TOPIC:

The Pembroke Yeomanry, a home defence militia, dated back to 1792 and is the only British Army unit to receive a battle honour for an action on home soil. In 1797 French revolutionary forces invaded north Pembrokeshire near Fishguard and the Pembroke Yeomanry were instrumental in capturing the largely incompetent enemy forces. They were subsequently awarded the battle honour “Fishguard”.

When in December 1899 the War Office decided to create the Imperial Yeomanry on a county basis the Pembroke Yeomanry sponsored the formation of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry who served in South Africa as the 30th Company of the 9th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry. The task of overseeing the recruiting fell to the commanding officer of the Pembroke Yeomanry, Colonel Sir Charles Edward Gregg Philips of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire.

The Cardiff Evening Express of 30th December 1899 reported that the officers of the Pembroke Yeomanry had met in Haverfordwest to start the ball rolling on the formation of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry and that “squadron” meetings would be held at both Haverfordwest and Tenby in the next few days. The short article ended as follows: “All good riders and shots desirous of enlisting in the Imperial Yeomanry being raised in Pembrokeshire should make early application to Colonel Sir Charles Philipps, Bart., Picton Castle, Haverfordwest.”

A much longer article appeared in The Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph of 3rd January 1900. (I subsequently refer to this newspaper as “The Telegraph”.) This article reported in detail on the meeting held at the Shire Hall in Haverfordwest. Colonel Philips spoke many fine and encouraging words but did ask aspiring volunteers to give the matter serious thought before applying because resources were limited and the recruitment process costs would be wasted if volunteers pulled out at a late stage. He was followed by Major Roch who spoke even more fine words but did assure them that those who went to South Africa “would find it no child's play”. Finally Captain Williams read out the “Terms of Service”, an extract of which was published in the newspaper as follows:



Finally the names and addresses of 36 men who had already volunteered were listed. 14 were members of the Pembroke Yeomanry and 22 were civilians.

The Telegraph was a weekly and was full of news about the war. But the editions of the 10th, 17th & 24th made scant mention of the progress of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry.

The edition of the 10th had a short bullet point article which reported the number of volunteers had risen to 80; Earl Cawdor (owner of the large Stackpole Estate in Pembrokeshire and whose ancestor had commanded the Pembroke Yeomanry back in 1797) had opened a public fund entitled the “Yeomanry Volunteer Equipment and Assistance Fund” with a personal donation of £100; Mr Lort-Philips had also opened a similar fund; Major Cropper of Swansea had offered to command the Company in South Africa; Colonel Sir Charles Philips was being kept very busy on a daily basis.

The edition of the 17th carried a very short anonymous letter purporting that no officers of the Pembroke Yeomanry had contributed to the fund set up by Mr Lort-Philips and if this continued without satisfactory explanation it would affect support by others. (I think there was some bad blood between The families of Pembrokeshire.)

The edition of the 24th made no mention of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry but did carry a syndicated opinion piece which considered the Imperial Yeomanry Companies currently being set up would be “too weak” to be of immediate use in the war and at the very least they should be subject to a period of proper training at Aldershot before being sent to South Africa. However, as the home country was now under-defended owing to all the additional regular army units sent overseas the Imperial Yeomanry would be best fitted to the cause of home defence.

The edition of the 31st had rather more to say about the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry although some of their information seemed rather dated. The opening sentence of the article ran as follows: “Up to the present about twenty of those who volunteered locally for the Imperial Yeomanry have passed the tests, these being about one-third of those who gave in their names”. Service records show 20 had attested by 19th January 1900 meaning they had passed the tests. There was then a gap of a week before the next batch of attestations but by the 31st January the number who had attested had risen to 43. The claim that only a third of the volunteers passed the marksmanship & horsemanship tests seems to have had substance. Service Records show that of the 36 volunteers listed in the 3rd January edition only 14 (39%) constituted part of the first contingent of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry who sailed to South Africa on 14th March 1900. Of course, those who did not go may not have proceeded as far as the tests having listened to the words of wisdom delivered by Colonel Sir Charles Philips at the Shire Hall Meeting.

The 31st January article also reported that men were now being “sent down from Imperial Yeomanry Headquarters in London in order to complete the company”. They were billeted in Tenby but some had proved of no use having failed the tests, especially the marksmanship one. There was also an issue with the uniforms being supplied from London as it was felt that they would wear out in a month but Lady Scourfield of Williamston had the matter in hand and they were being reinforced by better material being “worked in to strengthen them”.

Perhaps now is the time to consider the founding members of the company or, put another way, the 19 who attested at Tenby on 17th January 1900. Although Haverfordwest was the county and biggest town in Pembrokeshire the raising of the company happened in Tenby probably for two reasons – (a) being a fashionable holiday resort there was a lot of spare accommodation in the winter for billeting purposes; (b) the Penally Rifle Range was only a short march away.



Cardiganshire (these days commonly known by its Welsh name of Ceredigion) never raised an Imperial Yeomanry Company and neither did Carmarthenshire (most Welsh people cannot spell or pronounce the Welsh version and it is very rarely used). To enter Pembrokeshire by land you have to drive through either Ceredigion or Carmarthenshire. Thus I consider anybody born in either county as a “local” for this purpose.

Thus at first sight we have 16 locals and 3 “foreigners”. Actually it was really 17 to 2 as William Howard Brown was orphaned at a young age and brought up by his paternal Pembrokeshire born grandparents at Bean Hill Farm in Pembrokeshire. With the importation of Londoners and others from across the British Isles & Ireland this predominance of locals was to disappear and only a fifth of the 115 rank & file who sailed to South Africa could be described as “locals”.

Robert Haspery Jeavons is on the list because his father had moved the family from Barrow-in-Furness to Port Talbot in Glamorgan, still “famous” for its steelworks highly visible to Pembrokeshire bound holidaymakers as they travel along the M40. He was not good enough for the Glamorganshire Imperial Yeomanry because, according to a local newspaper, he was a married man with children. Colonel Philips and his officers obviously did not have a problem with this as William Devonald Edwards had 7 children. I wonder if the real reason for his rejection in Glamorgan was his obvious lack of middle-classness.

Unsurprisingly, “The Terms of Service” do not enter into the controversial subject of class but there is an agreed view that the creation of the Imperial Yeomanry was initially designed to capture members of the middle-class. Despite Colonel Philips definitely being upper class this aim seems to have largely failed in Pembrokeshire and of the above 19 I struggle to define even half of them as middle-class. This view does not change by looking at all 115 who sailed to South Africa.

Reginald Walter Blount was definitely middle class and his presence at the top of the list suggests the importation of Londoners started much earlier than previously claimed. I think the earlier claim is correct and Reginald, who had blotted his copybook, was on a route to re-acceptance into Society via remote Guernsey & Pembrokeshire and his father may have “pulled some strings”.

Some might be wondering at an occupation of “Rancher”. Ivor Raynes Trollip was the son of the one-time Mayor of Cardigan and proprietor of the largest inn in the town. Young Ivor had already tried his luck in Canada for a few years before returning home and signing up for the Imperial Yeomanry.

Some will also have noted a transgression of the age rule. William Ford was brought up at Carew Mill alongside Carew Castle (both now tourist attractions) and was actually 19 years and 11 months when he attested. I suspect Colonel Philips may have waited until he turned 20 before putting his name forward as a member of the Imperial Yeomanry and that is why he was not given the service number of 4099. Quite why they started at 4081 is beyond me.

The history of the Pembroke Yeomanry was serialised in 1905 in one of the local papers and Chapter X deals with the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa. The literary style is typical of the time and I am still deciphering it and in the meantime I will start on some personal histories – first to come will be that of William Devonald Edwards when, as sidelines, you will also learn one of his sons has a WW1 military grave and two of his brothers died by drowning – one in the Channel Isles and the other aboard the Titanic.

In 2018 Berenice did a very good “job” on Robert Haspery Jeavons and doing a title only search on recent topics for “Jeavons” will lead you there.

I have used the term Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry to date as my research suggests it was not until late February 1900 that the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry was designated the 30th Company of the 9th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry.

Although a resident of Pembrokeshire for only the last decade, one the fascinating parts of doing this study is that many of the places, for example Picton Castle, Carew Mill & Penally Rifle Range, are familiar and others, such as the lead mine that Thomas Davies once worked at, are proving fascinating additions to my knowledge of the county.

Great stuff, David.

Here are a couple of photographs of the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry at Fauresmith, O.R.C., dated 19th October 1900.






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Neville – just ticking the “Thank You” box on this occasion is totally inadequate - so very many thanks for the superb photos.

The 19th October 1900 was a “hot” day for Section 1 of the first contingent of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry when 4159 Private Stanley Graham Thomas was killed in a surprise attack on their camp at Fauresmith. He came from Swansea and when he attested at Tenby on 9th February 1900 he was working for a firm of shipbrokers.

Based on a letter sent home by 4169 Acting Quartermaster Albert Henry “Bert” Chapman the photos depict “Fort Pembroke”, a defensive structure constructed by members of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry. Bert Chapman also came from Swansea, where he worked as a mining engineer, and attested four days after Stanley. Others almost certainly present in the photos are Lieutenant Ernald Richardson and Privates 4148 Ernest William Frank Falkner, 4149 David Alexander Sutherland, 4187 Ronald Goss & 4190 William Clay – the last four were all Swansea men which is why they get mentioned in Bert’s letter. There were four local civilians fighting with them at the time and at least three of them can be picked out in each of the photos – Bert described them as follows: “The four civilians with us were Mr Murdock, Commercial Hotel, Mr Reid and his son, and Mr Cotteli, all of whom did their share of fighting.”

Thank you, David.

I had always wondering why three civilians with sporting rifles had prominent positions in the front row. Now I know why.

This hoof might also be of interest. It comes from Lieutenant-Colonel Cropper's pony "Lion" and has been mounted as a snuff-box.

Ribbon to front engraved: "I HAVE BORNE ONE THROUGH PERILS WHERE MANY HAVE SEEN US".

Lid engraved with the arms of the Cropper family and the motto "LOVE EVERY MAN FEAR NO MAN". Also: "HOOF OF 'LION' / RIDDEN BY E.D. CROPPER, / Lt. Col. Comm'g. PEMBROKE I.Y. / IN THE GREAT BOER WAR".



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GoodDay Smethwick......

I have had this piece in my collection for many years as it was one of the first QSA's that I purchased......

Would you have anything on him.....

From FMP.....

First name(s) David
Last name Thomas
Rank Sergeant
Service number 20005
Regiment 30 (Pembrokeshire) Company 9 Battalion Imperial Yeomanry
Notes QSA Clasps: CC,OFS,T,SA01,SA02
Rolls WO100/124

Thanks in advance......

Mike

Neville - thanks for the photo of the snuff box - being true to my roots in working class Smethwick I am leaving the officers until last.

I am intrigued by the way Bert Chapman qualifies Mr Murdock as being from the Commercial Hotel - does he mean the Commerical Hotel in Swansea which was definitely in existence at the time of the ABW. Now if it had been a Smethwick Hostelry I could resort to "Hitchmough's Guide to Black Country Pubs, Part 3 Smethwick" and look up the historic licensees.

I think all four civilians can be made out in the second photo. On the first let us call them from left to right - Reid the father, Murdock with beard and cigar & Cotelli with domed hat - this probably says more about me than them! So, on the second photo we have Cotelli second from the left, Reid three to the right of Cotelli and looking straight at the camera and another three to the right we have Murdock. Moving on three more we have what looks like a young lad without any headgear - I would suggest he is Reid the son.