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A Ladysmith Defender and Zulu War veteran - Henry Crouch 6 years 6 months ago #55605

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Double-issue QSA's are not commonplace and those with Zulu War medal to the same recipient are hard to find. Henry Crouch was one such recipient.

Henry Crouch

Private, Pietermaritzburg Rifles – Anglo Zulu War
Private, Ladysmith Town Guard
Blacksmith, Natal Government Railways – Anglo Boer War


- South African General Service Medal to Pte. H. Crouch, P.M. Burg Rifles
- Queens South Africa Medal to H. Crouch, Natal G.R.
- Queens South Africa Medal with clasp Defence of Ladysmith to Pte. H. Crouch, Ladysmith Town Gd.


Henry Crouch was a fortunate man – fortunate in that he was awarded a double-issue Queens Medal for service in both the Natal Government Railways as well as the Ladysmith Town Guard during the Anglo Boer War. But his story starts quite a way before that.

Crouch was born in Richmond, a small village outside Pietermaritzburg, on 6 September 1859 the son of George Crouch and his wife Jane (born Godden) and baptised in the local church of St. Mary’s on the 18th of that month. The Crouch family (or many of them) had made the trip over the seas to the shores of Natal as part of the Byrne settlement in search of the land that had been promised them and a fresh start in a new country. They hailed from Beaulieu in Hants.

George and Jane Crouch were no slouches raising as many as eighteen children between them. In those days ones wealth could be measured not only in how much land or animals you possessed but in how many able-bodied children you had to work the land and assist around the farm. Times were tough and, for many, the promised land didn’t live up to expectations turning out to be fallow and barren. Many settlers threw it up and moved into the towns to eke out a living. Return to England wasn’t an option – where would the money for the return passage come from?

It was into this scenario that Henry would be born. Other than the option of farming there were other pursuits that could be followed ancillary to the main event – one of these was to become a Blacksmith and it was this route that he followed.

The dawn of 1879 brought with it events which were at once to disturb the equanimity of the small populace of Richmond and its large neighbour, Pietermaritzburg. Relations between the Zulus across the Tugela River in Zululand and the white settlers had long been poised on a knife edge and, although it is not my intention to discuss the various causes of the conflict that was about to engulf Natal, suffice it to say there were quite a number leading up to the eventual declaration of hostilities between the two parties. The catastrophe of Isandhlwana in late January of that year followed by the Zulu humiliation and the restoration of wounded British pride that was Rorke’s Drift a few days later led the redoubtable burghers of the Colony of Natal into a state of panic. Would the Zulus decimate the thinly stretched British forces and invade the city or would they be stopped at the gates?

Questions such as these plagued the citizens on an hourly basis, not helped by the flow of bad news emanating from the front. Poorly defended Pietermaritzburg had taken the decision to form a Home Guard where those not destined to join the Colonial units fighting alongside their British compatriots could join up and defend the home front and Crouch, at the age of 19, was to be one of this band of men. Joining the Pietermaritzburg Rifles he was assigned the rank of Private and went about his business as a Blacksmith whilst in a permanent state of readiness should the call come that the Zulu hordes were on their way. According to an article in the Western Daily Press of 15 March 1879 “The Maritzburg Rifles and the City Guard together form a total of 250 men – not a bad nucleus should it come to serious business”

The danger averted with the eventual vanquishing of the Zulu forces after the burning of Ulundi and the capture of Cetewayo later in 1879; Crouch and his comrades were stood down and returned, full-time, to their civilian pursuits. He was awarded the SAGS medal with no clasp for his efforts.

It was now time to settle down to more mundane pursuits and, to this end, Crouch married Elizabeth Emma Godden in Pietermaritzburg on 4 July 1881 at the house of her father John Godden Junior. John Godden was also Henry’s 2nd cousin showing just how tight-knit the families were. Henry was a 21 year old Blacksmith at the time and Emma a mere girl aged 17. Between them they were to have eight children May Isabel; Florence Elizabeth; Myrtle Mabel; Dora Evelyn; Nina Stella; Cecil Horace Godden Crouch; Muriel Amelia Daisy and Gwendoline Pearl.

Life carried on uneventfully until “injury time” in the last year of the 19th century. Animosity between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had been festering for quite a while with the Boer leader, President Paul Kruger, becoming increasingly frustrated by what he saw as British attempts to foment unrest in his country which contained the wealthy gold deposits of the Witwatersrand. In turn the British (regarded by Kruger as “Uitlanders” or Foreigners) were agitating for the franchise and al larger say in the affairs of a country which they were making wealthy by dint of their taxes and the revenue they generated for the state’s coffers by the gold they extracted from the ground. Things came to a head in October 1899 which led to a declaration of war.

Almost immediately Boer Commandos invaded Natal from the direction of the Transvaal as well as over the Drakensberg Mountains from the Orange Free State. Ladysmith was at this juncture the most northern town of any substance where the British forces had a presence and needed to be defended at almost all costs. The first battle, that of Talana outside Dundee and the battle of Elandslaagte that followed, were victories for the British forces but they failed to press home their advantage and the Boers, having been reinforced, forced them to retreat into Ladysmith.

Here the British forces under General Sir George White were besieged with the Boers cutting off all entry and exit from the town and occupying the hills that surrounded it. Many of the citizens of Ladysmith, especially the women and children, made it out on the last train to places further south like Pietermaritzburg. Crouch, who had taken up residence in Ladysmith, was no exception in that he sent his wife and children to stay in Pietermaritzburg as well. This was to be the last time he saw his wife as, on 26 November, a matter of weeks after the siege had commenced, she passed away at 21 Longmarket Street from Enteric Fever at the age of 36.

With communications in and out of Ladysmith being cut off one can only imagine how long it took for Henry Crouch to be made aware that his wife had died and his children were now reliant on relatives for their survival. Crouch had decided to join the Ladysmith Town Guard.




This Town Guard, like others called into being around the country, was designed to provide a body of men to assist the Imperial troops where required as well as to defend life and property of the town’s inhabitants. Including the members of the Klip River Rifle Association who were affiliated for the defence of the borough, the aggregate number of men who enlisted was 233. Daily drills were at once commenced with whilst the members were allowed to practice at the rifle ranges of the Klip River Rifle Association.

Nightly patrols were instituted in the town and guards posted on Coventry Hill to give the alarm of the approach of the enemy and, on or after the 18th October, the Guard took duty at the Railway Bridge Defences freeing up the imperial troops who might have been used for that purpose.

On the night of 12 October the men were ordered to guard all the roads leading into the borough to prevent anyone from entering or leaving town. This was quite a responsible task as the Boers were known to move quite freely about the place dressed as they were in civilian clothes as opposed to a uniform. This too was the case with the Town Guard who, although issued with rifles and ammunition, had no uniform of their own.

Regulations concerning their duties and conduct of the men were drawn up and approved by Sir George White on 16 October. On the 28th the entire guard mustered in the defences at 4.30 a.m. and remained under arms till 7 am – they were also on duty at the Bridge Head and adjacent defences during the engagement on Lombaards Kop on 30 October.

From 5 November until 12 December the services of the Guard were not made use of however on the latter date the men were called out again and with the members of the NGR Rifle Association placed under the command of Captain Young R.E. At this point their strength was 157 men, exclusive of those on the sick list. They were assigned the duty of guarding the river’s bank on the South side of the town nightly – a potential scene of Boer infiltration.

On 23 December Captain Molyneux assumed command of the Town Guard, a system being arranged that every man should be one night on and two nights off and free rations were issued on the 29th December and each succeeding day throughout the remainder of the siege. The term rations is used loosely as the town and its’ inhabitants were soon reduced to stale maize and tough horsemeat as a staple diet.

During the Boer attack on Wagon Hill on 6 January 1900 the whole of the Town Guard lined the defences from daybreak until 10 am being under fire early in the morning. This was the Boer Forces surrounding the town’s most effective attempt to break through the defences and on several subsequent occasions the men were roused in the night to help to repel an unexpected attack. With the lifting of the siege on 1 March the Town Guard was disbanded for all defence purposes with the men allowed to go home.

For his efforts Crouch was awarded the Queens Medal with the Defence of Ladysmith clasp but his war wasn’t yet over. As a Blacksmith employed by the Natal Government Railways he continued on in that capacity after the Town Guard had been disbanded earning for himself another Queens Medal. This was, most likely a clerical error in that, irrespective of how many outfits one served with only one medal was authorised for issue.

The war over on 31 May 1902 the town of Ladysmith continued its slow-paced recovery from the effects of the Siege. The Burgess Roll for 1904 shows that Henry Crouch, Blacksmith, was still a resident of Ward 3. Having lost is wife whilst apart from her he struggled to raise his large brood of children deciding, on 17 June 1916, that it was time to marry again. On this occasion, already 55 years old, he married a 42 year old spinster, Lily Sarah Ann Dowsett of Pietermaritzburg, a cousin being the daughter of Eliza Crouch and William Jacob Dowsett. The nuptials took place in the Baptist Church in Pietermaritzburg. Interestingly it was only two weeks earlier, on 9 June 1916, that he signed his late wife’s death notice, a prerequisite to marriage.

Henry Crouch lived a long life passing away at 11 Milliken Road, Pietermaritzburg on 3 April 1955 at the age of 95 years 6 months. He had outlived two wives (Lily had passed away in 1952) and was survived by his many children. He left a sizable estate of £2 635 to be divide among his children.








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