THE Honourable Artillery Company originally contributed twenty-four members (the full number allowed) to the C.I.V. Mounted Infantry. Roughly speaking, that was one fourteenth of the total strength of this Corps, which numbered 350, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Cholmondeley. The names and ranks of the H.A.C. men were as follows:
Lieutenant B. Moeller
Sergeant G. J. O’Connell
Sergeant A. S. Loder
Corporal P. C. Cooper
Corporal G. F. T. Murnane
Lance-Corporal G. St. J. Lobb
Private C. E. B. Betteley
Private A. E. Briggs
Private S. H. Byron
Private A. S. Clare
Private G. A. Cohen
Private R. Corfield
Private E. A. Dyer
Private C. O. Qreenwell (Commissioned later as Lieutenant)
Private F. G. Hazell
Private J. E. Humphreys
Private D. A. M. Lewis
Private A. H. Moeller
Private C. F. Nesham (Commissioned later as Lieutenant)
Private C. F. Osmond
Private H. W. Perkins (promoted to be Lance-Corporal)
Private G. E. F. Pollard
Private G. D. Bobbins
Private T. H. Toynbee
Draft
The following H.A.C. men were in the reinforcing Draft which embarked for South Africa on the ‘Ulstermore’ on July 12,1900:
Private R. Bassett
Private E. N. Carr
Private A. G. Colville
Private F. Fowler
Private A. L. Ladenburg
Private A. B. Morcom
The Corps was divided into two companies of four sections each, and our men formed the right half of No. 1 Section (Lieutenant Moeller’s) of No. 1 Company.
In reading the following description it should be remembered that the C.I.V. Mounted Infantry very rarely acted in its entirety as a complete unit in South Africa. Like all other corps it was frequently split up and its various fractions sent out with different columns. It would be out of place in a record of this character to describe the whole work done by the Corps. That may be found folly and admirably described by Messrs. Gnillnm Scott and Geoffrey McDowell in their book on the work of the C.I.V. Mounted Infantry. As soon as the Corps reaches the front, we content ourselves with following the fortunes of that portion of it in which the H.A.C. contingent was included.
The Mounted Infantry were sworn in on January 4, embarked on the ‘Briton’ on the 13th, and, after a rapid voyage, landed at Capetown on the 29th. Here they were sent to Green Point Camp to be equipped with horses and saddlery, and to complete the details of mobilisation. Much to the delight of the men, they were told by Lord Roberts that they would be sent straight to the front as soon as they were ready. And so it happened that in the remarkably short time often days, six sections out of eight found themselves entraining for the north. This would have been altogether impossible had they brought English horses with them, but was feasible with the seasoned native horses which were supplied to them. But, even so, it was admittedly an experiment, for, besides being a composite body, drawn from about forty different Volunteer battalions, they had had practically no training in mounted work, the ten days being fully occupied by the multifarious fatigues entailed by arrival and the process of equipment. Still, there was the opportunity, and officers and men snatched ardently at it.
Starting on February 8, with a hearty send- off from the citizens of Capetown, they detrained at Enslin (of bloody memory), and were there brought into the scheme of Lord Roberts’s general advance. The period was that of the preliminary movements designed to cut off Cronje’s retreat to Bloemfontein, and leading to his surrender at Paardeberg.
The first work of the Mounted Infantry was to act ae scouts for General Colvile’s 9th Division. Advancing with this division, they were at Barndam on February 13, at Riet River on the 14th, and at Klip River on the 15th. There, half an hour after off-saddling, they were ordered to detach a hundred men, of whom the H.A.C. contingent formed part, to act as scouts for General Wavell’s (the 15th) Brigade in a movement on Jacobsdal. This was their baptism of fire, and they took it well. The position was vigorously attacked and carried, Lance-Corporal Lobb, of the H.A.C., being the first man in the town. Private Nesham, of the H.A.C., was wounded in the arm, and was hors de combat for six weeks. Lord Roberts telegraphed to England in reference to this engagement: ‘The City of London Imperial Volunteers came under fire for first time yesterday under Colonel Cholmondeley at Jacobsdal, and behaved most gallantly.’
After two days’ rest the Mounted Infantry went on to Paardeberg, and found the bombardment of Cronje’s laager just beginning. Their work was confined to finding pickets and supplying orderlies for a variety of duties. Many of our own men acted as telegraph orderlies to Lord Roberts, and as such obtained a good view of the proceedings which preceded the surrender. It was a time of great hardship, for rain was incessant and rations were short, owing to the capture of a large British convoy at Riet River, in the rear. On the night of the 26th our men were on picket-duty round the beleaguered army, and on the 27th, when Cronje surrendered, they were told off to take part in escorting the prisoners to Modder River Station, Lieutenant Moeller and another officer being in especial charge of certain prominent Boer leaders.
This mission performed, they rejoined the general advance at Osfontein, near Paardeberg, on March 4, arriving in camp in the midst of the worst rain-storm yet experienced.
Acting as escort to a brigade division of artillery, they left Osfontein on March 7 for the movement on Bloemfontein, shared in the heavy action of Poplar’s Grove and in the less serious one of Driefontein, and, after some exhausting marches in continuously wet weather, arrived at Bloemfontein on March 14. Here they spent a fortnight on Brand’s Kop, a hill near the town, resting from their labours; but, unfortunately, also suffering from the enteric, which was now beginning to make such havoc in Lord Roberts’s forces. On March 28 they marched out with Wavell’s Brigade for the general attack on the Boer position at Karee Kloof, and shared in the hot engagement that took place there before the enemy were dislodged.
There was now a long hut by no means an idle halt, while preparations for the advance to Pretoria were being made. The Corps, owing to sickness, was very short of men, and those who were sound and well were on constant outpost and patrol duty, for the country teemed with small parties of Boers. Nesham, who had been hit at Jacobsdal, rejoined the section here.
The great advance (it is well to remind the reader), when at last begun, was triple in character, the main body moving straight forward by Kroonstad for the north, and two strong wings clearing the country on either side to right and left. No. 2 Company of the C.I.V. Mounted Infantry was attached to the right or eastern wing; No. 1 Company, including our own men, to the central or main body, which left Karee Kloof on May 3, being still attached to Wavell’s Brigade (the 15th) as part of General Tucker’s (the 7th) Division.
In the northward march they acted, alternately with the other mounted troops of the Division, as advance, flank, or rear guard. On the first day they happened to be advance guard, and after moving over a troublesome country, thick with mimosa bush, fell in with the enemy near Brandfort, and were allotted that unpleasant task of ‘drawing fire.’ Two men (of the London Rifle Brigade) were killed by shrapnel before the end was effected. After some sharp fighting the enemy retired, however, and the British bivouacked at Zuurfontein.
On May 5, after a day’s rest, there was another action at Yet River, and four days later a third at Zand River, where the company was employed on the right flank.
Kroonstad was reached on May 12. It had been evacuated by the Boers, and more than a week was spent there before the advance was resumed on the 21st. Thenceforward little resistance was met with, even at the Vaal River where it had been expected, but which was crossed without opposition on the 27th by way of Viljoen’s Drift. Klip River was passed, and Germiston occupied on the 29th, the Company camping near the Simmer and Jack Mine. Our men were among the first troops to enter Johannesburg, which formally capitulated on May 31st; but they did not reach Pretoria till June 5th, the first place of any importance which they had not entered in the vanguard of Roberts’s advance.
They spent a fortnight at Pretoria encamped on the race-course, and principally occupied in guarding the vast collection of remounts which were collected from neighbouring farmers at this period. Greenwell was now given a commission in the C.I.V. battalion.
Just at this period the Mounted Infantry were frequently split up into detachments and given different work. Some of the H.A.C. men, for instance, were sent out to Diamond Hill, and, though arriving too late for the actual battle, received the clasp for it as being within the prescribed area. Again, when the time came to leave Pretoria, Lieutenant Moeller and the bulk of the H.A.C. men, after being refitted with horses and clothing, started south again, on June 19, with the 21st Brigade, under General Bruce Hamilton, to take part in a sweeping movement through the eastern part of the two colonies, and finally to join in that same big concerted operation which was described in recounting the adventures of the Battery, and which culminated in the surrender of Prinsloo. Let us first follow the movements of this detachment of our men.
General Hunter was in supreme command, having taken it over from General Ian Hamilton, who had broken his collar-bone. Among his troops was the C.I.V. Infantry Battalion, and in it of course another contingent of H.A.C. men. Heidelburg, Villiersdorp, Frankfort, Reitz, and Bethlehem were successively reached without any serious opposition. (At Frankfort, it should be mentioned. Lieutenant Moeller left the corps to be attached to Colonel Bainbridge’s Mounted Infantry. And at the same place the C.I.V. Infantry Battalion was detached from the force and sent to garrison Heilbron.)
At Bethlehem they entered the investing ring of troops that were to surround Prinsloo, and to Bruce Hamilton, their General, were allotted Naauwport Nek and the Golden Gate as the defiles to be closed or forced. On July 21st Spitz Kop, at the mouth of the nek, was stormed, and a junction afterwards effected with General McDonald’s Brigade. The united brigades then tackled the nek, meeting with stubborn and prolonged resistance, but eventually carried it, and were able to work round to the Golden Gate in time to block that exit to the retreating enemy. All the neks had now been forced, and the surrender took place, as described in Chapter VIII.; the HA..C. contingent, unlike the Battery, being present at the final scenes, which were very impressive. Like the Battery, they were next sent off to Winburg to act as escort to the prisoners on the journey back to the railway, and have equally vivid recollections of the blinding sandstorms encountered on that journey, which ended at Smalldeel on August 13th. Here the Draft from England met them, included in which were the H.A.C. men whose names were given on page 127.
They were now sent to Pretoria by train, and encamped outside the town for six weeks, during which they were employed on various sorts of picket and patrol work, until October 3rd, when the whole of the C.I.V. turned southwards for home.
To revert now to those of our men who did not take part in these latter operations under General Hunter. From Pretoria, in the latter part of June, they were sent among a party of details of No. 1 Company to Kroonstad, where they drew remounts and were attached to Colonel Hickman’s flying column. At the beginning of July they trekked to Ventersburg, and then back by a forced march to Kroonstad, where they were entrained for Pretoria, and arrived on July 10, to be sent out at once to the west to Nitral’s Nek, where a force of Lincolns and Scots Greys had been cut up and captured. Their column was too late to retrieve the situation, and their next expedition was northwards to Hainan’s Kraal and Waterval, on the Pietersburg line, and back to Pretoria by way of Silverton. Here they were split up, some going to Irene and some to Commando Nek (Magaliesburg Range), and it was not till August 18 that they finally returned to Pretoria and joined the general camp of the C.I.V. Mounted Infantry, remaining there till the end. Nesham, meanwhile (who was one of this party), received a Commission in the C.I.V. Battalion.
Lieutenant Moeller was twice mentioned in despatches, afterwards serving with a Commission in the Second Battalion Middlesex Regiment. He died of wounds received in action at Holland, near Standerton, on December 23, 1901.
Lieutenant Nesham was mentioned in despatches and given the honorary rank of Lieutenant in the Army. He afterwards served as a Captain in the Imperial Yeomanry.
Lieutenant Greenwell received the honorary rank of Lieutenant in the Army, and afterwards obtained a Commission in the Third Battalion Durham Light Infantry. He was mentioned in despatches.
Sergeant O’Connell afterwards served as Captain in the Imperial Yeomanry, and received the honorary rank of Captain in the Army.
Lance-Corporal P. C. Cooper was mentioned in despatches.
Private Dyer afterwards served as Lieutenant in the Imperial Yeomanry
Private Robbins afterwards served as Lieutenant in the Imperial Yeomanry. Killed in action at Standerton August 22, 1901
For further individual details, see Chapter XII. and the Appendix.
