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Nice medals Rory.
Motley’s and Menne’s Scouts medals would be a most welcome addition to ant collection.

Hi Rory,

Below is some further relevant information that I was able to find about Morley's Scouts, I hope that it might be of some use for further research. The articles that I have read mentions the numbers of who are serving in the Unit anywhere between 50-75 at any one time in the field.

I have been able to identify 2 other soldiers from articles who have been said to have served in Morley's Scouts at one time or another. Sounds like that I have just nearly doubled the numbers that we have already listed in the Unit Information on this site. The two soldiers mentioned are -


- 28 Trooper Harry Hope Balmain, 1st Kitchener's Fighting Scouts & 2nd Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, No. 525 Pietersburg Light Horse (late BVC)

- Scout George Alfred Moberley (Morbeley, Morbely), Special Intelligence Corps. and No. 10023 French's Scouts (listed as G. Moherly on Roll). George died of wounds on the 15th March 1902 near Strathrae.








A letter sent to Captain W. G. Robertson by Trooper Harry Balmain about his time in Morley's Scouts -










I was able to find a family memorial for George Alfred Moberly which is located at Manly Cemetery, Northern Beaches Council, New South Wales, Australia.



Image is courtesy of Find a Grave

Trev

Many thanks for this Trev

With reference to the Irish connection.

Captain Robert Wilton Morley
Was born on the 8th February 1866 in Richmond upon Thames Twickernam Southwest London.

Additional notes.

He achieved his Lieutenantcy on the 4th Battalion Dragoon Guards on  the 31st of March 1886

4th September 1897 as serving Army Officer he returned from New York to Liverpool on the Umbria.

He married Gertrude Emily Fass in 1906, she was born in Natal S A 1873.
Captain Morley was 39 when they wed and resided at the Cavalry Club Piccadilly.

They were a rough lot.
I have a group of medals to J H Grindrod ( not J H Guidold as shown on list of casualties ). Grindrod's QSA was named up to the Cape Police. He was in the Seige of Kimberley and was wounded at Carters Ridge. He was subsequently in the Bushveld Carbineers and Morleys Scouts ( dangerously wounded) . He obviously liked military action, because despite being perforated a couple of times , joined the 7th Infantry and SAHA in WW1. He seemed to come through WW! unscathed.
Mike

Hi Rory and others,

This has been an interesting posting and has expanded my understanding of Morley’s Scouts.

Years ago when researching Menne’s Scouts I regularly came across the comment that Menne’s and Morley’s Scouts were raised at the same time and were called upon to do similar work but this seemingly did not continue for long. Further investigation into Morley’s Scouts identified the role of turned Boer fighters serving in the unit and the subsequent connection with the National Scouts.

In this regard it was Morley’s own report which led Kitchener to decide to combine several ex-burgher units then serving in the Transvaal into a single corps which became known as the “National Scouts”.

There are a couple of biographies which were published about his son Robert one recording that his father “received a bullet wound too near to his heart”, this evidently still troubling him in later years.

Often referred to as an “unpaid Looting Corps” it would seem that there were periods when members of the unit were paid but I suspect the “Scout Group” fell apart after their well-known action at at Middelbult when Morley himself was wounded and captured.

If one continues to dig online it is evident that several of the “turned Boers” who served with the Scouts and who were captured were subsequently executed.

One of the better known members of the Scouts was the author Charles Beadle.

I have never noted a medal named to Morley’s Scouts and would guess that due to the political uneasiness about the role of the National Scouts during the later stages of the War that not much has been written about them.

A very nice pair Rory and special thanks to those Forum members who have clearly spent some time in looking for further information.

RobM