This book is intended to be an accurate, and as far as possible a complete, record of the part taken in the South African War by the Honourable Artillery Company. To explain its scope more particularly a few general remarks are necessary.
From first to last and in various capacities 193 members of the Regiment served in South Africa —a number which may assuredly be regarded with just and abiding pride. The work done by these 193 men foils under two main heads.
First come the quota contributed to the City Imperial Volunteers, a composite regiment consisting of all three arms and representing a large number of Metropolitan Volunteer Corps. To them we sent 154 men: twenty-six for the Infantry, thirty for the Mounted Infantry, and ninety-eight for the Field Battery. (These figures, it must be noted, include supplementary drafts despatched in the summer of 1900.) As to the Field Battery, we need scarcely say that it may be regarded as a complete unit supplied by the H.A.C., which created and organised it, officered it, and provided two-thirds of its total strength.
Under the second head come sixty members of the Company who served in the Imperial Yeomanry, in the Regular forces, and in various other Corps, during a period which covers the whole of the War.
Twenty-one of this number belong also to the first class, having previously been in the C.I.V., and afterwards continued their service in other capacities. The remaining thirty-nine, when added to the 154 of the first class, make up the grand total of 198.
It will be seen, therefore, that to chronicle the doings of the H.A.C. with a due regard to proportion is no easy matter. Man for man and Corps for Corps there are no comparisons to be made. Each of our men in his own sphere was upholding the honour of the Regiment. But to describe the operations in which every individual took part would be to write the history of the War, for there is scarcely a comer of the vast area of hostilities to which one member or another did not penetrate. This applies especially to the second or miscellaneous class, but it applies also to the first, for the three arms of the C.I.V., though administratively parts of a whole, were never in fact united under one command in the field. For practical purposes their histories are distinct. As to two of them moreover, namely the Infantry and the Mounted Infantry, the contingents contributed by the H.A.C., although the minimum, be it noted, that were allowed under the rules of formation, were not large enough fractions respectively to justify a very detailed narrative of the operations in which they shared.
Such a narrative belongs more properly to a history of the C.I.V. as such.
Now the course taken by the Editors is as follows. The bulk of the book must necessarily be devoted to the Battery, which, being mostly composed of H.A.C. men, has a history of a peculiar and exclusive interest for the H.A.C. Framed on a smaller scale, there will be chapters about the Infantry and Mounted Infantry detachments. And then the services of the miscellaneous class will be briefly reviewed.
Lastly, there is an Appendix, consisting of a complete alphabetical list of all members of the H.A.C. who served in South Africa, and so arranged that it can be seen at a glance what the service of each man was, with any special circumstances about him that are worthy of note. It is hoped that this Appendix will prove one of the most useful parts of the book.
As was implied in the opening lines, the character of the book is historical, with the exception of one chapter. The Editors do not conceive it to be within their province to undertake excursions into general criticism, whether of our Volunteer system as tested by war, or of the multitude of special matters—questions of mobilisation, equipment, conduct and handling in the field —which touch the efficiency of troops, Regular or otherwise. The exception is a chapter contributed by the Adjutant, Major Budworth, reviewing the work of the Regiment, and epitomising the lessons to be learnt from it. Here will be found compressed everything in the nature of criticism. It will be granted that such a review is imperatively needed, and no one will dispute the authority and value of it, coming from such a source.
