TOPIC:

On the 26th of May 1900, whilst the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment were at Winburg, Orange Free State, thirty-five-year-old Captain William Eyre Matcham, who normally commanded B Company, assisted by 1443 Serjeant J. Hart, was authorised by order of General Clements to form ‘Matcham’s Horse’. This was a small force of twenty-three Mounted Scouts under his command, consisting of eight men taken from the 2nd Wiltshire, five from the Royal Irish Regiment, five from the Bedfordshire Regiment and
five from the Worcestershire Regiment. Their horses and saddles were taken from Boers who had surrendered. Captain Matcham had taken to South Africa like a duck to water, his skill at reading the topography of the land was second to none. He was a well-liked, confident and trusted officer who had the respect of Lieutenant Colonel Carter, all other
fellow officers and the men of B Company. His Serjeants regularly openly stated that
they would willingly follow him into battle. His small force proved to be a great scouting asset in the months to come. They provided an excellent service and were present at the action of Nooitgedacht in December 1900, before being disbanded.

None of the Wiltshire’s medals mentioned Matcham’s Horse, so I doubt that the other men’s medals did either. I presume that only six months serving in such a small temporary unit is the reason why.

I wonder if any of our medal collectors have come across any. If not, then this is perhaps new information for many people and that thought makes me wonder how many other small temporary scouting units were formed during the war.

Ian - having re-read the biography of Walter Richard Augustus Aston Dawes in your book, I think you may not have come across this in your researches:

Salisbury & Winchester Journal 14 July 1900:



By my reckoning Dawes was recruited into Matcham's Horse during the evening of Whit Sunday 3 June 1900. The self same article can also be found in the Devizes & Wiltshire Advertiser 19 July 1900.

I was looking to see if I could find the identities of the 5 Worcesters who served in Matcham's Horse - I failed but seem to have discovered the identities of the Bedfordshire Regt men although there only seems to have been four of them:

Luton Times & Advertiser 14 June 1901:



Returning to W R A Dawes - here is his Military headstone in Nouvelles Communal Cemetery (courtesy of Find a Grave). He never knew one of his children who was born after he was killed in action.



Regards, David.

Many thanks for this information. I never knew about Matcham's Horse, despite Matcham's medals having been residing in the Nemo collection for many years. He was additionally awarded the OBE in June 1919. Also with the DSO, OBE, QSA and KSA were 1902 and 1911 Coronation medals, but I do not think he was entitled to them - perhaps he thought that he should have been!

David,

You are correct, I hadn’t seen this information so thank you so much for finding it.

Nemo,

I’m so pleased to hear that you have Matcham’s medals.

I have done some checking out of the four Bedfordshire Regt men who served in Matcham's Horse.

Firstly the article has the regimental number of Private R Prime incorrect - it was actually 7819 (rather than 7797).

Have found all four on medal rolls and no mention of them being seconded to Matcham's Horse in the comments column.

The service of 7750 Corporal F Page is commemorated on a rather magnificent Boer War Memorial in Hertford Library. This memorial seems to have totally eluded the forum membership which surprises me as I had us down as a bookish lot, perhaps we don't have a member who lives in Hertford.

7775 Lance Corporal Thomas Carruthers was obviously very proud of his Boer War service and his time with Matcham's Horse when he attested in August 1914 for service in the Herfordshire Yeomanry:



However, he was discharged 11 days after he attested "medically unfit". Did that stop Thomas - no he obviously convinced the medical officer checking out recruits to the Bedfordshire Regiment he was fit. Sadly he went missing on 29 March 1918 at Damery in France. Eventually it was decided he was dead and on 24 March 1919 a payment of £18 17shillings was made to his 12 year old daughter, Julia Isabel.