For his gallant behaviour on this occasion Trooper Graham was recommended by Colonel Lumsden for the Victoria Cross; but instead of that coveted decoration he subsequently received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Photo: C.G. Brown
BERNARD CAYLEY.
The talented correspondent of the ‘Englishman’ writes as follows of the same affair:
One morning a patrol set forth to spy the land, an officer and eleven men. They rode west for fifteen miles and entered the hills aforesaid, their object being to reach the junction of Six Mile Spruit with the Crocodile River. The way being purely cross-country it was a difficult matter to locate their destination, and seeing a farmhouse at the top of a valley the patrol made for it with the object of being directed. The valley traversed was some thousand yards wide from ridge to ridge. At the far end was the farmhouse, and beyond a low hill. Down the middle of the valley ran a spruit between high banks, forming a donga deep and wide enough to cover mounted men. The path running up the valley crossed the donga 600 yards from the farmhouse. Our fellows trotted up to the farmhouse, some tackling the lady of the house, and the others the Boer himself, who was spotted on the road a little way off. The good lady was a bit nervous, and rather hastily volunteered the information that the Boers had all gone away. Though never dreaming of their presence so near, this aroused the suspicions of the man to whom the remark was made, and he went up to the farmer, and roughly demanded where the Boers were. The question rather startled him, and from his manner it became evident that Boers were about, though he swore they had left the night before.
Thereupon the patrol, in open order, advanced across the rising to the right, with Bearne, Graham, and Cayley in front. A wire fence obstructed the way, and it was a moot point whether to go round by a gate to the left or to use the wire-cutters. This fence was eighty yards from the top of the ridge, to which it ran parallel. The cutting of the fence saved the lives of the men mentioned. Hardly were they through the opening than a heavy fire was opened on them at a range of fifty yards. The rest of the party being a hundred yards behind, not yet up to the fence, Cayley, Bearne, and Graham whipped round, and made for the cutting, which was luckily immediately behind them. If they had gone round by the gate to the left they would have had to stand fire getting to the gate, and then run the gauntlet all the way back. As it was they got safely through the cutting and legged it after the rest, the party making straight down the valley for the donga already described. As the distance between the Boers and the donga was only 800 yards, it can be imagined how hot the fire was. Extraordinary to relate, not a man was touched during the brief but dangerous interval which elapsed between leaving the wire fence and reaching the donga. Arrived there a new foe sprang upon the unlucky patrol.
L.C. BEARNE
From the left of the hill behind the farmhouse, and at the point where the left ridge forming the valley joined this hill, another lot of Boers opened a heavy enfilade fire at a thousand yards’ range. Their sanctuary was a sanctuary no longer, and again the patrol fled, this time straight for the opening in the hills by which they had entered. Meantime the second lot of Boers kept up a brisk fusillade, many of them mounting horses and galloping along the ridge parallel with the flying patrol. As our men had travelled some twenty miles, their horses were pretty beaten, so that the Boers, in light order, had no difficulty in catching up and taking pot shots at short range. Shortly after leaving the donga, Cayley’s horse fell heavily, and got away from his fallen rider. Thereupon Graham pulled up, gave Cayley his stirrup, and the latter ran until exhausted. Graham then very gallantly insisted upon Cayley riding while Graham ran. When beaten, Graham mounted again and Cayley ran. At this point the Boers had got close up and were pouring in a hot fire, and, the situation endangering both men, Cayley, who was much exhausted, let go, insisting on Graham leaving him, hoping himself to escape the Boers by hiding among the rocks. Near the same place Bearne’s horse stopped, dead beat. Bearne got off and ran until done, when he, too, took cover from the Boers, who were close at his heels peppering for all they were worth.
By this time the remainder of the patrol, headed by Captain Clifford, who was in charge, had got well away, and they eventually returned to camp late at night, having had to walk most of the way back, as their horses were too done to carry them. But Cayley and Bearne never had a chance, for the Boers had never lost sight of them. They were quickly routed out of their cover, and having dropped their arms when running, defenceless, they had to surrender to overwhelming numbers. The Boers explained to them what had happened on their side, and it would seem to be only by a bit of luck that the whole patrol was not captured. Right behind the low hill at the back of the farmhouse was a laager, where a number of Boers were encamped. Five, they said, though there must have been quadruple the number, Boers had gone over to the farmhouse already mentioned half an hour before the patrol appeared. Failing to find forage there, they had proceeded up the hill with the intention of crossing into the next valley to visit another farmhouse. When on the sky line they spotted our patrol advancing. The Boers immediately lay low to watch what happened. Realising that the patrol was riding into the lion’s mouth, they meant to keep doggo until the party was close up, and consequently far away from the only point of escape—viz., the road by which it had come. When close up they would open fire, warning at the same time their own camp over the hill scarce a mile away. Luckily for us, their camp proved slow to hear, else the main body of Boers would have rushed for the donga and regularly trapped the crowd. As it was our men had reached the donga before the laager had awakened to the situation.