Some detail on the officers who allegedly consulted and decided to surrender:
Lieutenant Watson, 1st Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment = Harold Farnell Watson born 25th July 1876. He was mentioned in Despatches [London Gazette, 10 September 1901] and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: "Harold Farnell Watson, Lieutenant, Derbyshire Regiment. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa". He served in the Great War and by the end was a Lieutenant-colonel in command of the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He passed away on 18th April 1941, aged 64, in St Anne’s Hospital, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.
Lieutenant Surtees, 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry = Robert Lambton Surtees – he was actually a member of the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry who at the time had been seconded to the DLI. He does not seem to have won any honours during the ABW but served in the KSLI in the Great War by the end of which he had attained the rank of Major, been mentioned in despatches and in June 1919 was awarded a Military Division OBE. He was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Kent in 1921, a post he held for 22 years. He passed away in October 1968 aged 90.
Lieutenant Spedding, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles = Colin Rodney Wolfe Spedding born 25 April 1871. He was mentioned in Despatches [London Gazette, 10 September 1901, and 29 July 1902] and was created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 27 September 1901]: "Charles Rodney Spedding, Lieutenant, Royal Irish Rifles. In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa". He served in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War and had attained the rank of Major when he was killed in action on 19th September 1914 and is commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial in France. He left behind a widow, two daughters and a son. His son, John Wolfe Rodney Spedding, served in the Royal Navy in World War Two and was lost at sea on 27th February 1942 whilst serving as a Lieutenant on the destroyer HMS Jupiter. Ten days after she sank a Japanese submarine, HMS Jupiter hit a mine laid earlier in the day by a Dutch Minesweeper and 83 members of her crew perished.
Lieutenant Nickerson, Royal Army Medical Corps = William Henry Snyder Nickerson born 27 March, 1875 in New Brunswick, Canada but raised and educated in England. He was mentioned in Despatches April, 1901and awarded the Victoria Cross [London Gazette, 12 February 1901]: “William Henry Snyder Nickerson, Lieutenant, Royal Army Medical Corps. At Wakkerstroom on the evening of the 20th April, 1900, during the advance of the infantry to support the mounted troops, Lieutenant Nickerson went in a most gallant manner, under a heavy shell and rifle fire, to attend a wounded man, dressed his wounds, and remained with him until he had him conveyed a place of safety”. He served in the Great War from 1914 in both France and Salonika. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, 1st March, 1915, and was created a CMG in 1916; was three times mentioned in Despatches: 16 February 1915; 1 January 1916, and October 1916. His military service continued after the Great War and when he retired in 1933 he was Director of Medical Services in India. He served in the Home Guard during World War Two and passed away in Scotland, where he was living at the time, on 10th April 1954 aged 79.
That leaves Lieutenant Davenport = Talbot Neville Fawsett Davenport. A SAFF record shows he was released on 11th September 1900 so he appears to have been an omission from the “Released Prisoners” listings rather than an escapee. I can find no evidence that he won any honours during the ABW but his commanding officer considered he was “as brave as a lion”, mentioned in despatches and deserved a DSO. His premature death at the age of only 26 was reported in the Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer as occurring at midnight 3rd March 1905 at his London home. His parents lived in a grand house near Hastings and were presumably responsible for the notice in their local paper. The subsequent issue of this weekly reported on his funeral in Shropshire and added two tributes from fellow officers. However, the Hastings & St Leonard’s did not report the inquest into his death but most other newspapers across the land did. This from the Croydon Chronicle:
CARBOLIC BY MISTAKE.
Dr Danford Thomas held an inquest on Tuesday, at Paddington Coroner’s Court, on the body of Lieutenant Talbot Neville Fawcett [sic] Davenport, twenty-six, of the Royal Irish Rifles, who died at Oxford Terrace, from the effects of carbolic acid poisoning, administered accidently. – Mrs Mary Stuart Davenport, the widow, stated that her husband had been in South Africa, and returned to England about a year ago. Latterly he contracted blood poisoning and had been under medical treatment. Witness had been nursing him night and day. On Friday night he should have taken a dose of medicine from a bottle kept on a table where he could reach it. On the same table was another bottle containing carbolic acid. Witness prepared the medicine and placed it on the table for him. She had, however, mixed the carbolic instead of the medicine by mistake. She then lay down on the sofa, and was aroused later by her husband, who said he had swallowed the poison in mistake for the medicine. She at once sent for a doctor, but death took place within a quarter of an hour. – Dr Rendel, who had been attending Lieutenant Davenport, said the carbolic acid was prescribed by a dentist as a mouth wash. It was diluted to the extent of thirty parts of water to one of acid. When he was called there was no time to do anything for the patient. Death was due to carbolic acid poisoning. – The coroner said it was a very sad case. The wife was no doubt worn out through long hours of nursing, and it was clearly a case of misadventure. – A juryman said that if the Home Office made it compulsory to put poison in specially shaped bottles such accidents would never happen. He thought something ought to be done. – The Jury returned a verdict of death from misadventure.
Talbot’s funeral was held at St Peter’s Church, Worfield, Shropshire and his body was interred near to the Davenport Family Vault. The report of the funeral in the Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer was followed by two tributes both of which focus on Talbot’s involvement in the action at Klipfontein on 19th August 1900:
THE DECEASED OFFICER’S CAREER
The late Lieutenant Talbot Davenport served in South Africa during the whole of the Boer War, in the Mounted Infantry Corps of his Regiment. He was present at the Battle of Stormburg (sic), and received the Queen’s and King’s Medals and five clasps. He was also mentioned in Lord Robert’s Despatches.
The Officer who commanded his Mounted Infantry Company writes “He was my Subaltern ……he was at his best under fire. He was as brave as a lion ….. never afraid to accept responsibility ……. In him the Regiment loses its best and
MOST PROMISING OFFICER.
On 19th August 1900, Colonel Stilwell had ordered me to try and check the enemy’s advance by holding a Kraal at Klipfontein with about twelve men, and Talbot came back (against my intention) to share the danger with me. He was simply splendid that day, and exposed himself to danger in an almost reckless way. He got a bullet through his sleeve, another through the helmet, and another grazed his cheek. Another time he did a bit of real scouting by himself in most difficult country, in the Doornberg, and went right up to a Boer laager and brought back most useful information, a feat very few officers can record. From January, 1900, till the end of March, with Colonel Williams, he was under fire on over fifty occasions, but his nerve only grew stronger as a result. I was glad he at least got a ‘mention’ in despatches which I recommended him for in 1900, although he was the junior subaltern in the Company, and if honours had been distributed as unsparingly at the end of the War as they were at the beginning, he would undoubtedly have got
A DSO.,
Which he most certainly deserved.”
Another Officer who was in the kraal at Klipfontein says: “Lieut. Davenport was in the corner of the kraal on which the Boers made their final attack. It was the most exposed situation (and his only companion in the corner was very severely wounded), but he continued to fire until the Boers, were right up to the Kraal, when one of the latter crawled up and grasped Lieut. Davenport’s rifle. He pulled it away from the Boer. Many more Boers then seized it, and pulled one way while he pulled the other. It is hard to understand why he was not shot, but the Boers contented themselves with wresting the rifle from him and overpowering him by sheer weight of numbers. Also at the defence of Sand (sic) River Bridge he, with his Mounted Infantry Section, were the only Regular troops present, and were warmly complimented by the officer commanding Railway Pioneers for their good work in the successful defence of this post against a strong force of Boers, provided with artillery.”
Based on the second tribute Lieutenant Davenport was not involved in any consultation with his fellow officers and agreement to surrender prior to his capture. One also wonders at the identity of his commanding officer on the day.
One might be critical of his wife’s management of his medicines but when one learns her full story sympathy takes over. She was born in Ireland as Mary Stuart Irvine the daughter of a protestant cleric. She first married aged 21 in 1892 and nine years later her first husband died of pneumonia leaving her with a daughter & son to bring up. So when she married Talbot in 1903 she was a widow and 7 years his senior. When Talbot died in 1905 he left her with the additional responsibility of a one year old son. She married for a third time to a Guernsey fruit grower in 1908. Her son from her first marriage and her third husband both served in the Great War. Her son died, aged 21, on 17th June 1916 from wounds received in battle and was buried in France. Her third husband died on active service, exact cause of death not apparent, four days before the war ended and was also buried in France and left behind a nine-year old son to add to Mary’s responsibilities. Mary never married again and died in a Surrey Nursing Home in 1960 having celebrated her 89th birthday 10 days earlier. At least her three other children all out-lived her. Interestingly her third husband, like Talbot, was educated at Radley College in Oxfordshire.
