TOPIC:

William Robert Hann

Wounded in Action – Grootvlei (Oceana Mine), 26 December 1900

Private, 3rd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade – Punjab Campaign 1895
Private, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade – Anglo Boer War

- India General service Medal 1895 – 1902 (Punjab Frontier 1897 – 98) to 1948 Pte. W. Hann. 1st Bn. Rif. Bde.
- Queens South Africa Medal (CC/TH/Relief of Ladysmith/TVL/LN/OFS) to 1498 PTE. W. HANN, RIFLE BRIGADE
- Kings South Africa Medal (South Africa 1901/02) to 1498 PTE. W. HANN, RIFLE BRIGADE

William Hann was born in Lambeth, London on 17 June 1873 the son of Mary Ann Hann, born Andrews and her Engineer husband William Hubert Hann. The couple had married in Southwark on 1 June 1872 when William senior was a mere 21 and his bride-to-be, 18.

From the very outset the family seem to have been fragmented, with every census seeing them living apart. According to the 1881 England census, a 7 year old William was living with his mother at his widowed grandmother’s – 30 Pocock Street, Southwark. Of his father there was no sign and it was his mother’s older brother Benjamin who completed the little family circle.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, William who was now 18 and a Porter by occupation, was boarding with Robert Davies at 44 Ayliffe Road in Kensington, London. Later that year, at Colchester on 16 September, he completed Short Service attestation papers (7 Years with the Colours. 5 Years with the Reserves) for service with the IVth Hussars. Claiming to be a Barman by occupation, he was 18 years and 3 months old and was 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighed 144 lbs and had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was a member of the Church of England. By way of distinguishing marks he had “dots” on both forearms, scars on his right temple and neck and a mole on his left collar bone. An “H” was tattooed on his right forearm.

Having been found Fit by the Doctor at St. George’s Barracks in London, Hann was assigned no. 3232 with the IVth Hussars, a relationship which was short-lived. On 8 December 1891 he was transferred to the Rifle Brigade and assigned no. 1948. Initially at the Depot, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion on 5 April 1892 before being assigned to the 3rd Battalion with effect from 4 December 1893. This coincided with his posting to India on the same day, where he was to spend the next 5 years and 60 days.

In India, the 3rd Battalion R.B. formed part of the Tochi Field Force which was formed in June 1897 with the aim of exacting retribution on the tribes (around the village of Maizar) who (a month earlier) had ambushed the Political Officer for Tochi, and his army escort. The Force included 6 Indian battalions and 2 British battalions (2nd Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders and the 3rd Rifle Brigade).

On the evening of the 17th June, the 3rd Battalion received its orders to mobilize and march to Bannu, there to form one of the battalions of the 2nd Brigade, Tochi Field Force, under the command of Brigadier-General W. Symons. They were stationed at Rawalpindi with the assembly point for the force at Datta Khel (some 15 miles to the north east of Maizar). The 3rd Batt. travelled to Khushulgarh by train arriving on 30 June and, that same day (evening) they began an 8 day march to Bannu, averaging 14 miles per day. With daytime temperatures in excess of 100 degrees F, marching was done at night, when it was a slightly more bearable 98 degrees. Despite many cases of heat exhaustion there were no fatalities. At Bannu they rested for 3 days, then marched west, through the Tochi valley, to Miranshah (approx 3,000 feet above sea level) and then, after a short rest, onto Datta Khel where they arrived on 18 July. Of the 801 Riflemen who had begun the 170-mile march, only 726 completed it, the rest having left at various stages of sickness along the route.

With all the battalions present at Datta Khel, the Tochi Field Force was complete and ready for operations (39 days after the Maizar ambush). On the 27th of July, the Battalion marched out to join the 1st Brigade in the systematic destruction of all the houses there and around Maizar, as punishment for the ambush of 10th June.

Dysentery and fever were rife and by August/early September the number of men reporting sick daily was in three figures. The Force HQ decided that the battalion was to return to India to recover its health. It left Bannu on 30th October and there ended the Rifle Brigade's Tochi expedition. They had marched through the Derejat and Tochi valley in midsummer amid dust storms and plagues of flies without ever seeing the enemy, until by the end, "we had now only a mere handful of sound men with us; the others pale, feeble and worn out, were either hospital patients or too weak to get along without assistance and had to be carried in bullock carts". Not a single man had been lost in action but over 120 died from Fever and Dysentery.

Hann returned to England on 2 February 1899 – his period of service over. On 5 February he was transferred to the Army Reserve. He would have welcomed a return to not only familiar surroundings, but to a more temperate climate after the excesses of the Far East. He was awarded the India General Service medal with Punjab Frontier 1897-98 clasp for his efforts.

Unbeknown to him and to many, his time out of uniform was to be short-lived. The Boers in the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State in far away South Africa had other ideas. Long simmering tensions between these two neighbouring sovereign states and Imperial Britain came to a head on 11 October 1899 when war was declared. Overnight the Boers were in the saddle, crossing the borders into the Cape Colony and Natal and heading for the strategic towns of Kimberley and Mafeking in the Cape and Ladysmith in Natal.

The number of Imperial troops in South Africa were woefully inadequate to counter the Boer threat and an urgent call went out for reinforcements from the United Kingdom and the Empire to augment their numbers.

Hann was recalled to the Colours on 9 October 1899 and posted to the 1st Battalion on the same day. The 1st Battalion sailed on the German on 28th October 1899, arriving at Cape Town on 20th November, and was sent on to Durban. Along with the 2nd Scottish Rifles, 3rd King's Royal Rifles, and 1st Durham Light Infantry, they formed the 4th Brigade under Major General Lyttelton for service in the Natal theatre of the war.

One of the first actions in which they participated was that of Colenso on 15 December 1899 where their losses were deemed to be trifling. Colenso was the first of three reverses General Buller experienced, having to move his army back across the Tugela River, rather ignominiously, on each occasion. The third attempt to relieve Ladysmith took place in early February (after the debacle of Spionkop in which the Rifles played no part)

At Vaal Krantz on 5th and 6th February they were quite heavily engaged, their casualties amounting to 5 men killed and 5 officers and 76 men wounded. Buller’s fourth and final attempt to enter Ladysmith was ultimately successful and the 1st Battalion took part in the heavy work between 13th and 27th February, and won the commendation of General Buller. In his telegram of 20th February the general mentioned 3 infantry battalions, one of which was the 1st Rifle Brigade.

On 18th February 1900 there fell to the Durham Light Infantry and 1st Rifle Brigade the task of attacking the nek between Greenhill and Monte Cristo. They wasted no time, and were soon in the laager behind the nek. On the 23rd these two battalions crossed the river, and in the forenoon received orders to support Hart's attack on Inniskilling Hill, but the attack was over before they arrived at the hill-foot. During the next four days, except on the 25th, the battalion was constantly fighting, being the leading battalion on the left of the line in the final assault on the 27th. In the fourteen days' fighting the Rifle Brigade's losses, including those of officers and men in the Composite Rifle Battalion, were approximately 14 men killed, 8 officers and 117 men wounded.

The 4th Brigade took part in the turning movement via Helpmekaar in the first half of May 1900, and while the 2nd, 10th, and 11th Brigades turned the Laing's Nek position via Botha's Pass, the 4th sat in front of it. After Alleman's Nek, 11th June, the 4th Brigade was sent along the Pretoria Railway. On 28th July Major General Cooper with the Rifle Brigade and 3rd King's Royal Rifles took over Heidelberg from Hart. About that town the 1st Rifle Brigade was stationed for a long period.



On Boxing Day, 26 December 1900, the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade found themselves in the south-eastern Transvaal where, as was by now the norm, pockets of Boer fighters were harassing troop movements, convoys and patrols in the area. Based at the Oceana Mine near Grootvlei in the district around Greylingstad, Lieutenant-Colonel A. Colville, 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade, proceeded on a farm-clearing expedition, with a small column consisting of six companies of the 1st Battalion, a squadron of the 13th Hussars, four guns of 63 Battery, Royal Field Artillery, as well as one ‘pom-pom’. Colville left ‘F’ Company under the command of Captain Radclyffe, as well as some artillerymen, to guard the baggage wagons based at the mine. The column moved out in the direction of Roodewal, where after five miles they became involved in a small skirmish at the first of the target farms.

During the skirmish a large party of approximately 450 Boers were spotted heading towards the Oceana Mine. A signal was sent to Captain Radclyffe informing him of this development, and he at once set about disposing his small force in an attempt to protect the baggage, with the pom-pom located near a small hollow. After a couple of hours had passed a number of mounted Boers appeared on a ridge a thousand yards away. As Radclyffe’s men opened fire the Boers dismounted, pushed forward, and sent out small parties to the left and right in an encircling movement against the Rifle Brigade position. Under heavy and accurate fire the pom-pom was moved down towards the hollow and back towards the compound – of the nine men who assisted in moving the pom-pom one was killed and the other eight all wounded.

Seeing that the enemy were now advancing in considerable force, Radclyffe decided to send the baggage back to the column, whilst attempting to hold the Boers in check for as long as possible. Under cover of heavy Rifle Brigade fire from behind the wagons, the native teams began inspanning the oxen. When they were ready to move the native teams started off the wagons in the direction of Colville’s column and, as they did so, the small Rifle Brigade covering party came under very severe fire and had to retire, as the Boers saw that they were losing their target. During this time, Radclyffe and his sections continued their holding action but suffered a number of casualties, with their ammunition running out fast.

With the baggage now well on its way, Radclyffe, who was lying wounded, ordered those in advanced positions who could do so to retire to the compound so as to avoid capture. No. 1 section provided covering fire until their ammunition ran out, at which point the Boers advanced rapidly, forcing their surrender, along with the wounded soldiers. Fortunately, at this point, the main column appeared on the horizon, forcing the Boers to withdraw, leaving their wounded prisoners behind. For some time the wounded on the ridge were exposed to fire from both the returning column and the Boers, and a Corporal was seen to make a valiant attempt to carry the wounded Radclyffe to safety. Total losses that day were heavy, with 13 Officers and men killed, 44 wounded, and 19 taken prisoner. For his gallantry in defending the position, Captain Radclyffe was awarded the D.S.O. (article in the O.M.R.S. Journal, Winter 1995 by Jason Grover refers.)



It was in this action that William Hann was Wounded – having recovered from his wound, Hann soldiered on. Throughout 1901 his battalion was generally in the neighbourhood of the Transvaal - Natal Railway. In January and February a lot of marching was done, sometimes with a column, sometimes taking convoys to Ermelo and other places for other columns. After February they were chiefly engaged in watching the railway, having latterly about forty miles in safe keeping.

Hann and the 1st Battalion stayed on in South Africa after the war was officially over on 31 May 1902, only returning to the United Kingdom on 9 September 1902. After 1 year and 1 day at home he had completed his 12 years service, taking his discharge on 10 September 1903. On 21 May 1913 he was transferred to Section B, 1st Class, Army Reserve. For his efforts Hann was awarded both the Queen and Kings South Africa medals.



A civilian for the first time in many years Hann sought and obtained employment as a Boiler Erector with the Electric Light Co. and it was in this occupation that he appeared in the 1911 England census. Along with his wife Edith Harriet (whom he had wed in 1907), he lived at 31 Upper Marsh Street, South East London. They were 37 and 31 years old respectively.

Hann appears in the 1939 Register as a Steam Pipe Fitter with the Hot Water Patrol living at 218 Waterloo Square, Camberwell. He passed away from Heart Failure on 28 August 1947 at the age of 74 in Gosling Way, Lambeth, and was survived by his wife, there being no children of the marriage.

Acknowledgements:
- Oceana Mine - O.M.R.S. Journal, Winter 1995 by Jason Grover
- Colonials in South Africa – John Stirling
- Ancestry for census/probate data
- Jeppe Maps of the Transvaal Republic – RobD