TOPIC:

I have the following medal in my collection:

Single – Cape of Good Hope General Service medal bar: Bechuanaland “Bglr. A.M. Jearey, D.E.O.V.R.”

(Aside – Rory check the name Bedggood!)

Albert Martin Jearey was Killed during the Anglo Boer War during the attack by Commandant Scheepers’ Commando on the Ganna railway siding in the Nelspoort hills near Kromriver on 21 July 1901.

Jearey is also entitled to QSA medal with bars: Relief of Mafeking, Transvaal, Rhodesia named to Sergeant A.M. Jearey, Cape Colony Cyclist Corps.

It would give me the greatest pleasure to reunite the two medals.

This is his story:

Albert Martin Jearey was born in Cape Town on 29 January 1880. He was baptised a week later on 7 March 1880 at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Wynberg. His father was Daniel James Jearey and his mother Elizabeth Annie Bailey. His elder brother served as Clerk of the House in the Southern Rhodesia Paliament from 1924 to 1936 being rewarded by an appointment as an Officer of the British Empire.

Albert’s military career and service during the Anglo Boer War can be determined from the medal rolls for the Queen South Africa Medal. During the early stages of the War, perhaps even before hostilities commenced, he served with the Mashonaland Division of the British South Africa Police as No 959 Trooper A.M. Jearey and qualified for the Rhodesia, Relief of Mafeking and Transvaal clasps. The medal rolls record that he joined the Cape Colony Cyclist Corps as Sergeant No 31018 A.M. Jearey on 6 February 1901, this medal roll reflecting his qualification for the South Africa 1901 clasp. Notwithstanding the apparent misrecording of his initials as “A.N.” rather than “A.M.” he is specifically identified on both medal rolls as having been killed on 21 July 1901. From annotated comments on the original medal rolls it is clear that the initial medal with the single clasp South Africa 1901 which was prepared from the medal roll of the Cape Colony Cyclist Corps was returned to Woolwich and that a subsequent QSA medal, now fitted with the four clasps numerated above and presumably named to 31018 Sgt, A.M. Jearey, C.C.C.C., was re-issued and sent to his brother John c/o Sec. Dept. Administration, Salisbury, Rhodesia on 4 August 1909. A further QSA medal with the single clasp Rhodesia held by the BSA Police was also returned on 11 May 1908.

Both Sergeant A.G. Tanner of the 10th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry and Trooper J. Walsh of the South African Light Horse were also killed during this action. All three of them are buried at Nelspoort. Two further Imperial Yeomanry Troopers, A Lynn-Smart and Francis White, were wounded, but later died and were buried in Beaufort West.

The story of this incident has been recorded by Allen Duff in an article published in the September 2013 Bulletin of the Railway History Group titled “Two Boer War Attacks on Trains of the Cape Government Railways”.

“In March 1900 the Boer Leaders decided to start guerrilla warfare. Where numbers permitted convoys would be attacked and trains and railways and other infrastructure would be damaged or destroyed.

Flushed by British columns from the Camdeboo Mountains north of Aberdeen, a vengeful Commandant Gideon Scheepers and his commando rode east to the Graaff-Reinet / Klipplaat railway. On 12 July they looted and burnt the Cape Governments Railway’s buildings at Aberdeen Road Station. On 14 July Commandant Wynand Malan left the Cape Colony for the Free State. The young Commandant Piet van der Merwe took over and joined forces with Scheepers. Intent on further mayhem, provisions and clothing, they rode west to the Beaufort-Wets / De Aar railway. Scheepers decided to ambush a train at Ganna siding (375 miles from Cape Town) north of Nelspoort.

On 20 July 1901 train 509 Down (south to north) which was hauled by almost new CGR 6th Class locomotive No. 265, arrived at Nelspoort station at 23h35. After shunting a truck into the consist of the train departed at 23h45. It was a mixed train of 17 trucks, three bogie saloon coaches and a guards van. In the coaches were soldiers returning from leave. There was only the odd officer. The troops had rifles, but limited ammunition. In one compartment was a woman with children. During the shunting Guard Trollip had seen a man going towards the front of the train. He had presumed that he was one of the soldiers, but he was a Boer who hid in one of the trucks. Driver William Johnson – a CGR employee for 19 years – reported that all went well until the train approached the North Warning Board of Ganna Siding when the locomotive struck something on the left side and rolled badly for 10 to 15 yards. At the same time he heard “rifles firing over the engine” and “he put on extra steam”. About 50 to 60 yards later the vacuum gave out, the brakes came on and the train stopped. (It was later established that neither the locomotive nor any of the trucks and saloon coaches had derailed.)

The driver climbed down on the fireman’s side (the left / west side) and ran towards the rear of the train. On the way he warned soldiers on a coach balcony of the presence of the Boers. He told Guard Joseph Havelock Trollip (CGR employee for 11 years) that he thought there was a problem with the track – possibly a broken rail. The two men were then captured while inspecting the track about 50 yards behind the train. Moments later when the troops on the train started firing, the Boer captors made off. Driver Johnson then started to creep back to the locomotive. The shooting became heavier so he dived into a furrow. He crept forward on his stomach.

After he had passed the coaches, he ran to the locomotive. Back on the footplate he was again captured. This time by Scheepers who instructed him to uncouple the locomotive, to open the regulator and to send the locomotive driver-less towards Krom River station. However, this was not possible as the fireman, Rabolini, had deliberately left the injector on and primed the boiler.

Scheepers then ordered the men to guard the driver in the adjacent veld while he joined his men who were looting the train. By this time the soldier’s ammunition was exhausted and the officer i/c had surrendered. Some of the Boers then set fire to the trucks, the saloons and the guard’s van. They used straw, paper and paraffin.

Meanwhile the train-guard had walked west into the veld away from the train. After crossing the Ganna spruit (today the Kambro spruit) he cut back over a ridge to the railway. In the distance he could see coaches burning. He reached Nelspruit station at 02h40 and raised the alarm. Meanwhile driver Johnson’s captors had become befuddled with looted liquor. This enabled him to sneak away at about 03h30 towards Nelspoort station.

The armoured train – with driver Geraghty – on patrol south of Nelspoort had been alerted. While advancing north of Nelspoort the armoured train met driver Johnson about 200 yards from Ganna. Those manning the armoured train could see a Boer throwing a box into the burning guard’s van and other Boers in the veld. The gun on the armoured train was so mounted that it could not turn 180 degrees. Rifle-fire then drove off the Boers.

Driver Johnson stated that when a prisoner, a Boer (Hendrik Johannes Botha – refer below) had snatched his watch from his pocket. The next day Johnson found his watch on the coal in the locomotive’s tender. Also found the next day was a Martini Metford rifle – with a bent barrel and a broken stock – near the fifth truck behind the locomotive. It was probably used by the Boer – the one the guard saw next to the train at Nelspoort – to break the vacuum pipe to stop the train at Ganna sidng.

Mr Bedggood (Traffic Manager Beaufort-West) arrived at Ganna at 11h00. He reported inter alia that the locomotive had not derailed and was not damaged. No vehicles had derailed. All wood-work had burnt to cinders. Mr Bedggood also reported: “We buried the three killed and one Boer at Nelspoort and brought (on an ambulance train) the 18 wounded to Beaufort-West since which one died about an hour ago was (sic) informed the remainder were doing well.”
Six soldiers were killed or died from wounds and 21 were wounded. Sergeant A. Jeary, Privates A.G. Tanner and J. Welsh (not confirmed) were buried behind the Nelspoort Post Office at the station. On the Boer side Hendrik Johannes Botha was killed. He was not buried at Nelspoort, but on the farm Kruidfontein. He was reburied in the Murraysburg cemetery in the 1960s as his grave obstructed a district road deviation.

The District Locomotive Superintendent (de Aar – Arthur MacNay) inspected all the vehicles of 509 Down. All were burnt and only frames remained. Two or three trucks which were “not fit to run”, were “cast clear of the rails” and left at Ganna. The damaged bogies and other trucks were hauled to Beaufort-West and staged in the yard. The line was cleared for traffic by 14h00 on 21 July 1901.”

Subsequently, T.R. Price the General Manager of the Cape Government Railways approved a recommendation to award gold watches to Driver Johnson, Fireman Rabolini and Guard Trollip. In addition Johnson received £10 and Rabolini and Trollip £5 each. These were presented to them at a special parade in De Aar by Sir Henry Settle. The gold watch awarded to the fireman is on display at the Knysna Museum.

The Cape Colony Cyclists' Corps was raised at the end of December 1900. The official announcement authorizing the establishment of the Corps of Cyclists stated that its role would be to guard the communications in the Cape Colony. Cycling was, needless to say, an exceedingly popular pastime and sport at that time, and numerous leading men in the cycling clubs of the Peninsula are joined. It appears that virtually every town that has been communicated with, such as Port Elizabeth, East London, and Kimberley sent recruits. The men were required to serve for a limited period of six weeks, and the pay aggregated seven shillings per day, with rations. It was vital that the lines of communication be kept intact and the formation of such a Corps would assist in preventing outrages upon the railway lines.

One of the British strategies under Lord Kitchener was to enclose the railway network across the country thereby creating a barrier so that the Boer horsemen could not pass. They built a series of fortified blockhouses, each with overlapping fields of fire. Armoured trains patrolled the network. By the end of the war there were more than 8000 blockhouses along 3700 miles of corridors. A special “War Cycle” was built for use on railway lines, and a prototype of this 8-man bicycle can be seen at Fort Klapperkop Museum. They were inspired by Colonel Jack Rose of the Cape Colony Cycle Corps, and built by Cape Town cycle builder Donald Menzies. It had a detachable rim which was fitted to the pneumatic tyres, enabling it to be used on rails. When the rim was removed the bicycle could be used on normal roads. These cycles were used for reconnaissance, for carrying despatches, checking the railway line for demolition charges, and also for removing the wounded from a skirmish taking pace near a railway.

Already in the first week of January 1901, when the enemy were penetrating to within easy distance of Cape Town, they were sent to occupy Pikaneer's Kloof. They just managed to arrive in time. Although fiercely attacked on the 28th, and losing 4 killed and 23 wounded, including Captain Rose, they held on to the positions commanding the pass. This was a most promising beginning, and during the next seven months the corps did much excellent work. By the middle of February the corps was 500 strong, their commander being Major Owen Lewis. They were much split up, sections being attached to many columns, both in Cape Colony and the Orange River Colony. The fine work of those with De Lisle and Bethune, when they were in Western Cape Colony and afterwards in the north-east of the Orange River Colony, was several times spoken of. In a telegram from Calvinia, dated 8th February 1901, the Press Association correspondent who was accompanying Colonel De Lisle said: "Very valuable assistance was given to our force by a section of the Cape Town Cyclist Corps under Captain Rose last week. We were cut off from all telegraphic communication, and Colonel De Lisle relied on them exclusively for the purpose of despatch-riding, a duty which they performed admirably". And again on the 24th he said: "The comprehensive manner in which the country has been scouted by Colonel De Lisle is largely due to the mobility and enterprise of the Cyclist Corps, who have done excellent work as scouts and despatch-riders".

RobM

Always looking for quality medals awarded to the “Dukes” and other good medals!

So the Bedggood name comes to the fore again Rob! I'll be sure to let the current custodian of his son's medals (who hails from your neck of the woods) know about this little vinaigrette.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for Jearey's QSA

Wonderful write-up

Regards

Rory

Is he any relation to WT Jearey, of the BSAP, who won the DCM? Same name, from Rhodesia, may have been related.