Hello Rory,
My own thoughts regarding these boys as being passed as fit to serve would really be, that whilst the War Office was doubtless very keen to get all it could in the way of volunteers, a high proportion of recruits would have done all they could to be accepted, certainly, they would not have been above telling the odd fib or two either.
I do feel the whole IY concept was flawed though and on arrival in South Africa they all found themselves in the same position, so the man next to you had just the same inadequate training, moreover, there was a rather indequate chain of command, often you had regular infantry officers of field rank in command, who were not always aware of the shortcomings of these boys and they just assumed they were rather better at soldiering than they could ever have been.
That certainly was the case at Groenkop on the day in question, moreover, the officer concerned, Major Williams of the 1st South Staffords paid with his life on that particular day to.
They certainly cannot be compared with the army who were in a far stronger situation from day one of the war.
If you take any good regiment, lets say the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, for example, your typical private would have already survived his brutal initiation at Canterbury, Hounslow or the Curragh, far harder than anything than the IY recruit ever had to deal with.
This in itself was a very good way of selection and it separated those who just saw the glamour of the attractive uniform and there would certainly have been a great many of those.
On arrival in South Africa he would also have had perhaps two and a half years experience of actual empire whilst in India, on top of having the advantage of being taken under the wing of a junior NCO after being told exactly what was going to be expected of him by his troop commander.
In other words, he knew what it was all about before October 1899 and the same is very true of the boys from the volunteer companies attached to their regular infantry battalions from the opening period of the war, the men on their left and right were experienced regular soldiers, this just did not happen in the IY, so they both had a very distinct advantage.
That said, the IY are part of the Anglo Boer War and made a unique contribution and any serious collector needs to have examples in his collection.
Regards Frank
Rory wrote: I would tend to agree with your assertion Frank that most IY chaps were deployed in an active combat role far too early. I agree, likewise, that, especially with the second contingent, they were not of the same ilk as their predecessors.
Stott was probably fortunate with his limited exposure to military life with the Volunteers - others were not as lucky and couldn't even ride a horse. Of course what has been mooted as a partial reason for the slaughter that took place was the fact that it was Christmas Eve and their guard was, quite literally, down with the possibility also of alcohol having been consumed in a quantity in excess of the norm.
As to the state of health of the IY chaps. I have many QSA's to quite a number of the Companies and, if memory serves, the name of Dr Hastings Stewart appears on many Attestation forms as having passed the men "Fit" for service. I don't want to single him out but it does beg the question as to what pressure was being exerted on the Medicos to get chaps through the process and out to the Front.
Regards
Rory
P.S. Another outfit which I find came from "good stock" was Paget's Horse - the 51st Company.
