TOPIC:

Thanks, all. Kheis was the Lancashire Hussars' first engagement, and Private Fairclough the one and only fatality, during their stay in South Africa. The St Helens Reporter newspaper of the time was excellent for its coverage of local men and units in the ABW, so I'll see what first-hand accounts I can find relating to Kheis. Incidentally, I also came across a reference to "Lord Gerard's Yeomanry"; I assume that that was the Volunteer Company of Lancashire Hussars' men who went out to South Africa.

A collection was made in St Helens for Fred Roberts and he was presented with £49 3s 6d in February 1901 - a couple of comparisons of how much that sum would be worth now are: - an annual income of £49/3/6 in 1901 would be £18,300 in 2015, and its relative worth in 2015 would be £4,810.
In addition, there was another collection at the parish church for him, but I didn't get as far as the issue which announced how much had been raised there.

Berenice and interested members
Just now I was having a scan through Will Bennett's "Absent Minded Beggars" (ISBN 0 85052 685 X) for a reference to the last surviving British Boer War soldier - when I ran across a pretty good description of the action at Kheis. I assume Will Bennett derived much of his information from Maurice V3. Plus his own research.
The Lancs. Yeomanry were sent to outflank a party of Boers and they were fired upon from either side of their advance. Sgt. A.D.Ward was hit three times and Pte.F.J.Roberts (a glass worker from St. Helens) dismounted a pulled Ward into cover. As he did that, Ward was hit again; the same bullet struck Roberts just above the knee.
At about the same time, the Warwicks Yeomanry's Maj. Orr-Ewing was tasked with seeing of the Kheis drift could be crossed. Lt. Forbes and Cpl. Baxter volunteered to try and came under fire. Their horses were killed and the Cpl. was mortally wounded. Orr-Ewing and Pte. E.P.Ashley ran to help Baxter; but the officer was killed and Ashley wounded.
Civil Surgeon Dun (Dunn??) is mentioned in Maurice as being wounded. I had a look in Palmer and SAFF - but no luck regarding him.
Anyone interested in this particular action might care to check Maurice V3 pages 23-25 as well as Will Bennett's excellent book.
Regards
IL.

Morning Ian

Good to see another confirmation of Dun (as per The Times and WO100), although Maurice may have used The Times as his source.

Dun is missing from SAFF, not sure why - would need to understand the original source, and Palmer is a straight copy of SAFF so not surprise he is not there.

Regards
Meurig

Meurig
I checked both Palmer and SAFF because I have run across a couple of examples where Palmer "missed" entries in SAFF. Very few indeed, but ........
Reading what Fred Roberts actually did in trying to save Sgt. Ward, I am not surprised that a subscription was "stumped up" (sorry, raised) for him.
Regards
IL.

LinneyI wrote: These are the casualties I have been able to ID from SAFF:
KiA 32 Coy - 8991 Sgt. A.D.Ward, 8937 Pte. J.Fairclough, 859 Pte. W.Clarke.
WiA 32 Coy - Capt. L.H.Jones, 8202 Sgt. H.M.James, 8885 L/Cpl. J.McDonnell, 8939 Pte. J.Dancer, 8927 Pte. F.J.Roberts, 8929 Pte W.Swire, 8918 Pte. L.Bennett

James Dancer was later to be captured at Zeekoe River, on May 7th 1901, but released a few days later. Returned safely to St. Helens, in June 1901.