TOPIC:

Benjamin Sutherland Mackay

Killed in Action – Butte de Warlencourt, France & Flanders – 12 October 1916

Trooper, 67th Company, 18th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry
3rd Class Trooper, South African Constabulary – Anglo Boer War
Sergeant, Johannesburg Mounted Police – Inter War
Sergeant, Natal Light Horse – German South West Africa - WWI
Company Sergeant Major, 2nd South Africa Infantry – Western Front - WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal (CC/RHODESIA/OFS/TVL) to 12414 TPR. B. MACKAY. 67TH COY 18TH IMP: YEO
- 1914/15 Star to SJT. B.S. MACKAY. NTL. LIGHT HSE.
- British War Medal to A/2ND C/W O. B.S. MACKAY. 2ND S.A.I.
- Victory Medal to A/2ND C/W O. B.S. MACKAY. 2ND S.A.I.

Ben Mackay was born in Crockancallich, Kildonan, Sutherland on 16 August 1876 the son of Farmer Angus Mackay and his wife Ann which is where the family were living at the time of the 1881 Scotland census. Benjamin, aged 4, had plenty of playmates with siblings John (16), Marion (10), Margaret (7), Joseph (6) and baby brother Robert (8 months).

Things were little changed ten years later, at the time of the 1891 Scotland census. Benjamin was now a strapping lad of 13 and still at school. A few years on, having completed his schooling, he moved to Chippenham where he was employed on the estate of Captain J. Spicer as a Gamekeeper. This occupation did not suit him and, imbued with a sense of adventure he journeyed further south where, on 1 August 1898, at the age of 21, he attested for service in London as a Police Constable with the Metropolitan Police with Warrant Number 84300 and assigned to V Division (Wandsworth). His application forms provide us with a physical description – he was 5 feet 9 inches, weighed 12 stone 2 lbs and had a dark complexion, blue eyes and dark hair. He provided his address as Aradilley, Craigellachie, Banff.

After what was probably an uneventful eighteen months he took his discharge from the Met. (having resigned) on 17 February 1900 with a conduct rating of 2. His collar number was 273V for the whole of his short service. But why would Mackay have resigned after such a short interlude in uniform? The fact that the Anglo Boer had been raging for four and a half months might have had something to do with it.

Commencing on 11 October 1899 the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal had been at war with the might of Imperial Britain. Their commandos having poured over the borders with the British Colonies of the Cape and Natal, they had the British forces, augmented by locally raised Colonial units, on the back foot. Hopelessly outnumbered, and in some respects outgunned, the British Army experienced a number of reverses in what became known, infamously, as Black Week in December 1899. With the Boers seemingly gaining the upper hand an urgent call went out for the creation of a Yeomanry from among the citizenry of Great Britain who, after a brief period of training, could share the load and engage the Boers in the field.



The crowds of men thronging the Recruiting offices around the country bore testimony to the patriotic fervour that was sweeping the land. The first Imperial Yeomanry contingent was to be the showcase and it was decided that strict selection criteria would be employed to ensure that only the very best stamp of man was sent to the front.

Almost as a pre-emptive move, Mackay had, according to a letter published in the Banffshire Herald of 30 December 1899, written to Captain A.R. Stuart, 6th V.B. Gordon Highlanders from “Police Station, Trinity Road, London, 20 December 1899” as follows:

“Sir- I hope you will pardon my troubling you, but, as I was a member of your company in the Gordon Highlanders previous to joining the Metropolitan Police force in 1898, and as I did not apply for my discharge, I should like to know if I am still on the roll of your company. If there is any prospect of your being called up, I hope you won’t forget me, as nothing would give me greater pleasure than the prospect of acting along with the old company on active service. I have the honour to be yours most respectfully.

Benjamin Mackay

P.S. – I like the Police Force very well.”

“It made one proud of his country”, said the Captain “to feel that they had such young men freely offering their service.”

Although this appeal appears to have come to nought, cometh the hour, cometh the man as the saying goes and it was probably in response to the recruiting posters dotted around London that Mackay came forward to enlist. Completing the attestation forms on 17 February 1900 (his very last day of service with the police), he was now 23 years and 6 months of age and confirmed that he had been a Policeman. The Doctor having found him to be Fit, Mackay was assigned no. 12414 and the rank of Trooper with the 67th Company of the 18th Imperial Yeomanry – the Mounted Sharpshooters.

The 18th Battalion (Sharpshooters), was raised on 30 December 1899 and consisted of the 67th, 70th, 71st and 75th Companies. Mackay’s Company, the 67th was raised in London, and quartered at St. John's Wood Barracks. The battalion embarked for South Africa at Southampton on 6 April 1900 and would serve as part of the Rhodesia Field Force. The Birmingham Daily Post of that day reported that: -

“Four companies of the Sharpshooter Corps, in all nearly 500 officers and men, will sail for South Africa from Southampton tomorrow, aboard the Galeka. They are the embodied result of a memorandum submitted to the War Office in December. Colonel R.R. Parke is in command of the Corps, the company commanders being Lt. Col. T.A. Hill, Captain Sir Saville Crossley, Captain Warden and Captain Crum. It is hoped that this body will continue to exist after the war as a permanent part of the Imperial forces, specially chosen and paid for excellence in the use of a rifle.”

The Sheffield Daily News of 29 March 1900 reported that: -

“The Prince of Wales this morning inspected, at Chelsea Barracks, four companies forming the Battalion of Sharpshooters, raised by Lord Dunraven for service in South Africa. The men today carried rifles and side-arms, and looked very smart in their khaki uniform and long cavalry cloaks. Number 67 Company was commanded by Captain Crum, with whom were Lieutenants Jones, Langford, Curley and Dyke.

Arriving in Africa in May 1900, Mackay and his compatriots landed at the swampy and insect ridden Mozambique town of Beira on the 4th, from where they proceeded directly to Twenty-Three Mile Creek. They were not many days in camp before many of the men went down with dysentery and fever, this thanks to the lack of decent water and the malarial fogs that crept in at night. Land crabs swarmed over the camping ground and each morning the tent floors would be pock-marked with them. One officer described the situation – “We had had no fighting but we had had something much harder to endure. For some weeks we were camped in a pestilential swamp near Beira, guarding 1500 horses. The work, both by day and night, was incessant and carried on under the outmost difficulties. The only food was bully beef and biscuits , the only drink putrid water.”

From there the Squadrons moved to Bamboo Creek, having to leave behind many who were still in hospital with malaria or, even worse, those who had died from fever and disease before seeing a shot fired. Here more of the same experienced at Beira awaited the men. Thence on to Umtali where the men’s health was beginning to be restored by the cool mountain breeze and the many shooting competitions between the locals and the Sharpshooters, all of which helped to boost sagging morale. Before leaving Umtali the battalion was inspected by General Carrington who undertook to “move you (them) on as fast as I can.”

Finally, on 17 June 1900, the first Squadron moved out for Marandellas followed, over the next few days, by the others who were transported by train. Next followed a long 180 mile march to Victoria – the 67th pursuing this route only as far as The Range, proceeding from there to Bulawayo by road. On arrival the men were housed in a number of large mud huts, built for the purpose. The camp was situated on rising ground on the far side of the Umshagashi River. The Squadron left Victoria for Tuli and the long march south to where the action was, arriving in camp on the 24th September. They had completed the long march from Marandellas in 28 days but only stayed in the Matabele capital of Bulawayo for a week, marching for Tuli via Mazinyama, Pourri-Perri and Rietfontein. Joined by the other Squadrons of the 18th Battalion, the idea was to march on Pietersburg, then in the hands of the Boers.

Halting for a night at Bryce’s Store they marched on to the Limpopo River, encamping in a strongly defensive position within a mile of Pont Drift – the scene of one of the earliest encounters of the war. Here they were to remain for nearly a month. Whether or not the fall of Pretoria rendered the proposed attack on Pietersburg superfluous; orders came for the Rhodesian Field Force to be removed by rail to Mafeking.

Shortly afterwards, the 67th claimed the honour of being the first unit of the R.F.F. to exchange shots with the Boers. They were passing through Vryburg when information came in of the capture of a convoy by the enemy a few miles away. Hastily detraining, they formed part of the small force who were sent in pursuit, and after a sharp little fight in which three of the Imperial Light Horse were wounded, the Boers were driven off and the convoy rescued.

Once in South Africa proper, the 67th Company operated in many of the interminable drives initiated to hem the scattered Boer forces in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal into a corner where their only option would be to surrender. With the Free State capital falling in March 1900 and Pretoria, the Transvaal capital, in June the guerilla phase of the war was entered into – where small and highly mobile mounted Boer commandos would swoop down on unsuspecting and poorly guarded patrols and lines of communication. Having plundered what they could carry, they would flee the spot and be long-gone by the time help arrived.

It was this sort of hit-and-run operation that the Yeomanry and their regular army comrades had to contend with. On many occasions they worked in conjunction with Brabant’s Horse. Having signed on for a year, Mackay’s time was up when he took his discharge from the Yeomanry to join the South African Constabulary at Johannesburg on 19 May 1901. Having received a conduct rating of Very Good and providing his address as “Booysens, Johannesburg”, he signed on with the S.A.C. or 1 years’ service as a 1st Class Trooper with no. E 2922. On the same day he was promoted to 2nd Class Sergeant, No. 2 Troop.

Mackay saw service with E Division (Orange Free State) and it was whilst in Bloemfontein that he took his discharge, as a Corporal with a conduct rating of Very Good, Time Expired, on 15 May 1902 – just two weeks shy of the end of the Boer War. His reason for not extending his terms of engagement? He left to join what he called the Civil Police, Johannesburg. This was the Johannesburg Town Police or its Mounted equivalent. Initially awarded a Kings South Africa medal, this was retrieved from him and replaced with a SA 1901 clasp – on account of the fact that his prior service with the Yeomanry could not be proved.

Having made the move to Johannesburg, he joined the Goldfields Lodge of the Free Masons on 10 July 1902, listing himself as a Civil Servant.

Things went quiet on the Mackay front for a number of years as he got to grips with life in the Johannesburg Police and later, as an Amalgamator on the Gold Mines of the Witwatersrand. The next event of any magnitude in his life took place in the Parish of All Saints, Clifton, Johannesburg on the 6 November 1912 – this was the day when, at the age of 36, he wed 26 year old Alice Mildred Lloyd. Providing his address as Clevedon (a working-class suburb of Johannesburg), his bride hailed from Chichester in Sussex.

As the years unfolded anyone with their ear to the ground would have realised that yet another war was brewing – this time on a truly international scale. The Great War or WWI broke out on 4 August 1914 pitting the might of Imperial Germany against Great Britain and her Allies. Initially, South Africa didn’t intend to enter the fray but Generals Botha, the Prime Minister, and Smuts, the Minister of Defence, put recent wounds aside and took the country to war on the side of the British Empire of whom they formed a part.

On the personal front Mackay was living through the ecstasy of becoming a father and the agony of losing his beloved wife – all on the 20th February 1914 when his wife died giving birth to his son, Harry Angus Mackay. The family were living at 57 Central Cottages, Nourse Mines, Johannesburg where Mackay was employed as an Amalgamator. Amidst his misery, the one shining light was that he had his brother-in-law, Humphrey Neville Lloyd, a Sub-Inspector with the Police in Pretoria, to turn to for assistance.

He made Lloyd the boys guardian when he attested for service with “A” Squadron of the Natal Light Horse for service in German South West Africa. A Squadron Sergeant Major, he was assigned no. 700 from 1 September 1914 and no. 120 from 1 February 1915 until he took his discharge from them on 30 June 1915. If he wanted to see action in theatre of the war where the climate proved to be the biggest enemy then he couldn’t have chosen a better outfit. The seminal action of the German South West campaign was the affair at Gibeon and he would have been part of that engagement.

The O.C. was none other than “Galloping Jack” Royston, a man known more for his courage than his intellect. Much has been written about Gibeon which took place on 27 April 1915 and I leave it to Gerald L’ange in his book “Urgent Imperial Service” to recount the event itself and the actions leading up to it. But first there is a need to contextualise it – a large section of what remained of the German army had retreated to a small railway siding known at Gibeon and were intent on boarding the train there along with all their men and supplies in order to travel north and away from the advancing South African forces. They were under the impression that they had plenty of time and wholly underestimated the time it took a determined S.A Brigade to get there before the train departed and blow up the track to the north of the station in order to block any escape attempt.

“Royston had deployed three squadrons of the Natal Light Horse on the railway embankment with fourth squadron in reserve. Because Royston had placed his men so near the station it wasn’t long before they were encountered by the patrols that Von Kleist had been sending out continually ever since learning that the line had been blown up. In fact Royston was still getting his men into position at 2 a.m. when a patrol arrived on the scene and the Natal men were forced to open fire, alerting Von Kleist to the arrival in his rear of more than a sabotage party.

The Germans quickly brought up reinforcements with artillery and machine guns and, from the cover of the culvert and the draining ditch, they poured a heavy fire into the Natal men. Caught out in the open they were soon being cut up by shrapnel and machine gun fire. Shortly before dawn they found themselves surrounded and had to surrender. Royston withdrew his force three miles to the east of the railway to await daylight. When Royston withdrew and the trapped N.L.H. men surrendered the Germans assumed that they had defeated the main South African force and celebrated joyously. But there joy was short-lived McKenzie was already moving up with his main force…….”

The battle then raged and “shortly afterwards, the Germans released about 70 of these prisoners as they fled the scene.”
Having successfully survived that escapade, Mackay turned his attention to the Western Front. He had a choice, of course – returning servicemen from the German South West Africa theatre could go home and resume the normal humdrum of their daily lives or they could enlist with one of the regiments being raised for service in German East Africa where, as time would tell, tropical disease and pestilence would be the eventual winner. A third, possibly more extreme option was to enlist with the 1st South African Infantry Brigade headed for the killing fields of France and Flanders.

Not one to shy away from a good fight, Mackay opted for the latter. Continuing to leave his baby son in the care of his brother-in-law, he completed the attestation forms at Potchefstroom on 7 October 1915 and, having been found fit for service, was assigned no. 6491 and the rank of Private with the 2nd S.A.I. (Natal) regiment of the 1st S.A.I. Brigade. His forms confirmed his Metropolitan Police, Imperial Yeomanry, South African Constabulary, Johannesburg Mounted Police (6 years) and Natal Light Horse service – he had been a very busy man.
Coming in at 5 feet 9 inches and weighing 168 lbs he had a fresh complexion grey blue eyes and dark brown hair. He also sported the scars of a very recent operation to remove varicose veins from his left leg (he had been operated on in the Johannesburg Hospital at the time of enlisting).

At the age of 38 he was an experienced campaigner and this was soon evident with his rapid promotion through the ranks to Company Sergeant Major. He was rotated to serving in A, B, C and E Companies as his war progressed. Having embarked for Europe, he was one of those who were diverted to Egypt to wage war against the Senussi who were proving troublesome in North Africa. John Buchan’s epic history of the South African Brigade in France provides a succinct summary of what Mackay and his comrades saw in North Africa:

21-22nd January 1916 - The 2nd Regiment move to Matruh by boat to prepare for their first baptism of fire. This sixteen-hour voyage plus an 18-mile march to Bir Shola found the regiment rather weary.

23rd January 1916 - The 2nd Regiment along with Australian, New Zealand, Indian and British forces attack the Senussi camp at Halazin and rout them, 2nd Regiment suffered 11 killed and 106 wounded.

26th February 1916 - The 1st and 3rd Regiments with British troops and six armoured cars under Major the Duke of Westminster attack the Senussi at Agagia, resulting in the capture of the Senussi General, Gaafer Pasha. This engagement resulted in the capture of the Port of Barrani. Battle casualties were 14 killed and 103 wounded.

15th March 1916 - General Lukin dispatched the Duke of Westminster with his armoured cars and total personnel of thirty-two to pursue the retreating Senussi. The Duke caught up with and attacked the enemy’s camp at Bir Asisa and totally routed them bringing the Senussi threat under control. Although the South Africans did not take part in this final action they were now free to start what they had volunteered for, and that was to take on the Germans in the trenches of Flanders.

Once the Senussi had been dealt with Mackay and the 2nd S.A.I. men sailed from Alexandria to Marseilles on 28 March 1916. From there it was to the frontline and the action with the S.A. Brigade preparing for its part in the forthcoming Battle of the Somme. On 23rd April 1916 they were billeted at Steenwerck, attached to the 9th (Scottish) Division.



On 1st July 1916 the Battle of the Somme got underway with the S.A. Brigade in the Glatz sector of the front from the 2nd to the 5th July. A, C, and D Companies of 2nd Regiment (Mackay’s outfit) were in heavy action at Bernafay Wood where they incurred some 200 casualties, being relieved by two companies of the 4th Regiment on 10 July. On 13th July 1916 the S.A. Brigade were concentrated at Talus Boise as the reserve brigade for the 9th Division. In its short time at the front the SA Brigade had sustained a total of 337 casualties.

The battle that resonates most in the memories of South Africans was the epic struggle of Delville Wood which took place over a period of days from 15 to 20 July 1916. Early on the 15th July the 1st Regiment retired from Longueval, and the 2nd, 3rd Regiment and 2 companies of the 4th Regiments enter Delville Wood. Later in the day a company of the 1st Regiment was dispatched to reinforce the 2nd Regiment due to heavy losses. On the 18th July the fourth day of the battle things were getting desperate and reinforcements from the 1st Regiment were sent in.

Throughout the19th and 20th July, the remnants of the S.A. Brigade in Longueval and Delville kept on fighting until relieved at six o’clock on the 20th July. Only 3 officers and 140 totally exhausted other ranks marched out of action that day. Casualties from the 14th to the 20th July amounted to 2320. Mackay was, miraculously, one of those who marched out – his presence there being confirmed by Ian Uys in his book “Rollcall”

The handful of survivors were joined by new drafts during late July, consisting of 40 officers and 2,826 men who arrived from Bordon in England, to replace their heavy losses. In effect the 4 regiments of the Brigade were now replaced by one Composite Battalion.

From the 23rd August to 3rd September 1916 the new-look S.A. Brigade moved into front line trench service around Vimy. On 13 September, during the night, B and D companies of the 2nd Regiment raided enemy trenches. On 25th September, in extremely wet conditions, final preparation for the assault on the Butte de Warlencourt were made and, between the 8th and 9th October, the S.A. Brigade relieved the London Territorial Division in Mametz Wood and High Wood. On the 9th,B and C companies 2nd Regiment were in the front line, with A and D companies in a support role, in front of the German positions between the ruins of Eaucourt L’Abbaye and the Butte de Warlencourt.

Mackay’s war was about to reach its climax - at 14:00 on the 12th October, with the 2nd and 4th Regiments leading and the 3rd and 1st in reserve, they crossed the parapets at the start of the Battle of Butte de Warlencourt.



The War Diary for that day reads, rather blandly, as follows:

“FINE. Operation order no. 666 for attack on enemy’s position issued at 6.15 a.m. Brigadier went out with Intelligence Officers at 4.30 a.m. and visited line. Attack on the enemy at 2.5 a.m. failed. The 3rd S.A.I. replaced the 2nd and 4th in the line.”

Brigadier Lukin’s report for the 12th contained more detail,

“… The telephone wire to the front line was cut 2.20 a.m. but up to that time the reports were to the effect that our men were advancing well and rapidly. Difficulty was experienced about that time in seeing any distance, owing to our smoke, which was placed around the BUTTE, drifting in our direction. Our attack was met with heavy Machine Gun fire and we failed to gain our objective. About 4 p.m. a message was received from Captain Ross to the effect that he was holding a line of shell-holes and a shallow trench about halfway between our front line and our first objective. He had with him a number of men from the 2nd and 4th South African Infantry. They were digging in. In front of him, in or near the first objective, was A Company of the 4th S.A.I. and he believed that the 2nd South African Infantry were in front of that again. He reported that heavy shell-fire and heavy machine gun fire had stopped his advance over the ridge and that his Casualties were heavy.”

Heavy indeed. After dawn on the 13th October the 2nd and 4th Regiments were pulled back to High Wood but Mackay was not among the survivors - he was reported Killed in Action on 12 October, never to see another sunrise.

Mackay’s untimely demise had repercussions for young Harry Angus – scarcely 2 year old, he was now an orphan. He was granted an orphan’s pension until 20 February 1930 – his 16th birthday.

Benjamin Sutherland Mackay was a brave man who saw more than his fair share of hardship in life.

Acknowledgements:
- Buchan's History of the SA Brigade in France
-Newspapers mentioned above
-Ancestry and FMP for census data, medal rolls etc.