TOPIC:

A drought of several months in the medal collecting area ended a few weeks ago with the arrival of the following -


(1) India General Service '54 with clasps "Burma 1885-87", "Burma 1887-89", "North East Frontier, 1891" and "Burma 1889-92"; engraved to "Lt. W.H.Robinson, 3/1 Bty, Sec. Div., RGA"
(2) Queen's South Africa medal with clasps "Relief of Mafeking" and "Transvaal"; engraved to "Major W.H.Robinson, R.G.A."
(3) Kings South Africa medal with South Africa 1901 and 1902 clasps; engraved as above.

Previously, IL was fortunate to add to his collection the QSA/KSA pair to Gunner Morgan (RGA and Pom Poms) who was one of the few Pom Pom lads to receive the "Relief of Mafeking" clasp for his QSA. There was some comment at the time about numbers of those clasps awarded to Pom Poms - the Kaplan roll says five (two officers and three ORs - and the medal roll tends to confirm that. Il would have though a few more would have been needed to keep two individual Pom Poms going and supplied in the field. Perhaps volunteers from other units were called for?
Prior to serving in South Africa, then-Lt. W.H.Robinson's military was mainly in Burma. BBM 7th Edition gives some details of the qualifications for each of the illustrated IGS '54 clasps. The operations in Burma were protracted; occuring after Burma's ruler flirted with the French and acted against British business interests. The result was annexation by the Raj. Resistance was expected and initially overcome - but local ill-feeling developed into "banditry" and many punitive expeditions resulted.
Lt. Robinson's service outside Burma resulted in the clasp "North East Frontier, 1891". In Manipur, following resistance to the Raj's ideas about Ruler succession, an unfortunate incident occurred. During negotiations, the Assam Chief Commissioner and his delegation were beheaded - which triggered an avenging expedition. Artillery was very active up to the end of hostilities in April, 1891.
Present day readers may look askance at such Colonial expeditions; applying current attitudes to the days of Empire. A professional soldier had to do what he was told and go where the action was - leaving justification to the politicians and moral judgements to latter-day historians. As it was at the time and has been ever since.
Following the invasion of the British South African colonies in October 1899, the effective use of Pom Poms by the Boers on the Tugela and elsewhere caused a nasty shock to the military. Having previously dismissed the Vickers, Sons and Maxim concept of a relatively small and handy automatic, shell-firing gun - despite its adoption by the Royal Navy - exposure to the Pom Pom's bite caused the army to hastily order both Pom Poms and ammunition. Three British Pom Poms were in action at Paardeburg in February 1900 and many more arrived later.
The Pom Pom was carriage mounted, belt fed, fired explosive shells of calibre 37mm (each weighing about one pound); that being the smallest explosive projectile permitted under the St.Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and the ratification by the Hague Convention of 1899. The Pom Pom mechanism was that of an enlarged Maxim gun - recoil operated with a rate-of-fire of about sixty rpm. Maximum range was about 4,500 yards.
As Lord Roberts' army moved on the march to Pretoria, operations were in hand to effect the relief of besieged Mafeking. Colonel Mahon was tasked with forming a Flying Column to act in concert with that of Colonel Plumer's Northern force to relieve the town; Plumer's force being insufficiently strong on its own. Major Pollock, writing in "With Seven Generals in the Boer War' covers the activities of Mahon's Mafeking relief force in detail and informs us that its diverse composition was "thoroughly representative of the Empire". "F" Section of Pom Poms (two guns) commanded by Captain W.H.Robinson was to accompany Mahon's column. Vol.II Chapter XXV of "With the Flag to Pretoria" contains a group photograph of the officers of the. Relief column. There we see an informal view of Capt. Robinson; hatless, IGS ribbon on tunic and looking very professional.


Interestingly, Major Pollock tells us that he had a camera with him during the actual Relief operations - however, ... out of seven dozen photographs, not one was really fit for publication". "The films were all defective and nearly all absolutely bad." "Consequently," he continues, "the pictures published represent the skill of the Printer's artist rather than the veritable products of my camera". Nevertheless, he saw fit to publish a rather atmospheric reproduction of Captain W.H.Robinson - standing behind one of his Pom Poms during the final advance to relieve Mafeking.


The History of the Royal Artillery informs us that the initial concept for the use of the new Pom Poms was to use them attached to Field Artillery for range-finding purposes. Reading Major Pollock's account however, it appears that Capt. Robinson used his Pom Poms in a direct support role during the Relief. In any case, during the guerrilla war, the initial concept was at odds with the needs of fast moving columns.
Accordingly, Pom Pom sections were constituted as independent units. Sections or single guns usually accompanied the columns. In addition to providing direct support, reports indicate Pom Poms were widely used for signalling (the slow rate of fire allowing the firing of single, double or triple rounds as simple, pre-arranged messages between columns). The RA History comments that Pom Poms "found their best opportunities when used free lance fashion by officers with initiative and tactical vision".
Records show that Capt. W.H.Robinson was attached to the Pom Pom depot; initially or later in his service is unclear. In any case such a posting would be logical given his experience. It is very tempting to think that he would have been keen to see an active role for what appears to have been his speciality. At the close of hostilities, he achiever a Majority and had been "mentioned" twice. Post war, Major Robinson was posted to 95th Coy., RGA in December 1908. Perhaps ironically, the year previous had seen the army declare the Pom Pom as obsolete due to much needed improvements in Field and Horse artillery.
Regards to all
IL.

IL
What a great way to break a drought! Congratulations, and thank you for sharing.
Regards
Brett

Well done IL!

Groups like that are worth the wait

Rory

Brett, Rory
Thanks for the kind comments. It is interesting to note that Capt. Robinson's 2-i-c according the Kaplan RofM roll is one "Lt. P.Hogarth". Marginal notes on P.99 of WO100/142 shows an entry for Lt. W (Hogarth) Wilson with clasps RofM, Elandslaagte, DofL, Transvaal and Wittebergen and a marginal note shows "372, Tpr, I.L.H." Turning up David's book "Elandslaagte, Account and Medal roll", I find "372 Tpr Wilson, Patrick Hogarth" credited with the listed clasps plus "Commissioned into the Artillery 4/7/00. Medal issued off 38th RFA".
The point of this reply is to point out that Capt. Robinson certainly had a capable 2-i-c! Wouldn't it be rewarding to find that Lt. Patrick Hogarth Wilson's QSA (KSA?) to 38th Battery RFA still exists out there?
Regards
IL.

Hi IL
I bought the Morgan pair in 1983 and disposed of it 10 years ago.
So good to know it went to such a good home!!
Henk

A cracking group, the four bar IGS is terrific.

Robinson was MID: www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27353/page/5931