TRANSVAAL (WEST)
Lord Methuen may be said to have carried on existence to a rippling accompaniment of Boer bullets. All along the Marico valley to Zeerust his rearguard was followed and engagements were frequent. September was spent in passing convoys from Lichtenburg and Zeerust and preparing for an advance to cover the collection of ripening corn in the Marico district, the establishment of a line of blockhouses between Zeerust and the lead mines, and the clearance of the country of scattered bands. On the 4th of October an affair of patrols at Witgeboom Spruit resulted in five burghers being killed.
General Fetherstonhaugh and Colonel Kekewich continued to hunt dismounted stragglers of Kemp’s force south-west of Olifant’s Nek. Kemp had escaped the British cordon towards the north-east, and was said to be about to work his way south. Colonel Kekewich, after depositing his prisoners at Naauwpoort, left there on the 13th of September to clear the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg. He operated for some days in conjunction with Colonel Mackenzie (1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment), who was employed in the construction of blockhouses south of the Magaliesberg, and removed from the creeks and crannies of the hills various impediments, in the form of Field-Cornet Klopper and thirty-six of his countrymen. After this haul of prisoners, Colonel Kekewich returned to Magato Nek to co-operate with General Fetherstonhaugh against Kemp’s party, who were reported to be hanging about the Toelani River. On the 24th, by the way, he surrounded the laager of one Van Rooijan at Crocodile Drift (Elands River), and secured the commandant and thirty-five of his gang. Kemp, as yet, was not to be found. But he was not long inactive. At dawn on 29th, he and Delarey (who had evidently followed Colonel Kekewich from the Valley of the Toelani) made a lunge at the British camp near Moedwill. From three sides they, some 1200 of them, turned a blizzard of lead on Colonel Kekewich’s force.
The Derbyshire Regiment, with 1½ companies, held the drift to left of the camp. The mounted troops (Imperial Yeomanry and Scottish Horse) extended round the right and front of the camp, and joined up with the Infantry outpost on the drift. Firing was heard at 4.40 A.M. on the north-west, and subsequently it was found that a patrol going out from the southerly piquet, furnished by the Devonshire Imperial Yeomanry, had been attacked. Then closer and closer came the enemy upon the Yeomanry piquet. Every gallant fellow dropped. Soon the Boers were established to east of the river and commenced an attack on another Imperial Yeomanry piquet. The officer in command fell, and nearly all his men around him. The enemy, ensconced in the broken and bushy ground near the bed of the river, continued the aggressive, while all in camp rushed to reinforce the piquets except a small party of the Derbyshire Regiment, which remained to guard ammunition, &c., the Boers having annihilated two piquets. The Boers now pushed up the river, outflanking the Derbyshire piquet holding the main drift, and, in spite of really superb resistance, occupied the position. For this reason: but one man of the gallant number remained whole! The camp now was flooded with bullets, and all ranks under various officers made for the open, while the guns strove to keep the enemy, indistinguishable from British in the dusk of the morning, at a distance. Captain Watson, Adjutant Scottish Horse, who was mortally wounded, announced the arrival towards the east of the enemy, whereupon Major Watts with a strong body of the Derbyshire Regiment moved out to confront them, while Major Browne (Border Regiment) with a number of men—servants, cooks, orderlies, and any one who came to hand—prepared with fixed bayonets to charge the enemy in the bushes. The Boers had given up the east, however, and continued to file from the north till the Imperial Yeomanry and Scottish Horse, under Captains Rattray, Dick Cunyngham, and Mackenzie, joined in the general advance and threatened to outflank them; then, seeing their danger, they fled to their horses and galloped madly to the north, under fire of the British guns. Colonel Duff, with two squadrons, had been prepared for pursuit, but owing to the heavy losses sustained, especially among the horses, the project was impossible.
This fierce, determined, carefully-planned attack lasted two hours, and the success of the repulse was mainly due to the amazing gallantry of all ranks, especially of the 1st Battalion Derbyshire Regiment. Some brilliant deeds were done, notably by 2nd Lieutenant Mills, whose splendid disregard of danger cost him his life; Lieutenant Persse (7th Imperial Yeomanry), who fought persistently at his post though wounded in three places; and by Captains Dick Cunyngham and Rattray, and Lieutenants Symonds, Rattray, Cameron, Loring, and Stuart-Wortley, of the Scottish Horse. A fine officer, Captain Laird, R.F.A., was among the killed, and Lieutenant Duval was wounded, and Captain Wheeler escaped merely by a miracle. The medical officers, Major Lavie (R.A.M.C.) and Mr. Kidd, Civil Surgeon, pursued their deeds of mercy, utterly regardless of their lives and of their own wounds. The Colonel, himself wounded, paid dearly for his triumph. Of his force 1 officer and 31 men were killed; 127 men were wounded and 26 officers, among whom were:—
Scottish Horse.—Major Blair, Captain Field, Lieutenant Loring, Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley, Surgeon-Captain Kidd, Lieutenant Jardine, Lieutenant Edwards, Lieutenant Prior, Lieutenant Cameron, Lieutenant Flower.
Royal Artillery.—Captain Baldwin.
1st Derby Regiment.—Captain Keller, Captain Anley.
Imperial Yeomanry.—Captain Seymour, Lieutenant Whyte.
Out of a party of twelve of the Derbyshire Regiment which was guarding a drift, 8 were killed and 4 wounded; and some idea of the severity of the fire and the doggedness of the fight may be gained by the fact that three piquets were practically annihilated, thus enabling their comrades to get under arms.
Among others of the Scottish Horse whose persistent and gallant services contributed to Lord Methuen’s success, may be mentioned Captains Field and Ian Mackenzie, and young Lieutenant Jardine, who was wounded.
Command of the column was afterwards temporarily assumed by Colonel Wylly (Derbyshire Regiment), but Colonel Kekewich, recovered, soon returned to duty.
General Fetherstonhaugh had meanwhile driven before him many Boers. On the 21st he captured a position at Winkelhoek, and after searching further turned back to Waterval and thence to Kwaggafontein. On hearing of the Moedwill fight he sent Colonel Williams to Colonel Kekewich’s support, and followed himself with all haste. But of course the Boers had flown, scattering among the farms in the Rustenburg Zeerust road. General Fetherstonhaugh finally moved south, and Colonel Wylly to Rustenburg.
THE GALLANT BUGLER OF FORT ITALA
Drawing by R. Caton Woodville