TOPIC:

Thank you IL, very helpful.

Thank you IL for your response,

That is very interesting to read and I have definitely learned something. I am very proud of the group and as far as I know, there are only 2 (perhaps 3) other groups with a Military Cross and BSA medal combination in them. I could stand corrected though? I have emailed the BSAP society to no response as of yet.

I find it fascinating that Pepys went from a combatant role, to a non-combatant role, to winning the Military Cross leading his men at the Gallipoli Landings and leading a bayonet charge after which he was shot through the jaw. His service certainly fluctuated!

Unfortunately the Northamptonshire Regiment museum just emailed me back saying that they are not taking military research requests until the Spring of 2020 due to renovations.

Kindest Regards,

Andrew

Hello Andrew

His brother is buried in the Leydsdorp main cemetery in Limpopo. www.graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=165737



Regards

I should have a look through WO76 at Kew if I were you, there is a certain Arthur Guy Pepys within the statements.

Droocoo wrote: Hi all this is my first post here so forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong section,

I am researching Colonel Arthur Guy Leslie Pepys who fought as a trooper with the Mashonaland Mounted Police in "B" Troop of Jameson's Raid, as well as with the Northamptonshire Regiment in the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902.

I was wondering whether there is a particular resource that could place Pepys throughout the Jameson Raid? I would like to find out a bit more about what he and his troop did during the raid. Furthermore, were there photographs taken of the raiders?

Any information regarding Pepys would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance,

Andrew

Hello, Andrew
Like you, I too have recently started researching the Jameson Raid - I'm perhaps 6 months ahead of you!
Firstly, there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether MMP stands for Mashonaland or Matabeleland Mounted Police. I'm very much in the Matabeleland camp - all of the contemporaneous references are to Matabeleland, though the 1930s' book by Marshall Hole gives Mashonaland. If you're interested I can provide more detail.
After the Raid, Pepys will have been handed over to the Natal authorities and shipped back to the UK on the Harlech Castle, leaving Durban on the evening of 28 January 1896. The ship called at Madeira where a Scotland Yard Inspector called Froest boarded and arrested all 323 raiders that were on board (although nothing seems to have happened subsequently to the rank and file)! The Harlech Castle arrived in Plymouth on the morning of Saturday 22 February 1896, and both Pepys men were reported by the Times as being on board. Those going to London were put on a special train.
As employees of the BSAC (the Charter Company), some 190 raiders returned to South Africa to help put down the rising in Matabeleland which became known as the 2nd Matabeleland War. Pepys and his brother sailed back on the Trojan, departing Southampton on 4 April 1896. They may have been with my grandfather who also sailed that day, on either the Trojan or the Roslin Castle: he was James Smith, and there were four Smiths on board the two ships, unfortunately, two of them 'J Smith's, so I don't know which ship he was on! On arrival in Cape Town, they would have gone up country to Mafeking to join the Matabeleland Relief Force under Plummer, and were almost certainly in one of the last troops to be formed. It is for this that he would have been awarded the BASC Medal - it should be marked Rhodesia 1986 around the rim. I noticed from one of the photos in this trail that he has a Mashonaland 1897 clasp, which means he stayed around for a while.

Interestingly like a number of Raiders including Pepys, my grandfather also served in Gallipoli, landing at ANZAC Cove and being wounded.

I have a little more detail and some supporting documents if you are interested. If you find out when Pepys joined the MMP and when the MRF was disbanded, I would love to know of your sources, as this information is missing from my grandfather's jigsaw.

Good luck and I look forward to following this thread

Chris

Hi,

Thank you for the post. I noticed that Arthur's brother had died young only 30 years old but am as of yet, unaware of the circumstances of his death.

Andrew