With over one thousand views of this particular thread, it occurred to me that there might well be some people wondering about the significance of Henk's medal in relation to this forum, so perhaps an explanation of the events of the fateful day would be in order.
To do this, we have to go back to 1877 and Theophilus Shepstone's annexation of the Transvaal.
The Boers had never agreed to this annexation of their country, whilst they were quite happy to let Great Britain give them a very high level of protection and certain parts of government, they were not happy about being a Crown Colony.
Great Britain offered the Boer a Volksraad, a parliament, of it's own, but, by 1880, it had still not been delivered.
By December, the Boers had established a triumvirate, Kruger, Joubert and Pretorious, they proclaimed a new republic and so the die was cast.
The British Government had at that time, an Administrator running the Transvaal, a certain Owen Lanyon, when the Boer proclamation arrived at Government House it gave Lanyon little choice but to either hand over office or fight.
He had already chosen the latter after informing his officers across the country to, in effect, stand to and prepare your men for a confrontation, earlier in November, but, on the 17th of December he issued a proclamation stating that the Transvaal was in open revolt against Great Britain.
His forces were all over the Transvaal and this forced him to take defensive action.
The first thing to do as far as he was concerned was to increase the central force actually in Pretoria, he had already ordered his regimental commanders to send detachments to his aid earlier in November, at Lydenburg, the 94th Regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Anstruther.
He had actually received the order to march on the 27th of November, but, he had no transport available, he ended up making his own arrangements, the delay was to prove fatal, the Boers had not yet openly rebelled.
Lanyon's order from Pretoria was very clear regarding transport, no more than twelve wagons, Anstruther, took thirty, it was another error!
Anstruther eventually started off for Pretoria on the 5th of December, all too late and the moment he and his force left, they were already dead men.
They were watched around the clock by the Boers who still had not rebelled.
The Boer actually sold his produce to Anstruther's men and some even came into camp in the evenings to drink with the soldiers.
Colonel Bellairs, in military command at Pretoria, sent a warning to Anstruther to send out his scouts as he had received intelligence that five hundred armed Boers had left Paarde Kraal and to expect trouble.
Sadly, Anstruther, had only four mounted scouts in his force and some natives and it appears that he did not expect the Boers to fight, Joubert had other ideas and by the time he reached Bronkhorstspruit it was suggested that he had about one thousand men to stop any British force from reaching Pretoria, I would have thought it was actually a lot less than that, perhaps even as few as one hundred and fifty or so.
On the 20th of December, Anstruther, riding at the head of his force, behind him, the 94th's proud band, playing "Kiss me, mother" behind them, one hundred and twenty soldiers, behind them, over thirty ox wagons and then, the rear guard, around another one hundred and twenty men, all unsuspecting, arrived at Bronkhorstspruit.
On the hillside, Anstruther saw the Boer horsemen, "My God, look at that!" he clapped his spurs to his horse, the band stopped playing as he charged past them, but, all too late.
Joubert, himself intercepted Anstruther before he could reach his forward troops, he gave him a written ultimatum to turn back, Anstruther told him of his orders and Joubert simply said "very good" as Anstruther galloped back to his men, the Boers , at close range opened fire, before Anstruther's men could form into skirmishing order, almost all the officers, including Anstruther himself were either killed or wounded at that very moment.
Sadly, for the recipient of Henk's medal, it was a very fateful day indeed, moreover, if he was a member of the band, he would have not been able to defend himself, they had no rifles or ammunition.
On this day, there were to be many brave acts, which, sadly went largely unrewarded, these included saving the colours of the 94th Regiment, it was a particular disgrace to "loose" the colours, which had of course been touched by the sovereign's own hand.
Matters continued until February 1881, Pretoria, under siege, continued to hold out, but, after another three engagements and the death of George Colley, Lanyon's own boss, who had over all command, the British government abandoned the Transvaal, but, for so many, this was unfinished business, that was to lead directly to the Anglo Boer War.
