Relief of Kimberley, February 15, 1900.
This battle honour has been conferred on the following regiments:
1st Life Guards.
2nd Life Guards.
Royal Horse Guards.
Carabiniers.
Scots Greys.
9th Lancers.
10th Hussars.
12th Lancers.
16th Lancers.
Buffs.
Yorkshire.
Gloucesters.
West Riding.
Welsh.
Oxford Light Infantry.
Essex.
There were many reasons why the Boers should have made great endeavours to seize this town. Cecil Rhodes, their arch-enemy, was shut up in the place, and the garrison was certainly none too large for the task confided to its commander. Lord Methuen had been checked by two serious reverses in his advance on Kimberley, and his division now lay a few miles to the south of the town, with the Boer army under Cronje facing him. Lord Roberts pushed up the Sixth Division, under General Kelly-Kenny, to Randam, hard by the Modder River. The Sixth was followed by the Seventh Division, under General Tucker; and the Seventh by the Ninth, under Sir Henry Colville. The Cavalry Division, under Lieutenant-General French, was also moved westwards towards the line of railway leading up from the Cape to Kimberley. With this division Lord Roberts intended to effect the relief of the Diamond City.
French's division was composed of three brigades of cavalry, with a strong force of mounted infantry, and was brigaded as follows:
First Brigade—Brigadier-General Porter: The Scots Greys, the Carabiniers, one squadron each of the Inniskillings, 14th Hussars, and New South Wales Horse, and three batteries of Royal Horse Artillery.
Second Brigade—Brigadier-General Broadwood: Composite regiment of Household Cavalry, 10th Hussars, 12th Lancers, and three batteries of Royal Horse Artillery.
Third Brigade—Brigadier-General Gordon: 9th and 16th Lancers, with two batteries of Royal Horse Artillery.
Mounted Infantry Division—Colonel Alderson: Three battalions of mounted infantry, Roberts's Horse, Kitchener's Horse, the Queensland and New Zealand Mounted Infantry.