TOPIC:

Sergeant Gallagher was a SMETHWICKIAN and I only know he served in the Boer War from three articles in the Smethwick Telephone, two of which report the contents of letters he wrote from the front (literally) to his former employers, Mitchells & Butlers Brewery, Cape Hill, Smethwick. I cannot find his service records or a mention of him on the medals rolls.

FIRST ARTICLE: Smethwick Telephone 30th December 1899.

This reported Sergeant J Gallagher’s “send-off” by his workmates at Mitchells & Butlers Brewery at the nearby Yorkshire Grey Public House. It tells us Sgt Gallagher was a reservist who had rejoined the 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers on 27th December 1899. Previous to this he had worked at M&B as a “Time Clerk” for 4 years, so he must have been close to fulfilling his original commitment of 7 years active service followed by 5 years in the Army Reserve. His workmates presented him with a pair of field glasses, a pipe and tobacco, and purse of money.

SECOND ARTICLE/FIRST LETTER: Smethwick Telephone of 14th April 1900. - The editor does not quote the whole letter and omitted Sgt Gallagher’s description of his arrival in South Africa and his battalion’s time taken to to reach the front. The editor reported it was written from Salakfontein on 27th February 1900. Salakfontein does not appear to be a recognised place today but, although the reproduction quality is not of the best, hence the transcriptions below, there is little doubt about this word – perhaps the editor had a problem with Sgt Gallagher’s writing.


“Our regiment has now been on half rations for over a fortnight, the men are getting very thin and done up. You see we have to do a lot of forced marches for the relief of Kimberley, starting off at 8 o’clock at night and finishing about 11 pm the next day with hardly a bite to eat. We passed Belmont and Graspan, where the battles were fought. We saw the Guards’ graves there. Then we proceeded to Beslin (? not sure of this word). There was a lot of the Naval Brigade buried here, also Commander Ethelston. We stayed here two or three days, then marched on to the Orange Free State. Then our fighting began. We managed to capture a drift at the Riet River with very little losses, capturing lots of Boers. Also sheep and goats, which made a good feed for the troops, as they were killing and cooking them all day. We had it very rough now, as we had no covering at all, and the rain and sandstorms made us awfully miserable. General French, with his cavalry division placed us here for the relief of Kimberley. He is a splendid officer. Lord Roberts, and Kitchener with his staff, were with us all the times. You see we were making a very large circuit to get to Kimberley as it could not be done otherwise. The cavalry division moved out about 1 pm, 13,000 in all, with about 16 batteries of R. H. Artillery. They looked magnificent. We marched out at night about 10,000 strong. After about an hour on the road, a terrible thunderstorm broke over us. It lasted about an hour, and we were drenched to the skin, but we had to keep moving, arriving in the next camp about 4 am. We had a drop of coffee and a biscuit. And then an order came out that our regiment was to go back to the place we left the night before, as there was a convoy being attacked. So we fell in and marched back where we found the Boers attacking the convoy. They shelled us, but we found a river bed and kept them at bay till night, our losses being 10 wounded and seven or eight missing. The convoy was lost its worth being about £60,000. We marched back next morning, arriving about 8 am, the distance we covered in two nights and a day being about 45 miles. Next day we moved to a place called Jacobsdal. Staying there for about two days, then moved out on Sunday night, about 3 am, for another forced march to this place, arriving here about 5 pm next night. This where Cronje is entrenched since he retired from Magersfontein. They had just got over a big battle here the day before, our troops losing heavily. I saw the men being buried in long trenches about 120 altogether – a horrible sight. Next night we moved close to Cronje’s position, alarmed at night by bullets coming over our heads, but all went pretty quiet till morning, when we found we were nearer his place than anticipated. They opened a terrible fire on us. We lay down flat on our stomachs for about an hour and a half, the bullets being worse than a hailstorm. The Lincolns retired through us. I was never under such terrible fire in all my life. At last the Artillery came up and started shelling the Boers, giving us a chance to retire. It was simply marvellous how we did not have the whole regiment killed and wounded, as we were under cross fire, but we came out with about three killed and 17 wounded. The sight that morning was never to be forgotten. The mules with the baggage all stampeded, they were also getting shot down all over the place. This happened on the 21st February. We had another affair on the 23rd, having one man killed, one captain, and about four men wounded. My company has been out on one of the kopjes for four days. I am writing this on one of them, but I have to get up nearly every minute as the Boers are working round, and the glasses I had presented to me come in very useful.”

THIRD ARTICLE/SECOND LETTER: Smethwick Telephone 9th June 1900.

The editor stated Sgt Gallagher’s second letter was written from Krantz Kroll, near Bloemfontein, on 27th April 1900, while he was on outpost duty.


“We had it pretty rough the time we were coming through the Orange Free state to Bloemfontein. Short rations, forced marches, no water and sleeping out in the veldt every night, with heavy thunderstorms every other night, soon pulled us about a bit; but the rest and the better food we are having now, is bringing us up to form again. Our division, the 7th, with Lord Roberts and Kitchener, and French’s cavalry division, were the first to enter the Orange Free state, which we did on the 12th February. We have been present at the actions at Watervaal Drift, Riet’s Drift, Relief of Kimberley, Cronje’s surrender, Poplar Grove, and Karee; so we have not done bad work since we have been out, and I am pleased to say they have all been victories up to the entry into Bloemfontein, which place they did not hold. We got into rather a tight place in front of Cronje’s position on the morning of the 21st February. We got rather too close at night, and in the morning a terrible fire was opened on us from his trenches. We lay flat on our faces for three hours, the shells and bullets being like hail. The mules with the baggage all stampeded, so you can tell we had a lively time of it, but eventually the artillery came up and covered our retirement, which we did one by one but not without a good many casualties. . . . We stayed at Bloemfontein about a week, and then moved away to a place called Glen, 30 miles north of Bloemfontein. We only stopped there a bit, moving off on the 29th of March on a reconnaissance further north. We came across the Boers about mid-day, on some kopjes about five miles away, the breadth they occupied being about four miles. My regiment attacked the centre, which was the worst, and I am sorry to say we lost heavily, our casualties being two officers and 23 men killed, and two officers and 52 men wounded. One shell alone killed five of our poor chaps. . . . The Boers retired altogether. I am pleased to say, thank God, I escaped.”

Thereafter, the Smethwick Telephone made no more mention of Sgt Gallagher. However, I know he survived the Boer War as I have found his service records for World War 1. These show his full name was James Joseph Francis Gallagher and his service number was 2496 when he previously served in the KOSB and was discharged as a Sergeant. To finally confirm he was one and the same he lived at 74 Durban Road, Smethwick (a short walk to Mitchell and Butlers Brewery) and was employed as a “Brewer’s Foreman”. He was 43 years and 10 months old when he enlisted and although he was first assigned to the 3rd KOSB he was then transferred to the Military Police and spent the whole of the war “at home”.

The photo shows the main yard at Mitchell and Butlers Brewery at the time of the Boer War. The Smethwick Telephone of 30th December 1899 reported that M&B had donated 1,000 barrels of Extra Stout to the soldiers serving in South Africa and the final consignment of 220 barrels was about to be dispatched aboard the Lycia. Sgt Gallagher was far from the only M&B employee to serve and they included one of the junior Directors, Arthur Mitchell who served as a Corporal in the imperial Yeomanry.

I think your man Sergeant Gallagher was indeed regimental number 2496.
Private J Gallagher 2nd Battalion KOSB 2496 serving in Sudan.

Sergeant J Gallacher 2496 1st Battalion KSOB South Africa

Medal rolls attached ref Gallacher not Gallagher......slight error with the g , hope this helps?

Thanks Dave – with your help I have now found the medal rolls on Ancestry and the Sudan one.

The SA medal rolls don’t exactly agree but I presume he was awarded the QSA with 4 clasps – “Paardeberg”, “Johannesburg”, “Cape Colony” & “South Africa 1901”.

I am surprised by his lack of a “Relief of Kimberley” clasp as he obviously considered he was involved – I can only presume the redeployment of the 1st KOSB to assist the the attacked convoy meant they were not with General French & the troops under his command on the critical day, for awarding of the clasp, of 15th February 1900.