The detachment is here represented marching out of Simonstown on its way to the front. The officer in khaki walking alone is Capt. Senior, who was killed in the battle of Enslin (perhaps better known as the battle of Graspan).
Nov. 25, 1899.] "Take that Kopje, and be Hanged to it!"
The Bluejackets and Marines take the kopje.
For a moment it seemed as though the attack had failed. But the artillery poured its fire upon the crest of the ridge with more vehemence than ever; and up the slopes in very open order, firing and cheering, came the Yorkshire Light Infantry to the support of the hard-pressed Naval Brigade, while the Loyal North Lancashires and Northumberlands, too, were sweeping forward upon the line of heights held by the Boers. Once more the seamen and marines pressed upward at an order from the wounded Captain Prothero: "Men of the Naval Brigade, advance at the double; take that kopje and be hanged to it." Full in the front of them was Midshipman Huddart of the Doris, who even in that band of heroes won a name for conspicuous and amazing bravery. At the bottom of the hill he had fallen hit in the arm; halfway up he was shot through the leg; yet staggering forward he reached the summit of the blood-stained slope, where, shot once more, in the stomach, he breathed forth his young life. Thus died the officers of the Royal Navy. For the last few yards of the advance the Boers could no longer fire with safety upon their assailants. Their very position became disadvantageous as the slopes were so steep that they had to stand up to see their assailants, and in the deluge of shrapnel and rifle bullets which beat upon the summit, this was almost certain death. Lieutenant Taylor of the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry and Lieutenant Jones of the Marines, the last in spite of a bullet in his thigh, were the first into the Boer entrenchments at the top. They were closely followed, and the kopje was won.
F.J. Waugh.]
His little terrier followed him up the hill and kept watch by him for hours after he had been mortally wounded, until he was picked up by the ambulance.
[Nov. 25, 1899.
Throughout the advance of the Naval Brigade the naval officers behaved with the most reckless and devoted courage. "Your fellows are too brave," said a soldier-officer of famous gallantry to a sailor-officer. "It is utterly useless for you to go on as you do, for you will only all get killed in this sort of warfare. I saw your officers walking about in front of their men, even when the latter were taking cover, just as if they were carrying on on board ship." "Did you watch the Naval Brigade?" said Colonel Barter to a staff officer. "By Heaven, I never saw anything so magnificent in my life."