There were several V.C.’s gained in and around Ladysmith during the memorable siege of that town which well deserve mention. Listen to the story of how Privates Scott and Pitts of the Manchester Regiment won the coveted decoration. In one of the Boer assaults early in 1900 the Manchesters were given the task of holding Cæsar’s Camp, a position in the long ridge of hills to the north-east of the town. Here they erected circular stone sangars, in each of which a few men were posted with a plentiful supply of ammunition.
When the attack was delivered, Cæsar’s Camp and Waggon Hill in the vicinity received the brunt of it. Before the Boer fire the Manchester Regiment in particular suffered great loss, many of their sangars being captured and occupied by the enemy; but there was one spot in the defences that the Boers failed to carry. In the little sangar where they had been stationed Privates Scott and Pitts swore an oath that they would never give up while breath was left in their bodies, and for fifteen long hours their deadly rifle fire kept the Boers at bay. In the end, as we know, the enemy were compelled to withdraw baffled, whereupon the two plucky privates who had “held the fort” so manfully returned to camp smoke-blackened and—in Scott’s case—wounded, to receive the due reward of their heroism.
Yet another brave man of Ladysmith fame was Private J. Barry of the Royal Irish. In the night attack on Monument Hill in January 1901, he was helping to work a Maxim when the Boers surrounded the little party. His comrades having been all shot down, Private Barry was called on to surrender, but this word was not in his vocabulary. He neither intended surrendering nor yielding his gun to the enemy, so hurling a defiance at the latter, he proceeded to smash the breech of the Maxim and render it useless. A few quick blows were sufficient for the purpose, and the work was done ere the infuriated Boers raised their rifles and shot him dead.
A distinguished fellow-soldier of Barry’s was Colour-Sergeant (now Captain) Masterson, the hero of Waggon Hill. In the furious hand-to-hand fight on the hill he was a conspicuous figure, only being overborne at last by sheer force of numbers, and falling with ten wounds in his body and limbs. None of his injuries were mortal, however, and he survived to receive the V.C. and a commission.
Captain Masterson’s name and rank, by the way, vividly recall to one’s mind the exploit of a Royal Irish Fusilier of earlier days, Sergeant Masterton, the hero of Barossa. Masterton was known as “the Eagle Taker,” for the dashing capture of a French Eagle standard after a charge up a hill much in the fashion of the Fusiliers at Waggon Hill, and he too was rewarded by promotion.
With another story of the gallant gunners I must bring this chapter to a close. The scene is Korn Spruit, on the road between Thaban’chu and Bloemfontein. On March 31st, 1900, two batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery were making their way to the Orange Free State capital, when they fell into a Boer ambush. Before the alarm could be raised five guns of the leading battery and a large section of the baggage train had been captured.
Q Battery, under the command of Major Phipps-Hornby, meanwhile was some three hundred yards away from the spruit when the Boers opened fire, and had time to wheel about into position. The enemy’s force far outnumbered the British column, but Major Phipps-Hornby and his gunners had no idea of deserting their comrades. Having gained the shelter of some railway buildings near at hand, the battery—minus one gun which had had to be abandoned—re-formed and at full gallop came again into action. Within close range of the Boers they unlimbered and opened fire, while the teams of horses were taken back to the rear of the buildings for safety.
For a long time the gunners served their pieces in splendid style, but the order came at last to retire. Realising how difficult it would be to hook the teams on to the guns under the terrible fusillade that the Boers were maintaining, Major Phipps-Hornby decided to do without them. Under his direction the men put their shoulders to the wheels literally, helped by some officers and privates of the Mounted Infantry, and by much pushing and hauling they eventually got four of the five guns round to the back of the buildings under cover, saving some of the limbers at the same time.
To rejoin the main body now entailed the crossing of a couple more spruits and a donga which lay within easy range of the Boer guns, a veritable zone of fire. But the gunners had faced danger like this before, and at the call for volunteers many drivers stepped forward. As quickly as possible the horses were put into the traces, the guns hooked on, and off they set, one at a time, on their perilous journey. It was a wild dash for safety, but they got home—all, that is, save one gun and one limber, which after several attempts had to be left behind, all the horses belonging to it being shot down.
It was a V.C. business, this saving of the guns, but when it came to a question of making the award a difficulty arose. Every man of the battery might be said to have an equal claim to be decorated. As a few Crosses only could be awarded, however, Rule 13 of the original Warrant had to be enforced, under which the honour was conferred upon the battery as a whole, one officer, one non-commissioned officer, one gunner and one driver being elected by their comrades as recipients. Of the two officers, Major Phipps-Hornby and Captain Humphreys, who had taken the leading part in the affair, each had displayed conspicuous gallantry, and each with characteristic generosity nominated the other for the decoration. One would like to have seen both of them gazetted, but the rule had to be adhered to, and, as senior officer, the V.C. was presented to Major Phipps-Hornby. Sergeant Parker, Gunner Lodge, and Driver Glasock hold the other three Crosses of the corps for this notable action.