[Photo by Knight, Aldershot.
Commanding the Eleventh Brigade of the South African Field Force, was born in Ireland in 1846; joined the 51st Light Infantry in 1863; Adjutant, 1868-71; Superintendent of Signalling in the Jowaki Expedition, 1877; and served in the Afghan War of 1878-9; employed on special service in South Africa in 1881; commanded the 4th Battalion Egyptian Army, 1883-5; and has since held appointments as Deputy or Assistant-Adjutant-General at the Curragh, at Malta, and at Aldershot.
MAP OF THE ACTION AT VAAL KRANTZ.
THE WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT HOLDING VAAL KRANTZ.
Disappointment in Britain.
The repulse at Vaal Krantz—for defeat it could scarcely be termed—marked the nadir of British fortunes in South Africa. It was the third occasion on which a British army had attempted to fight its way to Ladysmith and had failed. It was the climax of a long series of reverses—Stormberg, Magersfontein, Colenso, Spion Kop, and now Vaal Krantz—the darkest hour before the dawn. Yet already the preparations for the new campaign, which was to change disaster into triumph, were completed. By a dramatic coincidence, as General Buller's troops tramped sadly back to Chieveley, Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener were speeding on their way to Modder River Camp to inaugurate the invasion of the Free State and to effect the rescue of Kimberley. Orders were forthwith sent by the Field-Marshal to General Buller, to relieve Ladysmith at all costs. The load of responsibility was lifted from his shoulders, and he proved in the weeks to come that he had laid to heart the lessons of his costly experience. In England, the news of Vaal Krantz only accentuated the gloom which Spion Kop and the earlier defeats had caused. It was feared that General Buller's task was an impossible one, and that Ladysmith, exhausted by hunger and ravaged by disease, must, notwithstanding its superb defence, succumb to the grimly-resolute foe. Yet England still persevered—
"Baffled and beaten back, she works on still:
Weary and sick of soul, she works the more,
Sustained by her indomitable will,"