TOPIC:

Gilbert Wyndham Bankes-Price

Trooper, Matabeleland Relief Force - Rhodesia 1896
Private, Imperial Light Infantry
Private, Utrecht – Vryheid Mounted Police – Anglo Boer War

- British South Africa Company Medal, Rhodesia 1896 Reverse to TROOPR. G. PRICE – BANKS. M.R.F.
- Queens South Africa Medal (Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek) to 868 PTE. G. PRICE. IMPL: LT INFY

With a mouthful of double-barrelled names and odd spelling to contend with, the naming of Bankes – Price’s medals was always going to present a challenge to the clerks in the medal office – and so it proved to be, with Bankes – Price becoming Price – Banks, Bankes and plain old Price, just for good measure. It would seem that the gentleman in question, unlike many of his peers who were more exacting and fastidious, was comfortable with the way his medals were named – he probably experienced similar confusion in his daily life.

Gilbert Wyndham Bankes – Price was born in Coedkernow, Monmouthshire, Wales on 10 December 1870, the third son of John Bankes – Price, Rector of Llandwrog, Carnarvon, and his wife Lucy Elizabeth. He was baptised as Gilbert Windham (to further muddy the waters) on 21 January 1871.


Where it all began - the Rectory at Llandwrog

According to the 1871 Wales census he was a three month old baby visiting in the very busy household of Mrs Mary Jenkins, an Annuitant, of 2 Victoria Place in Newport. He was, fortunately, not alone but with his mother and siblings – William Hughes (9), Evelyn Lucy (7), Sydney Herbert (5) and Florence Margaret (2). Of his father there was no sign, the assumption being that he was busy at home with pastoral concerns.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1881 Wales census, Gilbert was 10 years old and a Scholar. There was a Governess to attend to the children’s education. The entire Bankes – Price family were at the Rectory in Llandwrog. William, the eldest child, was an undergraduate at Oxford who would later become Britain’s Vice Consul in Chicago. Sydney was away from home but he too would rise in the world, becoming a respected Medical Practitioner in Wandsworth, London. Evelyn Lucy and Florence Margaret were at home – both these damsels were to perish together as spinsters in a house fire in Slindon, Sussex on 30 April 1946.

According to the 1891 Wales census 20 year old Gilbert had spread his wings and was now a Boarder in the house of Maria Davies of 31 George Street in Swansea. He was a Bank Clerk by occupation and the only resident other than the proprietor.

At some point in the 1890’s GW (for so shall we call him) decided that a more adventurous life lay in his future and he boarded ship for South Africa. Having arrived he set off for Johannesburg which was a thriving town and the hub of the flourishing gold mining industry. It was also the home of the Uitlanders – those, primarily of British antecedents, who were the financial backbone to Kruger’s Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, although being roundly despised by him.

Just to the north of the ZAR (or Transvaal) was the wide and open expanses of Africa and, in particular, the territory which would become known as Rhodesia – the home of the Ndebele and Mashona tribes and one which Cecil John Rhodes and his British South Africa Company was beginning to subjugate in the interests of the Empire.

Having wrought huge territorial and other concessions from the Ndebele Chief Lobengula, Rhodes and his Charter Company (as it was known) actively encouraged adventurers. Prospectors and settlers to the country. This influx of white foreigners didn’t sit well with the Matabele and a short war was fought in 1893 which routed Lobengula and his men who sued for peace.

The peace achieved was however, temporary as the Matabele threat had never been entirely dealt with and, in 1896, they rose again, murdering a number of European traders and storekeepers before deciding to move on the larger settlements of Salisbury and Bulawayo. These went into laager in an effort to protect themselves.

GW, no doubt intrigued by the reports coming out of Rhodesia, decided to head north and enlist in the Matabeleland Relief Force. The pay offered was 1s. 6d. per day (including rations) for troopers, whilst that of other ranks was in proportion. Recruiting was commenced at Kimberley and Mafeking on the 6th April, with the exception of 150 men and 163 horses raised at Johannesburg, of whom GW could well have been one. The original strength of the Force to be raised was set down at 500; but this, under instructions from the High Commissioner, was afterwards increased to 750, in order to include those of the B.S.A. Company's Police who had been sent to England after the Jameson Raid and were on their way out in detachments. There was no difficulty in obtaining the requisite number of men for immediate active service, and the fact that the first troop left Mafeking on the 12th April 1896 — only five days after the enrolment of the first recruits — shows plainly enough that no time was lost.

The main relief force, known as the Matabeleland Relief Force was commanded by Colonel Plumer and took until May 14, 1896, to arrive in Bulawayo. A second column from Salisbury consisted of 150 mounted men under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Beal of the Rhodesia Volunteer Horse set out on the 18th April having been delayed by the difficulty in finding oxen for the wagons due to the rinderpest outbreak. After engagements with the Matabele the column relieved Gwelo on May 1 and continued to join up with the Matabeleland Relief Force eventually reaching Bulawayo on June 2nd.

At Macloutsie the force was reorganised into squadrons, each squadron consisting of three troops, and this organisation was retained throughout the Campaign. The necessity of driving the enemy from the vicinity of Bulawayo, as a preliminary move, was immediately obvious to Colonel Plumer. On the 20th May therefore, the mounted troops of the M.R.F., with the exception of D and E Squadrons, were all concentrated round Khami River Fort. On the morning of the 24th the Column moved into Bulawayo, accompanied by a motley crew of natives, in every conceivable style of dress and undress, but for the most part armed with rifles. From the earliest hours of morning the Bulawayans had been straining eager eyes along the road to convince themselves of the actual presence of the longed-for relief force.



Plumer finally reached Bulawayo on May 24. Assisted by Macfarlane’s Bulawayo Field Force Corps, the Matabeleland Relief Force began scouring the Umguza River area, skirmishing as they rode. Within a week, two British officers, Maj. Gen. Sir Frederick Carrington and Colonel Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, arrived to take overall command of the various Matabeleland units and relief columns.

Carrington had barely settled into his headquarters when a Zulu informer brought news of the M’limo‘s secret cave in the Matopo Hills. At Baden-Powell’s recommendation, two scouts, Fred Burnham and Bonnar Armstrong, were chosen to penetrate the Ndebele defences and assassinate the M’limo. Riding by night, the two scouts located the medicine man, surprising him as he entered his dwelling. After a well-placed shot, Burnham and Armstrong took to their heels. Setting several thatched huts ablaze as a diversion, they managed to reach their horses.

With the death of the M’limo, Carrington ordered Plumer’s force to proceed to Inyati, northeast of Bulawayo. There was evidence that a large Ndebele contingent was in force at Tabis-I-Mhamba, just to the north. On June 29, Plumer’s column of 752 troops, supported by two 2.5-inch mountain guns, departed from Bulawayo along the Gwelo Road. After several uneventful days of travel, they approached the tortuous collection of kopjes and brush land that made up the Tabas-I-Mhamba locale. On the night of July 4, the column eased past Ndebele outposts and took up positions. Plumer’s combined infantry and cavalry attacked at 5:30 a.m. on the 5th, plunging into the brush and carrying several fortified kopjes in vicious hand-to-hand combat. Horsemen cut off lanes of retreat. By noon, the fighting was over. Plumer lost two-dozen men killed and wounded. Ndebele casualties were estimated at 100, and the troopers captured about 500 women and children, 1,000 cattle and more than 2,000 sheep and goats.

By early August, Plumer and Baden-Powell had engaged several Ndebele detachments in the Matopo Hills, and had put them to flight. On August 5, they encountered Sikombo Mguni’s ibutho holding a mountain pass near the Tuli Road. Fighting dismounted, the troopers scrambled over steep ridges and through treacherous ravines.

The Ndebele tried to outflank the mountain guns, wounding the gunnery officers as they attacked. Coming under fire from a series of kopjes, Plumer ordered his native troops and dismounted horsemen under Major F.E. Kershaw to attack uphill. ‘The ascent was extremely difficult,’ Plumer noted, ‘the men having to climb over immense boulders and rocks.’ Once the beleaguered Matabeleland Relief Force contingent reached the summit, a swirling battle in heavy brush developed before the defenders retreated.

Plumer remained in the hills for two more days, reconnoitring the kopjes and receiving a few scattered shots from tribal snipers in the process. By then, peace feelers were being sent to the izinduna. For all practical purposes, the fighting in Matabeleland ground to a halt. Forts were still constructed in strategic locations, and Carrington ordered Baden-Powell to sweep the area to the northwest of Bulawayo for recalcitrant amabutho.

On August 18, envoys of the izinduna Sikombo and Inyanda arrived in the colonial camp, requesting a peace meeting. Three days later, Cecil Rhodes met with Sikombo, Inyanda and nearly 40 other tribal and district chiefs. In a four-hour session, the Ndebele voiced their grievances and requested an end to the fighting. By August 28, Rhodes had arranged a meeting with Dholi, Mlosi and other izinduna in the eastern Matopos. The Ndebele were persuaded to turn in their arms so they could begin the planting season. Baden-Powell’s fast-paced sortie along the Shangani River netted several izinduna who were less anxious to surrender. The rebellion was effectively over and the M.R.F. was disbanded in October 1896.

For his role in the affair, GW was awarded the BSAC medal which was posted to him at the address provided – the Transvaal Arms – a hotel in Joubert Street, Johannesburg.

With the fighting at an end GW headed south, making his way to Durban on the east coast of Natal. Already, at that stage, South Africa and her constituent parts were beginning to hear the faint sounds of war drums in the distance. The volume gradually increased and the sabre rattling between Great Britain and the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State erupted into full-scale war on 11 October 1899 with Boer Commandos streaming over their joint borders with the Colonies of Natal and the Cape, laying siege to the towns of Mafeking and Kimberley in the Northern Cape and Ladysmith in Natal.

The number of Regular army troops on the ground in South Africa was proving woefully inadequate to stem the advancing Boers and the call went out for the raising of irregular corps among the local population to assist in the war effort. One such was the Imperial Light Infantry – said to be comprised of the “overflow” of recruits to the more prestigious Imperial Light Horse, it too contained Uitlanders who had fled the Transvaal as war was looming, heading to Pietermaritzburg and Durban from where they joined its ranks.

GW completed the attestation papers for service with the ILI at Durban on 20 November 1899. Assigned no. 868 and the rank of Trooper, he was described as being 5 feet 6 inches in height, weighing 142 lbs and with a dark complexion, grey eyes and medium coloured hair. In a passing reference to his MRF service he gave his former regiment as the “Volunteers.”

The command of the ILI was given to Lieutenant Colonel Nash (Border Regiment) and by the end of December 1899 the regiment was ready for active service. The Imperial Light Infantry saw comparatively little training and no fighting until they were thrown into the awful combat on Spioen Kop on 24th January 1900. About 1000 strong, they paraded at 10 pm on 23rd January, and, as ordered, took up positions from which they could reinforce General Woodgate, who commanded the force detailed to capture the hill.

Sir C Warren visited the regiment early on the morning of the 24th, and asked the officers if they had seen anything of a mountain-battery which he was expecting. He requested that 2 companies be sent forward to a specified point to be ready to escort the battery to the summit when it arrived. The companies of Captains Champney and Smith moved out at 6 am and waited as ordered for the battery, but about 9 am a staff-officer told them to reinforce immediately on the summit. The 2 companies advanced and reached the top shortly after 10 am.

At this hour the enemy's fire was appalling, the hail of bullets and shells being ceaseless, but these untried volunteers are said to have pushed up to the shallow trench and the firing-line beyond it without flinching. They at once commenced to suffer very severe losses. These 2 companies were the first reinforcements to enter the firing-line, and their arrival proved most opportune, some Lancashire companies being very hard pressed at this time and at this part of the position.



About mid-day Colonel Nash was ordered to reinforce on the summit with "every available man". About 2 pm he reached the top with his remaining companies, who at once bolted out from the rocks at the head of the ascent and fed the firing-line, pushing forward fearlessly across the open. Throughout the afternoon and evening the firing was unceasing, and often at very close quarters; after dark it had died away. The regiment having been collected, fell in and marched off. They had barely gone 200 yards, however, when an officer said to Colonel Nash, "Where are you going?" The latter replied that he had been ordered to take down the regiment. The other officer then said, "I am Colonel Hill of the Middlesex; not a man or regiment is to leave the hill". The officers of the Imperial Light Infantry then said to their men that a mistake had been made, and the column 'about turned', marched back to the place they had come from, put out pickets, and lay down among the dead and wounded.

The worst feature of this very trying experience was the ceaseless crying of the wounded for water: there was none on the hill. During the night a staff-officer informed Colonel Nash that he had better bring down his men before dawn if no fresh troops or orders came up. Between 3 am and 4 am the regiment was again collected and finally left the hill. No Boers had ventured on to the hill up to that time.

One can only imagine from where we sit today just how awful it must have been for GW and his comrades – in among the dead and the dying without water for themselves let alone those parched throats for whom death was almost imminent. Justifiably then the Imperial Light Infantry are credited with having played a very significant role in the fight for Spioenkop.

GW fought on with the ILI, taking part in the final relief of Ladysmith and the actions at Allemanskraal and Laing’s nek which saw the Boers finally expelled from Natal. He took his discharge, having served for twelve months, on 19 November 1900. Heading back to England, he was in time to be enumerated in the 1901 Wales census.

Now 30 years of age he was, along with his brother William and his family, a visitor at the Castle Hotel, 12 High Street, Conwy. Strangely he was described as being an Engineer.

GW’s sojourn on home shores didn’t last long and, on 20 April, his holiday over, he boarded the Tantallon Castle at Southampton bound for Cape Town. Once landed he headed back to Natal where, with the war still raging, he enlisted at Durban on 17 June 1901 with the Utrecht Mounted Police and was assigned no. 229. The Utrecht – Vryheid Mounted Police was a short-lived unit created to police those districts of the Transvaal that had been conquered in General Buller's Natal Campaign.
After the districts were formally annexed, the UMP was replaced by the Natal Border Police, which in turn was later incorporated into the Natal Police. They ceased to exist in September 1901.

Out of uniform for the last time, GW took no further part in the war which ended on 31 May 1902. All now went quiet until he boarded the Kennilworth Castle in Durban, bound for Plymouth, on 6 November 1915. At this time World War I was well into its second year but, unlike many of his fellow passengers, GW wasn’t intending to offer his services to a British regiment for action in France and Flanders. Aged 44 he was described as being a Clerk.

Eighteen months later, on 24 January 1917, he boarded the Galway Castle at London, intent on returning to Natal. He can be thankful that he didn’t delay his return until 15 September 1918 – the day the Galway Castle sunk, after being torpedoed by a German U-boat (U-82) in the Atlantic Ocean on September 12. While initially heavily damaged and having her back broken two days out from Plymouth, she had remained afloat for three days before finally sinking.

Two years later, on 29 July 1919 before the British Consul at Funchal on the island of Madeira, he wed Martha Amy Farmer, the very wealthy daughter of William Farmer, a landowner and farmer of Winkfield, Berkshire. Martha was seven years his senior. On 26 August 1919, having abandoned their initial plans to settle in Madeira, the married couple set sail from Madeira to Liverpool aboard the “Aquila.” Occupying a First Class cabin, no expense was spared. The address they provided was Sunnymead, Slindon Common, Arundel and GW was, once more, described as a Clerk.

Less than a year later, on 17 January 1920, the couple set sail from London for Cape Town aboard the “Umsinga”- on this occasion GW is described as being a Farmer. Perhaps he had been swayed by his father-in-law to pursue that livelihood.

Once in South Africa GW, on his wife’s behalf, negotiated the purchase of the farm known as “Nancy” in the district of Paarl for £6 250. He signed the contract whilst his wife had remained behind in Cape Town, the agreement being that he would then sign the property over into her name when called upon to do so. The couple then took occupancy of the farm but problems soon arose when GW refused to sign the property over to his wife.

The marriage, seemingly never strong to begin with, now broke down and GW returned to England in December 1921 leaving his wife in Paarl. Martha was having none of this and sought relief from the courts, obtaining an order compelling her husband to transfer the farm “in the Town and Division of Paarl called “Krige River”” to her by 15 August 1922. In papers before the court she describes the marriage as having broken down and her husband of intemperate behaviour. Needless to say GW “defaulted” and the order was given granting Martha full ownership of the property but not before he had exacted a payment of £2000 and an annual income of £150 in order to give up all claims to the property.

This spelled the end of the marriage, to all intents and purposes, although no trace of any divorce could be found.

Gilbert Wyndham Bankes-Price, according to the 1939 Register, was living at 16 Dane Road, Hastings where he was described as being an Ex Farmer. He passed away on 6 February 1941 at the Arundel Hospital in Sussex bequeathing his estate of £696 to his two spinster sisters – Florence Margaret and Evelyn Lucy. His estranged wife died at Cross-in-Hands, Sussex on 31 May 1946 leaving £27 918 to her family members.

Acknowledgments:
- Ancestry & Find My Past for census data, medal rolls etc.
- Cape Archives KAB Vol 2/1/1/968 Ref 807 Illiquid case- transfer of land
- Stirling’s Colonial Regiments in the South African War