Yeomen of England

by Ken Tout

  Trooper Arthur Arnold, a Northamptonshire volunteer, wrote home on 2 March 1900: ‘It seems to be the general idea that the war will soon be over. Lord Methuen thinks so.’1 It proved to be prolonged, embarrassing, frustrating, uncomfortable and boring. Later, Arthur, from a decent Northamptonshire farmstead, commented: ‘We have a job to keep free of lice, nearly all of us are as lousy as jays. It is a lousy war … This 22 miles we always have to march in the night and there is no water; when we have to escort the ox convoy we only travel at the rate of two miles an hour, so that it is a very weary march.’ No chance for the gallant galloping they had trained so hard for!

  Conditions on arrival were not reassuring for healthy young men from the shires. The Royal Gloucester Hussars, no longer in splendid tunics but dressed in khaki, wearing slouch hats and carrying Lee-Metford rifles, were marched from Cape Town piers straight to Maitland Camp. ‘The camp was very overcrowded with nine regiments where there was room for only three. Dysentery and enteric fever were rife. Colonel Challoner fell ill and was invalided home. After a fortnight they were glad to get out of that disease-ridden hole.’2

  To everyone’s surprise, at the start of the war 40,000 Boers swooped and laid siege to Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking. The British infantry at last formed line of battle against the evasive farmers who were also impressive hunters and sharpshooters. The Boers’ shooting skills, the burning sun and the endless open veldt combined to inflict disastrous defeats on the slow-moving, mechanically drilled British at Stormberg, Magersfontein, Colenso in December 1899 and Spion Kop in January 1900. The blistering sun caused as many casualties as Boer bullets to the bare legs and posteriors of kilted Highlanders, pinned down by superior individual marksmanship, in the open, without shelter or water and unable to move for hours on end.

  The world-encircling British Empire reeled in astonishment. South African politician Cecil Rhodes’ dream of a British red-coloured strip of territory carrying a railway line from Cape Town to Cairo withered almost overnight. From the British leaders the call went out for mounted troops able to combat the fast-moving Dutch farmers on their Basuto ponies. The regular British cavalry were too few, but there was still the Yeomanry. However, there was another fatal ‘but’ as the Yeomanry in its official form could not normally serve outside the British Isles. An open clause covering exceptional demands from the sovereign made it possible to call for Yeomen volunteers who would defend the sovereign’s lands, but at a distance of thousands of miles across the sea.

  In 1900 some 10,000 Yeomen volunteered and were sent to South Africa on service contracts of twelve months. In early 1901 another 17,000 went out to replace or reinforce the previous year’s drafts, and again in late 1901 another 7,000 volunteers crossed the sea. After varying fortunes in the nineteenth century, by 1899 some Yeomanry units still existed as fully formed regiments, while others soldiered on as individual squadrons or troops. At the time, the NY formed as the Northampton Squadron under Lord Anally, although some NY volunteers, like Arthur Arnold, were drafted into the neighbouring Royal Bucks Hussars. On 22 January 1900 the Northampton District Recorder reported that a Northamptonshire Imperial Yeomanry contingent was leaving for South Africa.

  The existing ‘regiments’ went to South Africa as numbered ‘companies’ of what was now the ‘Imperial Yeomanry’, the Bucks providing 37th and 38th companies. The main advantage was that they went as mounted troops, able to shoot from the saddle or dismounted in infantry form. Most units stayed with the traditional rifle or carbine, pistol and sword; however, the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars had 2lb and 3lb guns, which were the personal property of Lord Plymouth and their use of ammunition in action had to be funded privately.

  Lord Anally, Pytchley Hunt Master and reforming colonel, c.1900. (Kind permission of Northampton Art Gallery)

  After the initial battle shocks, and as increasing numbers of imperial troops poured in from Britain, Canada and Australia, the Boers resorted to tactics of ghosting in rapidly from the seemingly boundless spaces of low hills and parched desert, striking where least expected and then disappearing. As Arthur Arnold saw it in August 1900:

  They attacked the grazing guard the other side of town, killing one man. The next day a convoy came in from Kroonstad – the enemy tried hard to capture it but it managed to drive them off. A section of the 38th Battery R.H.A. was nearly captured on July 3rd. They [the Boers] crept up close to them disguised in khaki helmets and blue overcoats. The 38th had the Major and Lieutenant killed, a Captain wounded, beside fifteen of the men killed, wounded and missing. If it had not been for the Yeomanry coming up in the nick of time, they would all have been captured.

  The military system of the Boers, if it could be called that, was similar to the British Yeomanry formations. The Boer states had only trained artillerymen and mounted police, and beyond that their ‘commandos’ consisted mainly of farmers who could bring their own horses to the battle. In normal life the farmers relied on their own hunting and tracking skills to provide meat for the family. One German observer noted that ‘each man learned to study the country, avail himself of cover in order to get within effective range of his adversary [animal or human], and only to fire when success was certain, but to fly quickly from danger’.3

  Probably the first substantial opportunity for Yeomanry action came near the isolated town of Boshof on 5 April 1900. Lord Methuen commanded the 9th Infantry Brigade (Yorkshire Light Infantry, Northampton Regiment, Northumberland Fusiliers and North Lancashire Regiment) and was able to call on some 500 Imperial Yeomanry troops under Lord Chesham. Trooper Tudor Crosthwaite of 39th (Berkshire) Company recalled with a sense of thrill: ‘I was having a wash (a rare event) outside the camp when I heard the “boot and saddle” call, just got to camp in time to get on the horse as the column of Yeomanry mounted rifles moved off.’4

  British colonial expansion was watched with apprehension by other ambitious nations. On the mainland of Europe there was much sympathy for the Boers and not only on the part of the ‘High Dutch’ in the Netherlands. A number of French volunteers served with the Boers and one of them was commanding the Boer force near Boshof. President Kruger had just promoted Colonel the Count de Villebois Mareuil to general. De Villebois Mareuil was a notable French strategist with battle experience in Cochin China and in France itself against the Germans, and had been awarded the Legion of Honour for his exploits. Like other French sympathisers, he had reached the Transvaal via Madagascar and Mozambique, and took charge of a raiding commando.

  After the Boshof battle, Yeomen of the Berkshires found on his body his complete plan to storm the camp at Boshof, ride on to the Modder River and destroy the vital bridge there, and then afterwards to vanish into the veldt. He had anticipated facing only infantry, artillery and other grounded troops, which were prime victims for a commando raid appearing suddenly and swiftly out of the unguarded distances, and had not counted on a British mounted unit being in the vicinity. De Villebois Mareuil’s force consisted of only 100 men, a small number in comparison to other wars but a large and dangerous group when let loose among the kopjes, the relativity small but tactically formidable hills. These are scattered over the arid South African countryside in total disorder and had not yet been adequately mapped. But as the enthusiastic, close-formed Boer commando hit the camp it gave the hard-riding Yeomanry an opportunity to surround and surprise them.

  Boer War – the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry lead advance into Johannesburg. (Keep Museum, Dorset Yeo)

  Trooper Crossthwaite had a hectic ride of 7 miles ‘to a place called Kokkfontein [Koffyfontein] when we, immediately, gave the gentlemen our attention’. For troopers, some of whom had hunted over verdant pastures such as the Althorp estate, it was not easy going. Trooper Evans, rubbing bruised limbs, jotted down:

  I had my first fall. My company was galloping across the plain to head off the party of Boers when one of the horses put his foot in a hole – the veldt is full of holes – and over he went. I turned back to gi
ve the chap a hand but as he did not happen to want any help I galloped after my company again. I had just got up to racing speed again when my horse put his foot into a 2 foot deep hole, and over we rolled. I got up with only a scratched nose and bruised thumb. Lucky wasn’t I, considering the pace I was going? Quite a dozen or more of our fellows had the same mishap during that day.

  Trooper the Hon. Sidney Peel observed that ‘a native-born pony will avoid any dark or suspicious-looking spot as by instinct, and will even pass a hole in a moment without pressure of rein or leg, but an English horse, fresh from smooth pastures or hard roads, will put his nose in the air and give his rider tumble after tumble’. So a rider must look out sharply and continually for holes ‘which is not consistent with good scouting’. Trooper Evans later noted that ‘we killed eighteen horses with over-riding and only two horses wounded [by enemy fire]. My horse was completely done and I could only get a walk out of him.’ In retrospect this may seem cruel but the Boers had already gained a reputation for hard and skilful riding across the terrible terrain. If the Yeomanry were to encircle and cut off such a mobile force, there was no time to halt for a stirrup cup or to observe the normal rules for followers of the Pytchley Hunt.

  The British force which quickly assembled at Boshof was overwhelming, comprising companies of the Berks, the Bucks, the Oxfords, the Sherwood (Rangers) and the Yorkshire Yeomanry under Lord Chesham, and the Kimberley Mounted Rifles (a South African version of the Yeomanry) all riding hard, with artillery guns following up. Seeing the British reaction, the Boers had taken up a strong position among the projecting rocks of a kopje where the flanking companies surrounded them. The leading horsemen, about twenty or so, came upon the hidden Boers almost by accident and had to dismount and go to ground under heavy fire, whilst the flanking movement continued. An officer was killed and four men wounded. Other riders settled on two smaller kopjes and exchanged fire at about 600 yards whilst the Kimberley men brought up a Maxim gun.

  One trooper observed how the enemy were unable to escape as they had left their horses grazing down on the plain. ‘Every time they tried to catch them we bowled them over with rifle shots’. Sergeant Duck, sitting in support and writing as he watched, noted: ‘we have run down a party of Boers and Rebels, and like shooting rabbits in England, they have gone to ground.’ As the main body of Yeomanry dismounted and moved to attack they came under heavy rifle fire, which became very accurate at about 150 yards’ range. Major Lawson, commanding the attack, had some difficulty in restraining what were still rather novice soldiers, for they were moving forward too eagerly and exposing themselves to possible heavy casualties.

  Lawson reported: ‘when closing in upon the top of the kopje, our men, cheering wildly, were advancing with fixed bayonets when the Boers hoisted a white flag.’ Unfortunately the firing continued and Captain Williams, ‘who unfortunately exposed himself too early’, was killed and others wounded. De Villebois Mareuil had apparently said that he would fight to the death and was indeed killed towards the end of the action. This led to the hoisting of the white flag without a central commander to co-ordinate the surrender.

  As the attackers counted the prisoners they were astonished to find that out of about a hundred apparent Boers, thirty-two were volunteers from Holland, twenty-nine Frenchmen, a Russian or two, a variety of other Europeans and only nine local Free State Boers, which revealed the strength of European opposition to British colonial expansion. There was one English rebel, Coleman, ‘a citizen of Boshof’. The Boer commandos said that, once surrounded, they had wanted to surrender without firing but their French commander, who more than anyone must have realised the uselessness of resistance, had insisted on maintaining a hopeless fight.

  There was opportunity for some grim humour. One ‘vivacious little fellow, a Corsican named Antonio’, asked his captor Sydney Peel if he might be employed as an orderly in an English hospital. Peel told him that he was much more likely to spend time ‘upon an island not unfamiliar to his greatest compatriot’. St Helena, with its memories of Napoleon Bonaparte, was indeed one of the convenient locations to which increasing numbers of Boer prisoners were shipped for the duration.

  The Yeomanry in general were not yet inured to death and bereavement. Tough Sergeant Duck watched as the Red Cross vans came in to camp and shuddered:

  Here comes the poor sergeant’s body; poor fellow! The bullet entered his mouth, turned and came out of his forehead. Following him come the two Lieutenants. The bodies look too dreadful. It makes your heart race to see about a dozen dead bodies who only a little while ago were in strength and health. Nearly all the bullets they were using are the prohibited ones – explosive and soft noses. I have one of their bandoliers and it is nearly full of them.

  Trooper Tudor Crossthwaite pondered that charging the Boer with the bayonet was ‘quite an unnecessary proceeding and costing us five men’, whereas if the artillery had been left to get on with the job the Boer group would have been wiped out with fewer casualties. There was sadness as ‘the same evening we buried friend and foe alike, with military honours in a melancholy little graveyard and the bugles sounded the Last Post over those who sleep there unforgotten’.

  It seemed then as though the gods of war intended to make a mockery of the puny human beings with their Maxim guns and Lee-Metford rifles. Tudor Crossthwaite quailed as they rode home ‘in the most awful thunderstorm, thunder, lightning, moon, stars, rain and rainbow all at once. We lost our way, the darkness succeeding, the lightning indescribable and the depth of water we rode in must have been a foot.’ Sydney Peel felt that ‘the crashing thunder so contemptuously surpassed the petty noises of our puny fight, the vivid lighting and drenching rain were awe-inspiring in the extreme’. Sergeant Duck agreed: ‘… it was pitch dark and it thundered and lightened awfully. It was one perpetual flame of forked lighting. We were told if we liked we could go into town, knock anybody up and demand a bed. So we commandeered the first house we came to. ’Twas an empty house so we made a large fire and dried our clothes.’

  There was no rest as Sergeant Duck ‘started in the morning again at 4.30. The rain had been coming down in torrents all night.’ Although the main body of enemy had been surrounded and dealt with, there were other out-riders to be chased. Duck’s section came to a farm where the attackers had made their camp for the night before battle as the owner of the farm was ‘a leader of the gang’. Duck’s men contented themselves by ‘stripping his farm of young potatoes, geese, fowls, ducks, marrows, etc. … In a pit we found thousands of rounds of ammunition. All the bullets’ ends had been poisoned.’

  The fight at Boshof may have been minor in relation to other battles just fourteen years later, but it was a larger affair than most of the action which Yeomen would experience during the rest of the war in South Africa. The more the Boers were ousted in larger skirmishes, the more they resorted to wider-reaching and unexpected attacks of the commando type, often appearing many miles, even hundreds of miles, behind British spearheads. For the slowly advancing British troops this meant months of frustration, minor injuries and discomfort with little of the reputed glory of the light cavalry era.

  The overall experience is well illustrated in the letters which Trooper Arthur Arnold wrote home to family at Deenethorpe in Northamptonshire, and extracts from some of those letters paint a clear picture of a plodding advance. He commenced his letters when, like many young men who otherwise would never have travelled to foreign climes, he started his great adventure with the sea voyage to Cape Town:5

  S.S. ‘Norman’,

  Sunday, February 18th, 1900

  My dear sister,

  I have got nothing to do so I thought I would just sit down and write a few lines … We got to Madeira on Thursday Feb 14th. It is a beautiful little town. It was quite a change to see everything looking green.

  We had divine service this morning on the boat deck. The service was taken by Lord [Colonel] Chesham. It was only a short one because his Lordship did not give a s
ermon. As soon as the service was over a lot of us had to go and be vaccinated. It is compulsory. I can just begin to feel mine paining me, I expect we shall have to be inoculated next.

  It is very hot now. We do all our drills and knock about in shirt sleeves, overalls and canvas shoes.

  One of our men broke his leg in the Bay of Biscay so they put him ashore in Madeira as it was no use going to South Africa with a broken leg. We go about four hundred miles in twenty four hours now.

  With best love to all,

  Arthur

  S.S. ‘Dictator’

  Cape Town,

  March 2nd, 1900

  My dear sister,

  We arrived on Wednesday morning. Had us up at three. Got all our things on the quay, baggage, ammunition, and everything for the campaign. Everybody got as black as sweeps as they were coaling at the time. Four o’clock we received orders to get everything back on the ‘Norman’ as we were to go to East London. Got back on board. Stayed all night.

  Took us for a march in the morning and promised us leave in Cape Town. When we got back, orders for us to go on the ‘Dictator’ as the ‘Norman’ does not leave here until Saturday. Scores of ships in harbour, loaded with soldiers, horses, mules, stores, etc for the front. The ‘Majestic’ has just come in with the 17th Lancers.

  We had leave last night to go into Cape Town. Everybody was rejoicing at the relief of Kimberley and Ladysmith. Thousands of people marching through the town singing. Flags flying everywhere, such a sight as never seen before.