From Find My Past if you do not have it yet...… Mike
First name(s) C
Last name Ward
Service number 3630
Rank Sergeant
Regiment 2 Battalion The Royal Hampshire Regiment
Year 1899-1902
Biography
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Event detail DCM Award, London Gazette number 27359 page 6321 published on 20/02/1900 at Paardeberg
Event unit 2 Battalion The Royal Hampshire Regiment
Gazetteer
[2824: 2858-2509 memorial] a hill which gives its name to a farm and a drift across the Modder River in the Orange Free State (Boshof, Jacobsdal and Petrusburg districts; Free State), the battlefield memorial being some eight kilometres east of Perdeberg station. Variant: Perdeberg (Afrikaans spelling in use from 1953 and as used on the 1: 250,000 map). Retiring eastwards with his commandos towards Bloemfontein, Asst Cmdt-Gen P.A. Cronjé‚ hoped to cross to the south bank of the Modder River by Vendutie Drift*. The main body of the convoy, hampered by women and children, halted at midnight on 16 February 1900 near Paardeberg Drift* and, after a rest of four hours, inspanned and trekked to Vendutie Drift where it again halted for a rest. As the leading waggons inspanned and began to cross the river on the morning of 17 February, Royal Horse Artillery batteries from Maj-Gen J.D.P. French's cavalry division started to shell the drift. The crossing was halted and attacks led by Cmdt J.F. de Beer (Bloemhof commando) and Field Cornet T. van Nieuwoudt (Hoopstad commando) to force French to abandon the artillery position were unsuccessful. Late that afternoon Cronjé‚ decided to laager at the drift and started to entrench around the waggons in the hope that reinforcements would shortly arrive. The British forces under the effective command of Lt-Gen Lord Kitchener now began to assemble at Paardeberg Drift around midnight - Lt-Gen T. Kelly- Kenny's 6th infantry divison, Lt-Gen Sir H.E. Colvile's 9th infantry division and Maj-Gen H.L. Smith-Dorrien's 19th infantry brigade. Determined to attack in the expectation of seizing the laager by 10 am on 18 February, Kitchener ordered a frontal assault from the south combined with attacks upstream and downstream. The split of units within larger commands and lack of communication between the three forces, together with determined Boer resistance, frustrated Kitchener's idea of a quick victory. By afternoon, the attacking forces had come to a standstill and Kitchener issued an order that the laager must be rushed at all costs. In one such unsuccessful attempt from the east, Col O.C. Hannay, leading a charge of mounted infantry, was killed after his horse had been shot from under him and he had reached the Boer lines on foot. In the meantime, Veg-Gen C.R. de Wet had arrived from the south-east with reinforcements and captured Kitchener's Kopje* and Osfontein* and Stinkfontein* farmhouses still held by Kitchener's Horse. On the morning of 19 February, Field Marshal Lord Roberts arrived to take charge of the operatons. About the same time, Cronjé‚ requested an armistice to bury the dead, but this was refused by Roberts who demanded his surrender. Cronjé‚ rejected the demand and the British continued to bombard the laager which was to be their main activity until 21 February when Kitchener's Kopje was attacked by part of French's cavalry division and by Maj-Gen Sir H.C. Chermside's 14th infantry brigade; de Wet, feeling that he was surrounded, withdrew. De Wet tried unsuccessfully to retake Kitchener's Kopje on 23 February, an action in which Cmdt H. Theunissen and some 80 burghers of the Winburg commando were taken prisoner. By heliograph, De Wet tried unsuccessfully to persuade Cronjé‚ to break out, but Cronjé‚ refused. De Wet then sent Capt D.J.S. Theron on foot into the invested laager on the night of 24/25 February with the same message, but Theron returned with the same reply. Heavy rains and the rise in the Modder River made conditions for the burghers in the laager and the investing troops even more difficult. On 26 February, British trenches were pushed closer to the laager until an attack was mounted in the early morning of 27 February led by six companies of the Royal Canadian Regiment under Lt-Col W.D. Otter. The attack ground to a halt within 100 m of the Boer trenches under intense fire, but at daylight a white flag was hoisted and burghers came out of their trenches to surrender to Colvile personally. At 7 am, Cronjé‚ rode up to Roberts's headquarters to arrange details of the surrender. British losses were 303 killed, 906 wounded and 61 taken prisoner; estimates of Boer losses are difficult to determine, but some 120 burghers were killed, about 300 wounded and 3,191 burghers taken prisoner. For rescuing one of his men while exposed to very heavy fire on the morning of 18 February 1900 Lt F.N. Parsons, The Essex regiment, was awarded the Victoria Cross; he was killed on 10 March at Driefontein (4)*. For repeatedly fetching water for the wounded under heavy and close fire on 18 February, Sgt A. Atkinson, The Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire) regiment, was awarded the Victoria Cross; he was wounded on the seventh occasion and died a few days later. HMG II pp.97-179, 590 and 603-604 (map no.23); Times III pp.414-458 and 472-487 (map facing p.494); Breytenbach IV pp.255-430 (map facing p.348); Wilson II pp.400-440 (maps on pp.400, 410, 420 and 425); De Wet pp.55-64 (map on p.54); Smith-Dorrien pp.149-162 (map on p.152); Doyle p.329-346; Cassell pp.603-607 and 643-675; Brown III pp.212-245; Creswicke IV pp.53-79 (map on p.57); Duxbury.
Event source SAFF
Country Great Britain
Record set Anglo-Boer War Records 1899-1902
Category Military Service & Conflict
Subcategory Boer Wars
