaal on 13 May 1942.
RobM
