TOPIC:

“You may easily find out quite a lot about me by going anywhere where old shipmasters foregather and asking if they know Shepherd of Natal.” -

Born in Australia this is the story an old salt of the sea and a fearless horseman in the Anglo Boer War who was trusted to "Cross the Bar" at the precarious entrance to South Africa’s busiest harbour at Durban.

Pair (Duplicate issue) – QSA medal 3 bars: CC, Tvl, Witte (Sjt. P.H. Shepherd. Border Horse.) paired with QSA no bar (Mr. P.H. Shepherd. Pilot) .
Entitled to additional South Africa 1901 Clasp.

Percy (Percival) Hyett Flack Shepherd was born in Australia in 1873. After attending school Percy is recorded as having arrived in Natal in 1895 where he then joined the Port Authority in Durban as a Quartermaster. His unusual medal ‘Pair’ is confirmed on the medal rolls of the Queen’s South Africa medal, having first seen service as a “Sergeant” with the Border Horse and subsequently as a ‘Probationary Pilot’ with the Port Natal Harbour Authority in Durban.

His QSA medal with the three clasps named to him as a Sergeant in the Border Horse is listed on a medal roll for the Border Horse signed by Captain Robert James Taylor, Paymaster of the Border Horse dated Cape Town 15 September 1901. A further supplementary medal roll signed by Major Edward Lovegrove in Cape Town in his capacity as Officer Commanding the Discharge Depot of the South African Mounted Regular Forces is dated 16 November 1904 and records his entitlement and the issue of the additional clasp “South Africa 1901”. This roll includes a note that this additional clasp was issued on 23 March 1906 (date a little unclear).

His QSA medal is simply inscribed ‘Pilot’ and is listed on an undated medal roll, without heading, which includes the general marginal comment ‘Rendered conspicuous service in connection with Transports arriving at and leaving Durban’. This medal roll which lists a total of 16 names, of whom seven are described as either a pilot or probationary pilot, was signed Sir George Morris Sutton who served as the Prime Minister of the Colony of Natal from 18 August 1903 to May 1905. There is no note on any of these abovementioned medal rolls linking the recipient of these two medals. This should of course have been noted and he correctly should only have been issued with the single QSA medal. Fortunately for medal collectors sometime these anomalies slipped through the net!

Service records for the Border Horse record that Percy Hyett Shepherd first joined the Border Horse as a Volunteer on 17 February 1900 and was discharged a year later on 7 April 1901. It is known that he soon “went to sea” after briefly serving as quartermaster but it has not yet been emphatically confirmed whether or not he was reemployed by the Port Natal Harbour Authority immediately before his service with the Border Horse. (His Border Horse attestation and discharge documents which are presumably housed at Kew have not yet been inspected.)

It is evident that he served with the Border Horse from the outset of their service during the Anglo Boer War. This unit was not linked to the famous Border Horse from 20 years before.

Sterling records their service record as follows:

“The Border Horse was raised in the Eastern portion of Cape Colony in February 1900, their commander being Colonel Crewe, and when General Brabant was driving the Boers from about Dordrecht, 200 of the corps joined Major Maxwell at Labuschagne's Nek on 5th March. On the 4th Maxwell's Colonials had established themselves on a mountain 1500 feet high on the east of the Nek, but the troops in front of the position had been held up, and indeed withdrawn. 'The Times' History, vol iii p 491, mentions that the two squadrons of the Border Horse, when they arrived on the 5th, "proceeded to storm the Boer schanzes. By noon the whole Boer force was in full retreat towards Aliwal North", to which place Brabant and Maxwell followed. On the 5th the Border Horse lost 2 killed and several wounded. Their casualties were not so severe as the Cape Mounted Rifles or Frontier Mounted Rifles.

The Border Horse were stationed at Aliwal North in April 1900, and were reviewed there by General Brabant, under whom they were to act in the operations for the relief of Wepener. In the advance to Wepener they were in the forefront, and several times had sharp fighting with casualties. Their work was highly spoken of by those who witnessed it.

After Wepener was relieved the Border Horse was a component part of the Colonial Division under General Brabant, and in the advance to the Brand Water Basin the whole of the Division often had fighting. The scouting and patrol work was constant, hard, and, from the nature of the country, very dangerous, and casualties were frequent. Of the work and the losses, the Border Horse had their full share, but they had the satisfaction of helping to hem in Prinsloo and his 4v000 men. Lieutenant L G Longmore was severely wounded near Hammonia towards the end of May, and on same occasion 3 men were killed and several wounded.

At Doornhoek, on 26th August 1900, the corps was heavily engaged, and had Major M W Robertson severely wounded and about 20 other casualties. Towards the close of 1900 the Border Horse were with Colonel Crewe in the Winburg district, and at Tabaksberg, on 29th January 1901, they had 10 casualties, including Captain Cameron wounded. They took part in further fighting about Winburg towards the end of February. Under Colonel Crewe a portion of the corps were engaged in the pursuit of De Wet in Cape Colony, and the very arduous work by which he was driven back across the river and through the central district of the Orange River Colony in February and March 1901. Sergeant Major Cruden and 1 man were wounded at Petrusburg in that district on 9th March. Throughout the remainder of the year the Border Horse operated chiefly in Cape Colony under various column commanders and saw much fighting.”

One might presume that that serving as a sergeant with this corps that Percy had seen some active fighting and the reader of this writeup may have been wondering how an Australian seaman came to serve as a Sergeant in the Border Horse. What induced this volunteer colonial from far across the sea to exchange the comparative comfort of a small vessel riding the high seas to a being a mounted rifleman traversing the countryside on an uncomfortable horse? Fortunately for us medal collectors many of the stories of those employed by the South African Railways and Harbour have been made freely available, and searchable, on the excellent and exceptionally worthwhile website “SAR Magazine” ([email protected].). The details of one particular story recorded more than 20 years later when Percy had already achieved some notoriety in the service of the South African Harbour Authorities, provides a hint of Percy’ prowess as a horseman. Clearly this event took place in Durban, at ‘Lord’s Grounds’ which was used by the Military Authorities as a major Remount Depot from the early days of the War.

“ ‘Taurus’ of ‘The latest’ recently published an authentic episode in the early days of the Assistant Port Captain’s career which occurred at Lord’s Grounds during the Boer War. The facts related astounded more persons than myself who have been more of less intimately associated with Captain P.H. Shepherd for many years and were unaware that he had any knowledge of horsemanship. I trust “Taurus’ will pardon me for taking a few extracts from his interesting story. Lord’s Grounds at the time was a military remount camp, and the well preserved turfed enclosure was being trampled out of recognition by a troop of unbroken remounts from Queensland, which required to be manhandled and reduced to a state of docility before they could be forwarded up country for use by the troops engaged in chasing the elusive Transvaal Free State commandoes.

One of the animals was a veritable outlaw, who appeared to have made up his mind that neither rough usage nor kind treatment should subdue his stubborn will or conquer his natural and inherent waywardness. He was a villain of villains. A roughrider in khaki succeeded in leaping into the saddle and with difficulty retained his seat whilst his mount bucked, reared, side-stepped, plunged and raged like a thing demented, and on finding all these tactics futile to dislodge his unwelcome rider he dashed off for a wild fig tree which he negotiated so closely that his rider was crushed and bruised and was no longer able to continue the battle for mastery. The nag snorted with disdain and pride, and to all intents and purposes had emerged from the contest unconquered.

A mounted infantryman who had been sent down with a wounded arm, still in a sling, volunteered to ‘Have a go at the cow.’ “No, you don’t,’ quickly remarked a young fellow in seafaring garb, who had been squatting on the grass, an interested onlooker at the circus proceedings. ‘I’ll beat him or he kills me.’ Said the youngster with the smell of salt water in his navy blue outfit. Several old stagers sitting around sniggered, and knowingly winked at each other as the young sailor approached the refractory nag, but when he gathered the reins with the resoluteness and artistry of a man who had lived his whole life amongst horses, their eyebrows went up with an almost perceptible click.

In a trice he had vaulted into the saddle, and immediately there was a repitition of the previous performance. The young sailor sat firm as a rock, a slight movement of his lips indicating that he was muttering something not altogether complimentary to the parentage of the steed from Queensland plains who, finding plunging and bucking of no avail, flopped down with legs sprawled and then shot up with rocket-like velocity; but the sailor boy retained his seat, looking more determined than ever to obtain the mastery.

The outlaw, realising at long last that he was beaten came to a standstill, and the sailor chap dismounted and handed it over to a fellow in khaki. Mr John Morely, of the equestrian act, approached the young seafaring horseman. “Willunga Beach, eh?” he remarked. “Yes,” answered the sailor. “Sunday mornings, I suppose?” “that’s right,” and the young salt moved off. (Willunga Beach is situated approximately 25 miles south of Adelaide, famous for its golden cliff faces, crystal clear waters and soft sands. Still today, it is a very popular beach for horse riding.)

That sailor chap today is pilot P.H. Shepherd, recently promoted Assistant Port Captain, Port Natal, who in April this year will have completed one year short of a quarter of a century in the Department of the Port Captain, Durban Harbour. When approached and asked if he recollected the incident, he shrugged his shoulders and endeavoured to change the subject. He had piloted so many vessels across the bar at the channel entrance during the period that had elapsed since the event recorded that he could not really say whether or not the story as related by the author meticulously represented the incident or not.”

The Railway Magazine includes innumerable references to Percy Shepherd. He was born in Norwood in Adelaide, South Australia on 23 November 1873 being the eldest son of Hyett Shepherd and his wife Elizabeth Mary Whittaker Dennis who were married on 18 May 1870. His father Hyett was a well known farmer and served as a Councillor for the District Council of Aldinga whereas his grandfather, Robert Shepherd had been born in Lastingham in Yorkshire, England. He is recorded as having lived in Rushden, Isle of Man in 1851 and died in Aldinga in South Africa in 1867 some 6 years before Percy’s birth. He grew up as a member of a large family having five younger brothers and no less than seven sisters, one of his brothers passing at a young age with all of his other siblings reaching maturity. It seems most likely that, as his younger brother who was born in 1875 is recorded as being a pupil, that he attended the Pulteney Grammer School which is situated on the South Terrace in Adelaide and is today the second oldest independent school in South Australia. After leaving school he studied law in Messrs. Stow and Bakewell’s office in Adelaide but could not resist the call of the sea, which was in his blood. After a gruelling period of four years before the mast in sail he arrived in Natal in 1895 as second mate of the bargue Earlshall.

On leaving the Earlsall he intended to proceed to Johannesburg with the thought of qualifying as a surveyor, but troublous times up north dictated a change of plan and he then joined the Port Authority in Durban as a Quartermaster. Well before the Anglo Boer War he returned to the sea, in order to qualify for his master’s ticket with the object of rejoining the Harbour service and gaining higher rank. He is recorded as serving as Chief Officer with Rennie Steamers during the period that the transcontinental telegraph material was being carried to Beira and Chinde. Historical records record that he had a narrow escape from being wrecked on the little Induna on the infamous Chinde Bar. and the question remains as to whether he was serving in this capacity on this ship in December 1899. He served “under sail and steam” and he obtained his master’s certificate when he was 24 years and returned to Durban in late 1899 but it is not known whether this was aboard the ‘little induna” or not or whether this was just a ship in which he had served several years before.

Like so many young men of that time, having witnessed the severe hardships inflicted by the Boers during the early months of the War, he volunteered for service enlisting in the Border Horse on 17 February 1900. His younger brother Clarence also served during the war, and volunteering once again during the Great War he was killed at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915.. After serving for some 13 months as a Sergeant with the Border Horse, Percy took his discharge on 1 April 1901 and now with his Master’s ticket he rejoined the Harbour service at Durban as a probationer pilot in 1901. Designated as their “Seventh Pilot” he was paid the princely annual salary of £156 with an additional residence allowance of £60 and a further £10 for his uniform. In the following year Captain Shepherd passed the Pilot Board and his appointment was confirmed.

For a brief period of upwards of two years he served as Acting Assistant Port Captain for Table Bay Harbour in Cape Town during the Great War returning to Durban as Assistant Port Captain in 1923. He was once again transferred as Port Captain to the smaller harbour at East London for the period 1927 to 1929. When shortly before the retirement of the Port Captain, Captain S.G. Stephens he was recalled to Durban as Acting Port Captain He was formally appointed as Port Captain at Durban, by then South Africa’s biggest and busiest harbour in mid 1930 before proceeding on pension in late 1932.

Throughout his career he was prominent in a great deal of salvage work in South African waters, notably in connection with the ship Salamis, the bargues Albyn and Kampford, the schooner Bangkok, the steamers Umzimvubu, Hyacinthus, and , in a lesser degree, Tyndareus. He died at his home in Durban on 15 August 1950 leaving a widow, Mary Elizabeth Richardson whom he had married on 30 April 1903 and twin sons and three daughters.

The South African Railway Magazine provides innumerable snippets of information about this popular Port Captain. He was a keen chess player and excellent snooker player. On occasion he did duty as a judge in their boxing contests. He was keenly interested in cricket and rugby it being recorded that his twin sons played the game against the best that England could offer. In his younger days he was a fearless equestrian and had qualified as a rough-rider before leaving his Australian homeland.

It is perhaps worthwhile to include some details in this writeup of a few additional stories of his sailing career and of the ships in which he sailed.

Firstly, he was serving as First Mate of the famous ship Torrens when his ship ‘hit’ an iceberg near the Crozet Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean on 11 January 1899. Having lost her fore topmast, jib boom, bowsprit and figurehead she eventually limped into Adelaide Island, Giving extensive evidence to the subsequent Board enquiry an Australian newspaper reported the following:

“Percy Hyett Shepherd, first mate of the Torrens, holding a Board of Trade master's certificate, said he joined the vessel in London. He had been trading to Australia nearly all his life. He made the alteration in the log book on January 8. It was simply an error in copying in. Midnight on the 8th was the first time they got a north-east wind. Witness saw the ice at 8 a.m. on .January 11. It was about 10 miles away on the starboard bow and was a berg. Having seen ice in the morning and their position putting them within 30 miles of Hog Island, they backed the yards all the afternoon, until about 6 o'clock. At this time, the weather having cleared, the ship went ahead again until 7 o'clock. They saw land about live miles off, with breakers about three miles away. When they “wore ship” they went westward for an hour to get in offing, so that they might go south. His evidence as to the course steered up to the time of striking was generally corroborative of the captain’s. Alter sighting Hog Island they decided to run 30 miles south, and having gone about seven westerly and ten southerly they struck a berg. The look-out first saw the berg, and shouted, “Ice right ahead'' at about 9.20. Witness had not seen if until then. There was also a look out with him on the poop. He immediately put the helm hard-a-starboard, and the boat hung for a lew seconds, and then rammed her bowsprit in. In about six or seven seconds the damage was complete, and when the main yard was brought round the ship swung off and was clear. About 30 seconds elapsed between die time they the saw the berg and the time they struck. It was the darkness that prevented them from seeing it before. He roughly estimated that the size of the berg was two miles long and 300 ft. high. Their course was then changed to easterly, although they edged south, as they had not gone so far south as they intended to. At 10 minutes past 9 o'clock on the following day they passed Possession and at 11 o'clock East Island. Their rate was about six knots. He did not see Penguin Island, and was certain they did not strike it, as the course they shaped would not have taken them near any land. The temperature became very low when within 200 ft. of the berg, and when they got to leeward it was freezing. He saw no stones or earth come on deck, but he had heard a lot of talk about such, and had seen some specimens of Portland cement, which had been taken for rock. It could not by any possibility have been an island, because (1) they could not have struck land and got off, (2) their course carried them away from land, and (3) the berg seemed to have life, and the vessel seemed to rebound from it. There was only a momentary panic among one or two men. The first order witness gave was, “Clear away the boats,” and he helped to get one clear himself. Finding that the ship was floating all right he did not proceed with the work. The boats were all in good order and could have all been in the water in half an hour. The life-saving gear was also all right.

By Warden Hamilton—Had been in the vicinity of icebergs before. If one of the islands had been covered with snow it would not have appeared like an iceberg. The question as to its being an island wan not raised amongst the crew for a considerable time afterwards. Had seen no stones from the berg. …….

The Marine Board was occupied during the whole of Monday in taking evidence concerning the Torrens collision. The matter does not, however, seem to have been much more advanced in a sense than it was at the previous day's enquiry, although a mass of evidence was recorded.

The chief mate, Mr. Shepherd, whose examination was continued, pointed out that he had made a mistake in reckoning up the position of the vessel on the day following the accident, and that from the corrected position in which he now fixed the ship, the process of 'working back' would have placed her several miles away from Penguin Island, and, not as previously stated, right on top of it. The witness admitted, however, that the island would still have been right in their course, although none of the witnesses saw it. It was remarked by Captain Gibbon that none of the sailors who spoke of finding stones on board were obtainable as witnesses, but this was explained by the fact that they were all “shilling-a-month” men as sailors are termed, who practically work their passage out from the old country to the colonies in search of higher wages. As soon as the ship arrived in port, these men were paid oft', and, with one exception, were not to be found up to Monday. The exception believed that the object struck was an iceberg. A little amusement was introduced into the proceedings at the expense of a first voyager, who, when asked why he so confidently asserted die object was a berg, explained' for the enlightenment of the board, that there was a different experienced on striking a floating body from that caused by collision with a fixed object, in other words, that striking an iceberg was different from striking a rock. “I should think.'' observed the President, “that a block of ice two miles long and 200 or 300 ft. out of the water was quite solid enough for you, wasn't it? I suppose you have not been computing the number of millions of tons in the mass?' The young voyager was silenced. Various reasons were given by more experienced seamen in support of their statement: that ice was struck, and the enquiry stands adjourned sine die.”

Some twenty five years later an extract of a scandalous letter was published in “Blue Peter”, the well-known and widely read marine publication. These comments were subsequently withdrawn but not before Captain Shepherd had recorded his extreme displeasure and affrontment in no uncertain terms. His letters of that period are held at Greenwich and in Australia, some of which have been copied in their entirety and are freely available online.


Shepherd described the comments as an “Absurd, malicious and lying letter in regard to the curious mishap” emphasizing that “I still am as I was then an uncompromising disciplinarian”, adding “Well imagine what the Board of Trade were doing to permit a steamboat mate to on as First Mate of a sailing ship in ’99. And after this simple little exercise imagine how a steamboat sailor ever became possessed of a Master’s certificate(square rigged). Further how did it happen that the Torrens sailed from a position one cable distant from Heroine Reef to Penguin Island in twenty minutes! Sailing under reduced sail! Further again imagine the parlous condition of everything on board at daylight – 3 am – next day with Penguin I still in sight, apprentice at the wheel captain at the poop when he made that remark to the passenger, does not this definitely establish apprentice as being of the 2nd mates watch. Very few of the 2nd mates watch were on deck when the ship was dismasted which accounts for no one being injured. It all happened within the brief space of one minute and within two minutes the mate was assisting the watch below apprentices to come on deck as the keel of the bowsprit was threatening to come further inboard and trap them within their quarters in the fore between decks.

Thereafter, a rapid survey of the damage forward and sounding the well could not have occupied him more than 4 minutes, but it was one minute too long for when he returned to the poop to report the ship was head to wind – looping the loop, the man at the wheel – fearful no doubt of the captain’s revolver had failed to steady the helm. Which gives the lie to the statement that the man at the wheel was completely capable of acting on his own and that the captain took command of the situation. For the 3rd time in one evening the mate worked the ship into safety.

In case you may think that I am trying to inflate my own stock at the expense of the captain’s please remember that Captain Angel was at a great disadvantage being projected from a well lighted saloon into a state of affairs with bewildering rapidity. The mate was in charge of the deck, calm and capable, and such having been the case there was no need of two he-men on a one man job, besides Captain Angel did not keep a log and back himself. The fact that apprentice helped foul the rigging topsail when there was any amount of more vitally important work to be done definitely locates him in the general scheme of things.”

Perhaps it is of further interest to note that Joseph Conrad, the famous and well-known English novelist of Polish extraction, also once served as a Mate in the Torrens. Much has been written about this ship.

Secondly, the ship Induna which served on the East African coast for many years also has its place in the history of the Anglo Boer War, for it was while sailing in her that Winston Churchill penned the dispatch announcing his escape.

Lord Soames, a grandson of Sir Winston recently posted this story on the Web writing as follows:

“ … …. Over the veldt the escapee travelled, the drama well described in his autobiography and elsewhere. Safe at last, he presented himself at the British Consulate in Lourenço Marques. Taken for a vagrant, he was ordered away. But he “made so much noise,” his son wrote, that he was identified, given a bath, dinner and exit plan.

The city was full of Boer sympathizers, so the Consul, Andrew Carnegie Ross, escorted him to the quay with “twelve armed gentlemen.” “Except for a pair of elderly ladies in deck chairs, who seemed annoyed at the boisterous arrival,” wrote Robert Lewis Taylor, “everybody within sight was amiable and sympathetic.”

As the Induna sailed on the 21st, Churchill filed a despatch:

“It is from the cabin of this little vessel, as she coasts along the sandy shores of Africa, that I write these lines, and the reader who may persevere through this hurried account will perhaps understand why I write them with a feeling of triumph, and better than triumph, a feeling of pure joy.”

Induna docked at Durban on the afternoon of December 23rd where, Taylor wrote, “the lid of British enthusiasm was blown off more emphatically…. Churchill stood in the bow and, in the idiom of the ring, ‘mitted’ the crowd. His hour had come at last.”

The war had been going badly and the British desperately needed good news. In Durban harbour, ships flew bunting, small craft swarmed, bosun’s pipes, whistles and sirens added to the cacophony. Three bands were playing as Induna was warped to the quay. The former desperado made several impromptu speeches, one apparently from a rickshaw! Soon Churchill was a world celebrity. He ran for the second time in Oldham, was handily elected, and took his seat in the House of Commons 14 February 1901. For the next sixty-five years, he was rarely out of the news. SS Induna had carried Winston Churchill into fame.”

It is recorded that at some time during the late 1890s Percy Shepherd served aboard the Induna whilst employed as a Chief Officer in Rennie Steamers, but I suspect that this was a few years before December 1899!