TOPIC:

John – your GGF wrote “I had a rough ride the other morning on the sergeant's horse. I had to ride it for him to quieten it down, as he has not been used to horses.” Interesting, as to serve in the IY you had to pass tests in marksmanship and horsemanship.

This photo of John Crayston appeared in a supplement to the Millom Gazette of 23 March 1900 and below it is the 4th Battalion IY casualty list for 30 May 1900 at Faber’s Put/Spruit as listed in the Penrith Observer of 12 June 1900. The top ones with a location against their name were members of the 24th Company, the others the 23rd (Lancashire) Company. The article under the casualty list tells us John Crayston was the eldest son of a family of thirteen and 23 years of age when he died.





Altogether 18 members of the IY perished as a result of the action with the other 6 of them coming from the 52nd (Paget’s Horse) Company who were part of the 19th Battalion of the IY – 4 were killed in action, 2 subsequently died of their wounds.

The late Steve Watt wrote this about the action in an on-line article published by the South African Military History Society:

Towards the end of April 1900, Lord Roberts sanctioned the formation of a small column under Sir Charles Warren to subdue the Boers in Griqualand West and British Bechuanaland. Included in this force of 2 000 infantry and some artillery were the 23rd and 24th companies of the 8th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. Warren set out to capture the hamlet of Campbell and then to advance on Griquatown and Kuruman. As supplies were running short, he decided to halt at Faber's Put and await provisions sent up from Belmont. By the early morning of 30 May 1900, some 600 Boers under de Villiers had surrounded Warren's camp and launched an attack from three directions. After encountering rifle fire to the west, the Boers withdrew. In the centre, near some kraals where the IY were encamped and from a garden, the Boer attack was pressed home vigorously. Most of the IY were brought together and hurried to the southern perimeter to deal with the Boer threat from that quarter, but not before they had lost nine men killed and several wounded. Realising that they would not succeed in achieving their objective of capturing the camp, de Villiers called off the attack and the Boers withdrew.

The mounted men were unable to pursue the retreating Boers, their horses having been stampeded during the fight. Most of the British casualties were among the IY, who lost eighteen men killed or died of wounds out of a total of 23 fatalities (Amery, Vol 4, pp238-41; Williams, 1941).

Not entirely sure who the other five were – 3 definitely from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Rifles (including their commanding officer) and one from a Canadian Battery. The Boers suffered very similar casualties.

In terms of casualties one of the most significant actions the IY were involved in.