TOPIC:

Lionel Wellesley Armstrong

Wounded in Action – Tafelkop, 20 December 1901

Lieutenant, 91st Coy., 23rd Battalion (3rd County of London, Sharpshooters), Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War
Captain, Royal Army Service Corps – WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal (CC/OFS/SA 1901/02) to Lieut. L.W. ARMSTRONG, Imp. Yeo.
- 1914/15 Star to CAPT. L.W. ARMSTRONG, A.S.C.
- British War Medal to CAPT. L.W. ARMSTRONG
- Victory Medal to CAPT. L.W. ARMSTRONG

Lionel Armstrong was wounded in the famous V.C. action at Tafelkop on 20 December 1901. The action in which his Company, in the words of Lord Roberts, “sacrificed itself almost to a man to save Damant’s guns.”


L.W. Armstrong as a Captain in WWI

Lionel Armstrong was born on 8 June 1880 in Marylebone, London on 18 June 1880, the son of Wellesley Armstrong, a Captain in Her Majesty’s Army and his wife Isabella. His baptism took place in the Parish of St. George, Bloomsbury on September 4th of that year. The family were living at 21 Montague Street at the time.

Lionel seems to have been raised, in the main, by others. The 1881 England census shows him as a 9 month old Boarder, in the care of his nurse, 67 year old Elizabeth Lockyear at 1 Grosvenor Cottage, Twickenham. Of his parents there is no sign.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 census, a 10 year old Armstrong was a pupil at Ramsgate College, Summer Hill, Ramsgate under the tutelage of the Headmaster, Edwin Braund. He was to spend at least the next six years there. Disappearing from view for a while, he next surfaced as a young 2nd Lieutenant with the Queen’s Westminster Rifle Volunteers, also known as the 13th Middlesex Volunteer Rifles. His elevation to that rank appearing in the Army & Navy Gazette of 29 September 1900.

By this time the Anglo Boer War had been in full swing for more than 11 months. This conflict, thought by the pundits to be “over before Christmas” had been raging since war was declared on 11 October 1899 between the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State on the one hand and the might of Imperial Britain on the other. Thousands of troops had been shipped to South Africa to bolster the numbers of those already there and, after an initial period where several reverses were experienced, the British Army had started to gain the upper hand with the fall of both Boer capitals, Bloemfontein and Pretoria, taking place in March and June 1900 respectively.

The war was, however, far from over with the Boers abandoning pitch battles in favour of small, but potent and highly mobile commandos who would deploy “hit and run” tactics – swooping down on isolated British lines of Communication and patrols and fleeing into the distance with their loot before any reinforcements could come to the aid of their stricken comrades.

The Imperial Yeomanry too, that body of volunteers who had been called into being in Britain’s hour of need, were now proving themselves in the field, either as a composite force or, as in most cases, with several companies being brigaded with Regular Army regiments. With many thousands beating a path to their Recruitment Offices all over the United Kingdom, there was an urgent need for qualified officers and Armstrong, so recently promoted, fitted the bill to a nicety. He was appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 91st (Sharpshooters) Company of the 23rd Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry and, as he stood aboard the ship taking him to South Africa and the front, one wonders what thoughts were going through his head.

On March 28, 1901 the S.S. “Salamis” left London with the 3rd Battalion of the Mounted Sharpshooters (comprising the 90th, 91st, 92nd and 93rd Squadrons of Imperial Yeomanry), the battalion being known as the 23rd (Sharpshooters) battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. The 3rd Sharpshooters landed at Cape Town on April 20th, entraining at midnight the same day (in coal trucks) for the Front. They proceeded as far as De Aar junction, and at 4 o’ clock in the morning on the 24th April the train pulled up just after leaving Norvals Pont. Here the 3rd Sharpshooters detrained quietly in the darkness, and at once proceeded to take a kopje, the left of the attack being under Major Stewart, and the right under Lt. Colonel McDonald.

The reason for this attack was that the Boers were working on the line to wreck the train, and although none of the enemy were captured, the 3rd Sharpshooters were successful in driving off the foe in their first encounter.

On April 26th the battalion arrived in Bloemfontein, here the horses were served out to the battalion, which turned out to be a “sorry” lot, as the greater part of the good remounts had been sent on to Pretoria. On May 1st the battalion left Bloemfontein for Ladybrand with the largest column that had ever gone through, consisting of 100 wagons. The convoy got to Bushman’s Kop, and on May 3 reached Sanna’s Post, where there was considerable sniping going on, two of the Sharpshooters having their horses shot. Next day they started with the convoy for Thaba N’chu, having to get through Alexandra Nek whilst being sniped at.

May 5 saw the column at Warringham’s Post, Orange River Colony, which was held by the 1st Royal Scots Mounted Infantry. From here the column was taken on by way of traction engines on account of the Rinderpest, and all the bullocks were sent back to Bloemfontein. On June 4 they were ordered to Smaldeel, and after being relieved at that place by the Bedford Mounted Infantry the battalion proceeded to Bloemfontein, which was reached on June 8.

Several Sharpshooters were sent to hospital here with dysentery and enteric fever, the battalion leaving on the 9th for Smaldeel. From around this time the four companies of the 3rd Sharpshooters were split up and, not knowing in which Company a man was, it is nigh on impossible to track their movements or comment on any action they saw. Fortunately for us, the reader, Armstrong was mentioned in the next incident of note in which they were involved. The following extract is taken from the Volunteer Service Gazette whose 22 September 1905 issue carried a full account of their history and movements under the banner – “Historical Records of the Yeomanry Regiments, No 8.: -

“On December 20th 1901 a sad disaster happened to the 3rd Sharpshooters in a fight with Colonel Damant against General Botha at Tafelkop. The 91st Squadron were engaged, and lost heavily in the action, which will ever stand out as one of the most conspicuous pages in the history of the 3rd County of London, and be retained as a memory of most gallant conduct.


Map showing locality of Tafelkop

On December 19 three columns under Rimington, Wilson and Damant, left Frankfort at sundown to relieve General Hamilton, who was being attacked by Roos, Steenkamp and Grobelaar, causing the British General considerable delay in his work of erecting the blockhouses. After an awful night of hail, rain and thunder, which the horses thrice refused to face, the three columns found themselves at daybreak on the 20th in sight of Tafelkop. Next followed nine or ten miles fighting, the Boers being driven before them. Rimington’s column then moved off to the left, but Colonel Damant and his men went straight on, their front becoming wider and wider until in the centre with the two guns, pom-pom, and the maxim were left only Colonel Damant, his staff, and the gun escort furnished by the 91st Company of the Sharpshooters.

Some half a dozen scouts went up the hill and finding, as they thought, that it was unoccupied, Colonel Damant and his staff rode up, dismounted, and began looking through their glasses. Seeing Boers on the next ridge, Colonel Damant ordered the guns to open fire at them, but they had only fired two shots at the far party of the enemy when about 200 Boers sprang out of the long grass and rushed at them; at the same time a party of Boers on the left, whom Colonel Damant had mistaken for British troops, charged down on them. These Boers were dressed in khaki, and even had the dastardly impudence to sport the tiger-skin of Damant’s Horse on their hats. The result was that all the gunners were killed except two who were wounded.


Removing the gun limbers - the photo is distorted in With The Flag To Pretoria

Of Field, Maxim and Pom-pom detachments, and of the forty officers and men of the Sharpshooters composing the gun escort one officer and man alone were unhit, all the rest were killed or wounded. Colonel Damant, although badly wounded, made a gallant attempt to save the guns, but seeing this impossible got the limbers of the two field guns away; the pom-pom and Maxim horses were, however, all killed. The Boers behaved most brutally to the wounded, robbing and then shooting them until General Botha interfered and was obliged actually to sjambok his own men.

The British troops, however, made a gallant attack, and the Boers fled without being able to carry off the guns, owing to the limbers having been wisely taken away. The Boers lost heavily both in killed and wounded, and to those who indulge in sneers at the Yeomanry it may be pointed out that, out of the forty men of the Sharpshooters forming the gun escort, all were killed or wounded, except one man – who assisted to save the limbers and so the guns – and one officer whose life was saved by General Botha as the Boers were putting him up for execution. Amongst those killed were Captain Charles Louis Gaussen, of the 91st Sharpshooters, commanding the gun escort. Lieutenant L.W. Armstrong, of the same company was also severely wounded, and in the official returns of this engagement it was notified that the 91st Company lost fourteen non-commissioned officers and men killed and fifteen men wounded.

The Morning Post, in reference to this gallant action, says: “No engagement for some time past has been more creditable to the gallantry of the British arms.”

Armstrong, as confirmed above, was wounded in this engagement – depending on which account one reads, this wound was either serious or slight. As the Transport Officer attached to Damant’s Column for most of his time in South Africa he would have been on the hill, as a member of Damant’s staff, looking through his field glasses when the grass around them came alive with Boers, lying hidden in its warm embrace.

A more detailed account of this gallant fight was obtained from some of the men engaged in it by the correspondent of the Central News, who reported thus:

‘The columns under Colonel Damant and Colonel Rimington left Frankfort on the 19th inst. and proceeded in the direction of Vrede. The force trekked all night through a most severe thunderstorm, during which three of our men were struck by lightning and killed. On reaching the neighbourhood of Tafelkop, Damant rushed a Boer piquet, killing one man and capturing a Commandant. At daybreak the transport waggons were laagered, and were left behind in charge of a small escort, while Damant with two guns of the 39th Battery, and one pom-pom and ninety-five men all told, rushed forward. The little force deviated on the left flank, where a number of Boers had been located. On reaching a ridge Colonel Damant observed a party of seventy men dressed in British uniform busily engaged driving cattle in his direction.

The strangers were at first taken to be a part of Rimington’s column which had gone out on the right flank. The mistake was soon discovered, however, and almost immediately another body of the enemy was located further to the left of the British laager. Our guns were speedily unlimbered, and quickly came into action. We had only been able to fire two shots when the Boers in charge of the cattle abandoned them and galloped boldly forward towards the British position. The enemy opened a galling fire on the gunners at a range of two hundred yards, and simultaneously another party of 150 Boers who had remained carefully concealed in ambush in the long grass at the foot of the ridge enfiladed the position. A large number of the gallant defenders fell at the first few volleys, but the survivors fought tenaciously, and the enemy were only able to rush and capture the position after all the men on the ridge had been either killed or wounded except three.


Damant’s Horse and the Imperial Yeomanry to the Artillery’s rescue

Previous to this, however, some of the gallant gunners and the escort had succeeded in getting away the limbers of the guns, notwithstanding the heavy fire. The only gunner who had escaped the bullets then effectually destroyed the breech-blocks of the guns and rendered them utterly useless to the enemy. Out of a total force of 95 in action we had 75 killed and wounded, the 91st Yeomanry losing one officer and 14 men were killed and one officer and 16 men wounded. The Boers, who were under Commandants Wessels, Ross, and M. Botha - the latter the son of the Commandant-General - also lost heavily. They had Commandant Van Der Merwe and 30 men killed. Three of the Boer dead were buried by our men, and the remainder were carried away.

Later in the day a Boer came in under a flag of truce and asked for an armistice in order to allow the enemy to attend to their wounded and bury their dead. The survivors on our side state that the Boers behaved badly to our wounded on the ridge after the position had been rushed. Everyone who made a movement while lying on the ground was fired at. An officer of the Yeomanry (Armstrong) asked permission from a Boer dressed in khaki to get water for our wounded. For reply the Boer discharged his Mauser point blank at the officer’s head, but fortunately missed him. Several more of the enemy robbed and stripped our wounded and dead, and were only restrained from perpetrating further outrages by their commandants. The Boers were terribly angry when they discovered they were unable to move or use the guns which they had captured.

Meanwhile Captain Scott had got together a small force and came up to the assistance of Damant’s men. Scott prepared to charge the position, when the enemy, mistaking his men for Rimington’s column, hastily retreated. The fleeing Boers, however, fell right into the arms of Rimington’s force, which was coming up to Damant’s support. Rimington opened fire, and the enemy lost a few killed, while five were captured. Rimington, with the remainder of Damant’s force, chased the flying enemy across the Wilge River. There appears to have been lately a large concentration of the enemy under De Wet at Tafelkop. Large parties of determined fighters under the immediate command of M. Botha, Meintjes, Taljaard, Steenkamp, and Bucknell are now laying in ambush about the district, waiting to attack small columns.’

In yet another account it was stated that: -

“The termination of the drive on 13 December 1901 brought the columns of Rimington and Damant into the area near the blockhouse line at Heilbron. The blockhouse line from Heilbron and Frankfort was complete and was being pushed eastwards to Tafelkop and Vrede. The force under General Edward Hamilton covering the construction of the line reported on 16 December 1901 that it was meeting Boer resistance. A few members of the East Lancashire Regiment were killed in the vicinity on 16 December 1901. It seems that the Boer council of war determined that the Boer forces should concentrate in the north-east of the Orange River Colony and use their mobility to attack isolated detachments, in particular those covering the extensions to blockhouse lines.

`Kitchener, therefore, ordered Rimington and Damant to move out from Heilbron, where they were resting after the drive, and to clear Hamilton’s front. They started on December 17. The force troubling the blockhouse work consisted of 300 men of the Vrede commando, under Wessel Wessels and Commandants Ross and de Kock. Fresh from the Council of War and De Wet’s bellicose exhortations, Wessels was seeking an opportunity for some damaging stroke. His chance occurred on the 20th. At dawn on that day Rimington and Damant, after a difficult night march from Frankfort in thunder, rain and hail, were a little to the north of Tafel Kop, a very conspicuous conical hill rising 600 feet above the plain and commanding a wide view of the Wilge River valley.’

A report, perfectly well founded, was now received that a commando of 300 Boers was between Tafel Kop and the Wilge. Rimington and Damant arranged accordingly to wheel round the kop and to sweep on a broad front towards the river. The two columns swung around the eastern shoulder of the hill and then separated, but, unfortunately, without keeping touch. Both leaders were accustomed to work together and to take tactical liberties with a persistently evasive foe, but on this occasion, they undervalued their antagonist, who happened to want to fight. Two small tributaries of the Wilge, the Riet Spruit and the Kalk Spruit, rise in the neighbourhood of Tafel Kop, and diverging slightly, joined the main stream about ten and twelve miles, respectively, to the westward of the kop. Rimington rode down the southernmost stream, the Kalk Spruit, and on sighting a party of Boers to the south, threw out his left still further in that direction. Damant advanced in widely extended order along the Riet Spruit. At Sweet Home he came into contact with 100 Boers and pushed them westwards over the farm Bacchante. Here he halted to wait for Rimington, whose nearest troops were now some miles to the south.


Shooting of a Red Cross man at Tafelkop

Damant’s force was a small one, comprising only three weak squadrons of Damant’s “Tigers” [as Damant’s Horse were known] and three companies of Yeomanry (30th, 31st and 91st), about 550 rifles in all, together with two guns of the 30th Battery and a pom-pom. When Damant halted, his line had become inordinately extended. He himself, with his staff, the three guns, a Maxim and an escort composed of the 91st Company of the Yeomanry and 45 Damant’s Horse were nearly at the summit of a long flat-topped hill with a steep descent to the west, overlooking the Wilge. This was about the left centre of the line. “A” Squadron of Damant’s Horse under Lieutenant Guy Wilson, was on the left, at the southern foot of the hill and out of sight. “B” and “C” squadrons were on the right, widely extended, and still further to the right were the 30th and 31st Companies of the Yeomanry.

The whole line covered about four miles. From where Damant stood, he and his staff could see the valley of the Wilge, spread out before them and the river itself flowing in its deep fissured bed some three miles to the west. Parties of Boers were seen to be making their way across it or riding up and down the banks. Nor were these the only object of interest. In the plain, about a mile to the right front, five small bodies of mounted troops were drawn up in regular formation. All present seem to have assumed that they were the Yeomanry of General Edward Hamilton, who, from his base at the head of the blockhouse line, had arranged to demonstrate towards Tafel Kop. As they were drawn up in the formation used by Yeomanry the view taken was a natural one. Presently they began to move in a leisurely way towards the hill occupied by Damant, throwing out scouts and skirmishers, who appeared to be dressed in khaki, and actually firing occasional volleys at the Boers near the river.

Their course led them close to “B” Squadron of Damant’s Horse, and Captain Scott, which was posted at the northern foot of the long hill on which the guns and staff were situated. Scott felt no suspicion until the squadrons drew near. Then it was suddenly realised that they were Boers, and fire was opened. But it was too late. The perpetrators of this audacious ruse broke into a gallop at the first shot, and still keeping their general direction, passed Scott’s front and disappeared behind the steep slopes of the hill. Damant, too, had seen them, and in a flash perceived the object of the ruse and the peril of his own small party. He was not occupying the highest point of the hill. Directly to his front a portion of the crest rose to a rugged irregular cone, covered with rocks and long grass and commanding the lower ground where the guns and their escort were posted. The limbers were safe in the rear, on lower ground still. Guessing rightly that the Boers had left their horses on the level and were climbing up the slope to gain the commanding crest, Damant collected some Yeomanry and hurried across to forestall them. The Boers were there before him. Ross, leading the foremost of some 200 men, had already reached the summit and in a few minutes the advanced British party, the guns and the rest of the escort, all being in open ground without a particle of shelter, were under a deadly fire, delivered at short range from behind the excellent cover. The fight that followed rates with Baakenlaagte for the magnificent spirit shown in maintaining a hopeless defence against heavy odds. The guns were worked till the last gunners were shot down at their posts - “they lay,” says an eye-witness, “in heaps round the guns.”

The Yeomanry, fighting no less gallantly, were nearly exterminated. Damant was hit in four places; the staff were all killed or wounded; of nine offices on the hill only one was not disabled. This was Lieutenant Maturin, the officer commanding the artillery, who although he received a bullet through his side, resolved to save the limbers and managed to gallop them away with the loss of some of the drivers. He then rode off to communicate with Rimington. After nearly an hour’s fighting, the Boers crowded down and took possession. The teams and limbers having disappeared, they could do nothing with the guns, but they smashed the Maxim, rolled the pom-pom over the crest of the hill, and began to pillage the dead and wounded. So suddenly and under such strange circumstances had the affair happened, that a considerable time elapsed before any organised relief could be sent.

Rimington, though he had turned northward as soon as he heard the firing, was too far away to be of any use. Guy Wilson, unable to see what was going on, had been so completely deceived that, until he heard of the disaster, he imagined that Damant had ambushed the Boers. Captain Scott, with the two other squadrons of the Damant’s “Tigers”, felt himself not strong enough to assault the position unaided, and some time elapsed before he was able to call in the 30th and 31st Yeomanry from a distant position on the extreme right. As soon as this was done he led the united force against the hill and very gallantly retook it. The Boers made no determined stand and after slight loss fled. Soon afterwards Rimington came up; but the enemy by this time was too far off for pursuit. The British casualties were 78 - 33 killed and 45 wounded - out of a total of 90, which included a detachment of native scouts. Captain Gaussen, commanding the Yeomanry, Captain Jeffcoat, of the staff and Lieutenant Shand, of Damant’s Horse, were killed. Among the wounded were Major Webb, commanding Damant’s Horse, and Lieutenants Armstrong and C. Wilson. The Boer casualties were 20 or 30. Colonel Damant survived his wounds, and ere long was fighting again with as much spirit as before. The incident was one of a sort that was bound to happen occasionally in operations of this kind. If Damant’s line was dangerously extended and Rimington was out of touch, it was because both leaders had found by experience that it generally paid to take such risks. As to the ruse devised by Wessels, the ingenious idea of manoeuvring like Yeomanry and firing at his own men certainly deserved success.’ (Times History V).

William McKenzie of the 31st Imperial Yeomanry attached to Damant’s column wrote a letter dated 25 December 1901 from Frankfort, published in the Dundee Courier, 30 January 1902 under the heading “Experiences of a Brechin Soldier”, wherein he was quoted as saying that “Once apprised of the attack on Damant’s men they galloped to the ridge and some `horrible sights - pitiful to look upon - were seen.
Twenty-eight fellows were strewn on the ridge around the guns dead. They principally belonged to the Sharpshooters (91st). A large portion of the offices were either killed or wounded, and Major Damant was found stretched beside his guns, shot in five places. Trooper McKenzie described the fight as pure murder, the enemy lining the ridge in hundreds, and pouring in a fire from a distance of about 30 yards. The bulk of the casualties were accounted for by explosive bullets. One poor fellow was shot through the left cheek, and the bullet tore away the whole of his lower jaw, while another had a hole in his breast, which would have admitted one’s hand.’

Another first-hand account was to be found in a letter received by Mr William Maddocks, of Bishop’s Stortford, from his son, Private Arthur Maddocks, of the 16th Lancers, attached to the pom-pom section of Damant’s column. Published in the Daily News (London) on 21 February 1902 - From “No. 10 Hospital, Norvals Pont, Cape Colony”, he wrote :-

“Just a few lines to let you know that my wounds are healing up and that I shall soon be out of hospital again. I was wounded in six places two in the left foot, two in the right hip, one in the right arm, and one through the right lung. They were only 40 of us on the Ridge at Tafelkop, with two guns and one pom-pom, when 800 Boers, charged us. They would give no quarter, shooting us down like rabbits. All were killed except the gunner and myself. One Boer stood about two yards away from me, and was going to blow my brains out when General M Botha came up and ordered him not to shoot me, as I was a brave man. They then left. The other gunner and myself had stuck to the pom-pom to the last, firing point blank until we were both shot. The Boers could not take the guns away, as the drivers had taken the limbers back to camp, and I shot the horses”.

The Tafelkop action saw Shoeing Smith Alfred Ernest Ind of the Royal Horse Artillery Pom-pom section awarded the Victoria Cross.

Recuperating from his wound, Armstrong was invalided home to England, departing aboard the steamer Plassy from Cape Town on 23 January 1902. A fellow convalescent was Lieutenant Maturin of the Royal Field Artillery – another of those wounded at Tafelkop. They would have been able to share a yarn or two of might have been had they not been duped by Boers in khaki. With peace still a little more than four months away, he was not destined to return to South African shores.

Back in England, Armstrong set about the making of a career for himself. There was also time to kindle the flame of romance and, on 23 July 1903, at St. John’s in Croydon, he wed Frances Nina Vallance Perkins. Desirous of becoming a Member of the Stock Exchange, he completed, as was required annually, the membership application form – that completed for 1907 provided his age as 27 and his address as 22 Duppas Hill Terrace, Croydon. The 1910 iteration of this form provided his residence as 8 Buckingham Palace Mansions, South West, London.

He was still there at the time of the 1911 England census and was obviously finding Stock Broking to his liking. Aside from his wife, who was three years older than him, was his 5 year old son – Harold Sidney Armstrong (born on 22 August 1905). There was a retinue of servants to cater to the family’s needs in the forms of Tara Barry, Governess; Mary Spark, Cook, and Ethel Cotton, Housemaid.

Three years later, on 4 August 1914, the world erupted into war once more – on this occasion not a localised conflict like the Anglo Boer War but a conflict on a global scale which pitted the British Empire and her Dominions against the might of Imperial Germany and her Allies.

Wasting almost no time, Armstrong completed the Application Form for a Commission in the Army on 29 August 1914 and, having been found Fit by the Doctor, enlisted with the Army Service Corps at Aldershot for service on 14 September 1914. His commission as Lieutenant was Gazetted four days later and he commenced duty assigned to the 14th Reserve Park. On 3 August 1915 he was deployed to the British Expeditionary Force – entering France, the theatre of war, on the same day. As his next of kin he provided his wife’s details, c/o Messrs. J. Perkins & Son, 181 Tower Bridge Road, South East London.


Armstrong at RASC Dinner. Brasserie in the Monico Restaurant, London.

On 24 November 1915, whilst on leave from the Front, he consulted a Doctor and was ordered by a Medical Board to be retained at home in England – assigned to 793 H.T. Company. On 26 August 1916, his health still not improved, he was required to relinquish his commission on account of ill health. But Armstrong wasn’t quite done with the war – on 18 May 1917 he was restored to the establishment with Seniority as an Acting Captain, reporting for duty at Dover on 16 July 1917. Down to be sent with a Draft to Egypt, this order was cancelled and Armstrong was told that the remainder of his service was to be at Home. On 9 March 1919 he was released from service and allowed to retain the rank of Captain. The Gazette entry for this appearing on 13 Augst 1920. For his efforts he was awarded the standard trio of WWI medals – all in the rank of Captain.

Out of uniform once more – Armstrong continued to carve a name for himself in Stock Broking circles but, tiring of this, he settled down to the life of a Gentleman Farmer in Kent. This did not, however, mean that life was without incident – The Courier carried a report in their August 23rd, 1935 edition which, under the banner “Maids trapped in Cowden blaze – Jump from Bedroom Window – Fire Brigade goes Astray” read thus: -

“Fire which broke out Tuesday morning at Saxby’s Mead, Cowden, the home of Major and Mrs Lionel Armstrong, completely destroyed the upper half of the house, a beautiful brick and wood residence which was built only two and a half years ago. The blaze, which is believed to have been caused by the fusing of electric wires in the loft, resulted in two maids, Miss Brown and Miss Drew, being trapped in their bedroom which is directly below.

Efforts to reach them were defeated by the smoke and flames and eventually they were forced to jump. Miss Drew landed safely on the ground, but Miss Brown fell backwards out of the window and injured her back. She was taken to Saxbys where she received medical attention, and it is understood that she is progressing favourably. Major Armstrong attempted to catch Miss Brown as she fell, and in doing so, was badly cut across the eyebrow, but in spite of this he continued to help with the fire-fighting.

Etheridge Fire Brigade initially went astray but when they arrived were soon at work, obtaining water from a pond about 50 yards away. Thanks to the efforts of the Brigade it was possible to save most of the ground floor rooms, but the upper part was completely demolished, even the roof falling in. Yet in spite of the severity of the fire it was found that dresses and suits in several cupboards and wardrobes were unharmed by the flames and water.”

The trauma must have proved too much for the Misses Brown and Drew – the 1939 Register reflecting that, apart from Major and Mrs Armstrong – he being referred to as an Estate Agent, Farmer and “Retired R.A.S.C.” – the servants in residence were now Dorothy Miller (Cook) and Aileen Peck, Domestic Servant.

At some point Armstrong sold Saxby’s Mead and made Eastbourne his home. It was here, at the Stanley House Hotel in Howard Square that he breathed his last – on 20 September 1952, whilst admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital. He was 72 at the time of his death. He bequeathed an estate of £ 10 160. His wife died in 1969 and his son in 1983 whilst living in Fish Hoek, Cape Province, South Africa.

Acknowledgements:

- Times History of the War (Vol V) - Amery
- With the Flag to Pretoria pages 883 - 888
- Voluntary Service Gazette - Historical Records of the Yeomanry Regiments, No 8.
- A correspondent of the Central News
- Peter Jordi's notes on Captain Jeffcoat
- Dundee Courier, 30 January 1902 for Pte. William McKenzie's letter
- Daily News (London), 21 February 1902 for Pte. Arthur Maddocks' letter
- Ancestry and FMP for census data, probate etc.
- The National Archives for Armstrong's WWI file