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Ottawa Journal
23rd February 1952

Written for the Journal
Harry J. Walker


In the morning sun the kopje looked unoccupied until a heliograph flashed a signal across the left section of “D” battery.

Then Lieut. “Dinky” Morrison ordered No. 5 to open fire at 3,500 yards and the daring Boer signaller disappeared in the dust. But the rearguard new then that they were surrounded, heavily outnumbered and would have to fight thir way out and probably die as a sacrifice unit.

And so on the anniversary of Paardeberg we come to the epic of the “Lilliefontein Gun” which now stands sentinel beside the South African monument on out Capital's Mall. Ottawa citizens can look upon it with nostalgic pride for gallant Ottawa youths served that old 12-pounder in Homeric action 52 years ago. Three Victoria Crosses were won in extracting it from a host of charging Boer horsemen and in saving an army column.

Anytime three such supreme decorations for valor are won in a few hours in one action, it rates something far beyond ordinary standards of gallantry. And so it rates in our book even though it happened in a faraway war in a golden age where the Red Ensign was unchallenged on the Seven Seas.

REAR GUARD CLASSIC

The action at Lilliefontein on November 7 th, 1900. is regarded as a classic of rear-guard fighting. It was outstanding because of three facts: (1) It was and all Canadian, almost all Ottawa “show”; (2) Three Victoria Crosses came out of it; (3) It was the only engagement in the South African War in which the Boers mounted a massed charge.

“D” battery was quickly recruited in Ottawa and district. Its commanding officer was Major W. G. Hurdman. And its left section with No.5 and No. 6 guns, was under lieutenant W.E.B. Morrison and was known as the “Ottawa section”.

For this action it was attached to a flying column under General Smith-Dorrien's command. On the day before, the Royal Canadian Dragoons and the Ottawa section of the battery had formed the advance under Lieut-Colonel F L. Lessard, and had been hotly engaged.

ACTION FRONT

That night the weary troopers and gunners bivouacked near the Koomati River. Daybreak found them assigned as rear guard to the column on convoy to a besieged British garrison at Belfast. The baggage train straggled out a length of five miles over the rolling veldt – a target for a sift Boer attacks. The rear guard had to stand and fight until the last of the baggage train wound its way over the farthest ridge and take up their position there and do it all over again. No less than 17 times during that long bitter day was the rear guard in close action.

For the crews of No. 5 and No. 6 guns it was “action front” and “limber” and “unlimber” as the Boers pressed their attacks. For the first part of the morning the guns were fairly close to each other, sending accurately timed shrapnel over the rocky ridges lined with Boer horsemen. The situation was not to desperate up to that time. But when the Boer signaller flashed his message across the line of action “all hell broke loose” and the rear guard knew that “this was it.”

EDDIE HOLLAND'S COLT

Immediately then came a distress call from a troop of 60 men of the Canadian Mounted Rifles under Lieut. Cockburn who were fighting a similar rear guard action on the right flank. Colonel Lessard, whose handling of the desperate affair was bold and brilliant sent over Morrison with No. 5 gun. Then No. 6 gun was left alone with the Dragoons on the left flank.

The Canadian Mounted Rifles had unfortunately attached to them a Colt machine gun operated by Sergeant Eddie Holland. All that day he stopped the Boers with vicious bursts as they tried to close in.

From here on, the isolated Canadian units were fighting on their own with Lessard the gallant and inspiring link. With Mauser's blazing at him Lessard galloped through the circling fringe of Boer horsemen to order Morrison to save his gun. He had already given similar orders to Eddie Holland, grimly fighting his colt.

DOOMED REAR GUARD

The driver of the lead team on No. 6 that day was W. A. Hare. On the previous day he rode the center team with his father, W. R. Hare, on the lead team. But Hare senior was wounded and the son moved up to his father's place as the action continued. In the words of Kipling he “wheeled his horse handsom when it came to action front”.

By this time General Smith-Dorrien had written off the rear guard as “doomed” and had cut his losses by withdrawing three supporting companies of Shropshire's.

Both gun crews quickly started to limber up with blown horses. But on No. 6 there descended a ring of Boer horsemen led by a field coronet on a big bay horse. The field coronet wore light coloured pants as Driver Hare recalled the hectic moment, and was out in front of his troop.

There was no time to limber up just then. Disregarding the order to disengage Gun Layer Ned Bolt acted quickly. He slammed into the breach a case of shot effective at close range and fired the gun into the charging Boers. The ring of horses and riders collapsed with the field coronet sprawled in the front.

BRINGING OFF THE GUNS

Meanwhile Eddie Holland assisted by the late Alex Collins (former mayor of Eastview) was unbolting the cold from its carriage. Driver Hare had started to lead his team when he noticed Holland's predicament. He halted while Gunner Cole Anderson ran back to assist Holland with the Colt. Holland clambered aboard the gun seat with the Colt barrel and No. 6 moved back to take up position.

At this stage the devoted and decimated Canadian Mounted Rifle's were acting as infantry support until the two guns got into action again.

However, the Boers were ready to call it a day. Fortunately the gun section escaped miraculously with not to many casualties owing to the Boers firing from the saddle. But the Royal Canadian Dragoon's and the Canadian Mounted Rifle's suffered heavily. Morrison wrote “Next morning we buried our dead. We had to take down the little cemetery wall and enlarge it.”

Three Victoria Crosses – while awarded to Lieut. Cockburn. Lieut. “Dicky” Turner and Sgt. Eddie Holland – really marked the gallantry of the entire rearguard. Two others who might have been singled out for the V.V. Were Lessard and Morrison. Both were mentioned in despatches by Smith Dorrien and later Morrison was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

OTTAWA SURVIVORS

But Lessard was the inspiring leader though it all. In the minds of those who survived that day nothing can dim the memory of his greatness. Any why he was passed up remains one of the mysteries of the High Brass.

Of those who fought at Lilliefontein there is a dwindling guard of white haired old boys whose ribbons proclaim a time when empire, as well as knighthood was in flower. Of the 95 troopers who rode into action under Colonel Lessard that day of Lilliefontein the only survivor is H. E. Roche. Of the crews of No.5 and No.6 12-pounders those left among us are: W. A. Hare, E.C. (now Major) Woolsey, E. Igglesden, J.A. Belford, J.F.X. Berube, S.W. Bradley, J.C. Denmark, W.H. Sullivan. T.C. Davidson, W.H.G. Davey and N.W. Beaven.

And so as they join their comrades of the “D” Company, Royal Canadian Regiment on “Paardeburg Night” those old young warriors who escaped Valhalla are the witnesses of a great era when an Empire sang “Soldiers of the Queen.”