TOPIC:

This thread is for non-DoK medals to the Kimberley Light Horse.

From the next City Coins auction, November 2020

Klerksdorp Garrison surrenders, 25 July 1900

“At 9.30pm on the 24th July reports were received that Commandant Liebenberg, with a commando, had arrived “2½ hours” north of the town. Lieutenant White, in his evidence before a Court of Inquiry assembled on 7th September 1900, spoke to receiving such reports from two different sources on the evening of the 24th and immediately reporting the fact by letter to Captain Lambart, who acknowledged its receipt. The latter, however, gave witness no special instructions, as he did not consider there was any urgency in view of the fact that “at present only a small rumour has come in, which is nothing to be alarmed at.”

There would appear to have been no verbal communication as to the course to be adopted in the event of attack.

Captain Lambart subsequently issued orders for all troops, including the civilians, to parade at 4am on the 25th in the market square. At that time no further news had come in, and two natives who had been sent out had not returned. Lieutenant Sheppard, with two men, was out on patrol to the north, having started on the morning of the 24th, but no news had been received from him. Captain Lambart ordered Lieutenant Blagden, with 11 men of the Kimberley Mounted Corps, to go to the north-west kopje, and Lieutenant Purves, with the remainder of the Kimberley Mounted Corps (16 men), to go to a kopje situated a short distance south of Lieutenant Blagden’s and on the other (south) side of the Hartebeestfontein Road.

At daylight, about 250 Boers were seen north-west of the town, and a few (about 20) advanced against the kopje occupied by Lieutenant Blagden and came to a point within 200 yards of it, neither side firing. The remainder, passing behind a kopje some distance to the west of Lieutenant Panes’ kopje, then advanced within 300 yards’ range to the foot of this kopje, and the kopjes to the south of, and commanding it.

Lieutenant Purves would not allow his men to open fire, and retired, thinking he saw Boers coming down the road in his rear. He sent a man in this direction who stayed there for 20 minutes but saw no Boers on the road. Meanwhile Lieutenant Blagden, seeing Lieutenant Purves had retired, became uneasy at the close approach of the small party of Boers referred to above, also retired. Although the party of Boers offered an excellent target, he did not open fire, his excuse for not doing so being that he thought they might be Yeomanry.

Both Lieutenant Purves and Lieutenant Blagden then rode back to the market square and met Captain Lambart there. A Boer with a white flag came in with Lieutenant Blagden and gave a note to Captain Lambart demanding the surrender of the town.

Captain Lambart at once rode out to the Boer Commander and surrendered the town. No shot was at any time fired on either side, and the enemy apparently had no guns though Captain Lambart says he saw two. Lieutenants Blagden and Purves were permitted to resign their commissions.”

CGHGSM (1) Bechuanaland (Corpl. L.C. Blagden. Diam. F. Horse);
QSA (2) CC, Tvl (Lieut. L.C. Blagden. Kim. L.H.)
Engraved naming.

Provenance: Spink Boer War Sale, October 1999.

The CGHGSM has “Cape Naming”, upside-down. Although Blagden’s name does not feature in the surviving portion of the S&A Register, the hand copied Mitchell Medal Issue Register confirms that the medal was issued early in 1905.

Lionel Charles Blagden enlisted as Trooper in the Natal Carbineers on 29 September 1899 and deserted on 1 April 1900. The relevant QSA medal roll notes “No Medal”, resulting in him forfeiting the TugH & RoL clasps. It seems that the desertion did not count against him, because on the same page he is shown as “Lieut. Kim. L. Horse” with a QSA issued from that unit’s roll on 9 Nov 1911. This information is also shown on the QSA roll for the Kimberley Lt Horse where the CC & Tvl clasps are confirmed.

It would be very interesting to know what strings Blagden pulled or what stories he told to obtain a commission in the Kimberley Light Horse so soon after he deserted from the Natal Carbineers! After the surrender of Klerksdorp (as set out above) more than 40 of the Kimberley men were taken prisoner. Blagden himself was kept captive by a wandering commando under Commandant Steenekamp for at least 4 weeks: it is not known where or when he was released.

Picture courtesy of Dixon's Medals

QSA (3) Relief of Mafeking, Orange Free State, Transvaal (474 Trooper. W. Lind. Kimberley Light Horse.) Regimental number officially re-impressed.

Verified on WO100/255p29



£850.00

Picture courtesy of Morton and Eden

QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (Capt: G. C. Corry-Smith, Kim: L.H.), engraved;
KSA (2) (Capt. G. C. Corry-Smith. Kim: LH), officially re-engraved.

Described as:

Gerald Carew Corry-Smith was born on 8 July 1875 in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, Wales, and served during the Second Boer War with the Kimberley Light Horse (rolls confirm). He is also mentioned in ‘The Boer War Casualty Roll’ by Palmer as being slightly wounded in action at Zwartputs 2nd August 1901. Upon the culmination of the war, he transferred to the 4th Battalion Border Regiment on 8 November 1902, and received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant, rising to Lieutenant very soon afterwards. He was then transferred to the Reserve of Officers on 22 July 1908, and was called up once again upon the outbreak of WWI. Despite seeing some service in the Great War with the 3rd Battalion Nigeria Regiment in West Africa (25 June 1915 to 19 February 1916) and at 6th Brigade Headquarters, R.A.F., his M.I.C. and medal roll entries suggest that he did not qualify for WWI entitlement. He is later recorded, in July 1938, as having arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, titled ‘Major G. C. Corry-Smith’. He died in June 1946 in Hove, Sussex

You first need to read the last part of David's post which started this thread.

I recently bumped into LIONEL CHARLES BLAGDEN whilst pursuing 985 Trooper John Fletcher of the Staffordshire Imperial Yeomanry. In 1912 John married Lionel’s sister Agnes. Agnes was a bit stuck for somebody to give her away because her father, the long standing Vicar of Tweedmouth, had died in 1903 and Lionel, her only brother, was in the Transvaal. I could not resist enquiring about Lionel Charles Blagden with his unusual name and an interest in South Africa and discovered the alleged deserter from the Natal Carabineers who made a come back with the Kimberley Light Horse.

The newspapers local to Tweedmouth/Berwick-on-Tweed were very keen on reporting the Boer War and Lionel received a lot of mentions including the report below which gives a different gloss to his move from the Natal Carabineers to the Kimberley Light Horse.



The article appeared in the Illustrated Berwick Journal 21 June 1900. The pertinent lines appear toward the end of the slightly out of focus article:

“After Ladysmith, it was decided that the Natal Carabineers had had more than a full share of hard work, and it was announced that they would be allowed to rest for some time. Mr Blagden was not in the mood to rest, and he applied for a transfer to the Kimberley Light Horse, who happened to be going forward to the Relief of Mafeking, and he was accepted.”

Do we have to presume the vicar’s son was a blagger or did he suffer an injustice by Lt. Colonel Thomas Cox Peakman who signed off the KLH medal roll?

I do not think being a vicar’s son is a notable pedigree (with an apology to any Forum members who are the sons of Vicars), although one would hope it did create an adherence to telling the truth. However, when you realise who is grandfather & great-grandfather were Lionel definitely had a notable pedigree. Respectively they were Surgeon-Accoucheur to Her Majesty Queen Victoria and Secretary of the Royal Society.