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Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (4) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Laing’s Nek (2321 Pte. C. Phillips, Lanc: Fus:)

Thomas Ryan, alias Charles Phillips, a Painter from Liverpool, attested into the Lancashire Fusiliers on 29 August 1887 and served in India from 26 November 1890 to 27 February 1895. Afterwards serving at Home, he was discharged on 28 September 1899, but recalled for service in South Africa during the Boer War.

QSA (4) listed on WO100/179p77.

Invalided 1 February 1901.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (1) Relief of Ladysmith (3503 Pte. J. Kearns, Lanc. Fus:)

John Kearns was born in Bombay and attested for the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, at Bolton on 3 November 1890, aged 18. He served with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War, and was killed in action at Venters Spruit on 20 January 1900.

Picture courtesy of Spink

[ Queen's Sudan ];
{QSA (1) Relief of Ladysmith ];
Khedive's Sudan (1) Khartoum (2814 Pte. E.W. Brierley. 2nd L.F.)

Edward William Brierley served in the Boer War with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was wounded at Spion Kop and invalided home on 31 March 1900, doubtless as a result of his wounds.

A reporter for the Manchester Guardian reported on the devastation at Spion Kop:

'If we could get on to the Southern crest of it [Spion Kop] we could probably push on to the northern end, once there we could open a flanking fire on the Boer lines which ran east and west. Spioenkop [sic], properly used was the key that would open the door of Ladysmith. Patrols had reported that there were only a few Boers on it.

Soon after dusk on Tuesday a party set out to make a night attack on the hill. There were Thorneycroft's' Mounted Infantry, the Lancashire Fusiliers, the Lancashire Regiment, two companies of the South Lancashire Regiment and a company of Engineers. General Woodgate Commanded. It was a hand-and-knee march up the southern face - a climb over smooth rock and grass. It was slow.

The crest was not reached until dawn. When dawn came the party found that it was in the clouds. It could see nothing but the plateau - 400 yards across - on which it stood. Trenches were made but it was difficult to determine the right place for them. The Boers were invisible. At last the mist lifted. The curtain rose upon the performance of a tragedy. The Boers - need I say on another ridge of Spion kop - began to fire heavily, and our men seemed to have no sufficient protection in the trenches. The space was small; they were crowded together.

I will describe the scene as I saw it from below. I shall always have it in my memory - that acre of massacre, that complete shambles, at the top of a rich green gully, with cool granite walls (a way fit to lead to heaven), which reached up the western flank of the mountain.

To me it seemed our men were all in a small square patch; there were brown men and browner trenches, the whole like an over-ripe barley field. The Boers had three guns playing like hoses upon our men. It was a triangular fire and our men on the Kop had no gun. Men must have felt that they had lived a long life under that fire by the end of the day.'

By the close of the battle, the British casualties totalled 332 killed, 563 wounded and 163 prisoners.

QSA listed on WO100/179p22.