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QSA: Tugela Heights, Orange Free State, Relief of Ladysmith, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek named to: 82363 DVR A Sales RFA

NOTE: HIs service number is incorrect on this site and there is a typo with the wrong number - 82663 and the correct number is 82363.

Alfred Sales was born in Wilmington, Dartford, Kent an 18-year-old laborer and serving member of the Thames and Medway Submarine Miners Militia. He attested for the Royal Field Artillery at Gravesend on 30 December 1890, and trained to be a Driver. He served in South Africa from 3 November 1899 to 4 November 1901, initially with 73 Battery RFA, but joining 69 Battery on 6 March 1901. He was wounded and taken prisoner at Blood River Poort on 17 September 1901. His service record records he has scars on his right thigh from a gun-shot wound received on that day. Sales transferred to Section” Army Reserve on 2 September 1902 and was discharged from the Army Reserve on 12 January 1907. He married Elizabeth Hanwell at Weedon, Northamptonshire on 27 January 1897, and died at 8 Kings Park, Weedon on 31 December 1945 when he was 76 years old. His occupation is recorded as laborer at the Royal Army Ordnance Department (Retired).

The action at Blood River Poort on 17 September 1901

Major Hubert Gough led his MI from Dundee to De Jaeger’s Drift, a ford on the Buffalo River. Dismissing the intelligence report as exaggerated, he led three companies on a reconnaissance across the river. Through his field glasses, he spotted 300 Boers who dismounted at a farm near Blood River Poort. Leaving his colleague Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. Stewart with 450 MI in the rear, Gough moved forward into a plain in the early afternoon, planning to surprise the Boers at the farm. Unknown to Gough, Botha was moving around his right flank with 700 men.

Botha’s mounted attack completely swamped Gough’s outnumbered force. Lieutenant Llewellyn Price-Davies of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps won the Victoria Cross for valiantly defending the field guns although two were captured. Gough was captured, escaped, captured again and finally escaped on foot in the darkness. On the British side, 4 officers and 19 other ranks were killed or mortally wounded, 2 officers and 19 men wounded, and 6 officers and 235 men captured. According to Boer policy, the captured were stripped of their weapons and any useful gear, and most of their clothing, and were allowed to walk to the nearest British post. In addition to the two filed guns, the Boers captured 180 rifles and a large quantity of small arms ammunition. The 200 captured horses turned out to be in poor condition and of little use to the raiders. Boer losses were light.