TOPIC:

Patrick Blair Highet

Trooper, 17th Coy., 6th Battalion (Ayrshire) Imperial Yeomanry
Captain, 17th Coy., 6th Battalion (Ayrshire) Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal (Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen) to Capt: P.B. HIGHET. Imp: Yeo:
- Kings South Africa Medal (South Africa 1901 & 1902) to Capt. P.B. HIGHET. I.Y.

Patrick Highet was born in Irvine, Ayr, Scotland in about 1876 the son of Hugh MacGregor Highet, a Solicitor, and his wife Eleanora Shaw Blair.

According to the 1881 Scotland census the family were living at No. 76 in the High Street of Irvine. Mr Highet, aged 37, was running a successful law firm with his wife, aged 40 at home raising the children. Aside from 5 year old Patrick were siblings Johanna (7) and Jane (6.) Almost as a testament to their prosperity they had three servants to wait on them – 68 year old Elizabeth Cameron, 41 year old Agnes Thomson and 20 year old Margaret McMellan.

As the years rolled by Patrick became an accomplished amateur golfer with the Androssan & Salcoats Herald of 4 May 1888 reporting that, “Master Patrick B. Highet won the Irvine Junior Gold Medal for the second time on Saturday, and it has now become his own property.”

Unfortunately, not everything was running smoothly for the Highet family in the 80’s. The Dundee Courier of 9 February 1887 had reported the sequestration of Mr Highet, Solicitor, Irvine and the family had needed to cut down on their expenses and reduce their expenditure on extravagances. As mentioned earlier, this did not include Patrick’s golf!

By the time the 1891 Scotland census came round Mr Highet’s fortunes had been restored and he was once again looked upon as one of Irvine’s leading citizens. Patrick was now a 15 year old school pupil and at home in Kilwinning Road, Hughenden with sister Jane Edith (17) and one servant – the 19 year old Jane Morrison.

Ere long the young Patrick completed his schooling and looked about for a profession with which to occupy his time and generate an income. Settling on engineering, he studied in that direction, gaining employment with the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company. It was in this capacity that he walked into the Imperial Yeomanry’s recruiting office in Ayr on 17 January 1900 to offer his services in the war that was being fought very many miles from where he found himself.


Map showing where Highet was circa June/July 1901

As the end of the 19th century drew near the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had declared war on Great Britain. Their ultimatum unanswered, they had crossed their joint borders with the British Colonies of Natal and the Cape Colony on 11 October 1899 – the game was afoot. Initially things went poorly for the British presence in South Africa. The Boer advance was rapid and the number of troops in the country too few to counter their threat. Black Week, a week in December 1899 wherein the British forces suffered three humiliating reverses, was met with a call at home for the raising of an Imperial Yeomanry from among the citizenry to aid the Regular Army’s effort.

In no time at all, passionate and exuberant men of all descriptions were flooding the recruiting centres across the land and Highet was no exception. Caught up in the fervour of the moment he completed the attestation forms for 1 year’s service, confirming that he was a 24 year old Engineer with previous Militia training with the Ayrshire Yeomanry Cavalry. Physically he was described as being 5 feet 9 inches in height, weighing 123 lbs and with a fresh complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. A Presbyterian by way of religious persuasion, he had no distinguishing marks about his person.

Having been found fit by the Doctors he was assigned no. 1514 and the rank of Trooper with the 17th Company of the 6th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry. Having sailed for South Africa, his regiment was sent into the field shortly after they had docked in Cape Town on 23 February 1900.

The distribution of the Imperial Yeomanry was simple. Four battalions were ordered to join Lord Methuen at Kimberley whereas another six battalions, the 1st, 6th, 9th and 11th, and 13th, led by Brabazon, were to join Lt General Sir Leslie Rundle’s 6th Division in the Orange Free State. Rundle was tasked to advance behind Roberts’ columns on the right flank between Thaba ‘Nchu and the Basutoland border sweeping up any opposition and preventing any Boer breakthrough to the south. This led, in June and July 1900 to the fighting in the Brandwater Basin where the Boer General Prinsloo found himself hemmed in on all sides with no prospect of escape unless needless blood was to be shed. Consequently, he surrendered with over 4000 men. Highet and his comrades in the 6th Battalion, IY, were “in on the kill” so-to-speak, earning themselves the Wittebergen clasp to their soon to be awarded medals.

But Prinsloo’s surrender, although dealing a significant blow to the Boers fighting ability, didn’t signal the end of the war. Those that escaped with De Wet joined forces with other scattered remnants of the Commandos and, having regrouped, continued the fight.

Almost exactly 365 days after arriving in the country his time was up but, unlike so many of his comrades who now returned to bonny Scotland, Highet chose to remain and was commissioned an officer into his own Imperial Yeomanry Company on 1 March 1901.

The Irvine Herald of 12 April 1901 carried the glad tidings in an article headed “Military Honours for Old Academy Boy” which read as follows:-

“ We are very pleased to learn that Mr Patrick Blair Highet (son of Major and Mrs Highet, Hughenden), who went out to South Africa a little over a year ago, as a trooper in the 17th Coy., Ayrshire Imperial Yeomanry, has had a very successful career. In due course he was made a corporal, then a full corporal, and next a sergeant, and now, for active service in the field, he has been offered a lieutenancy in the New Imperial Yeomanry.

We understand he expects to be attached to the Scottish company of that regiment for future service in South Africa, the Commander in Chief having made it a regulation that each new company should have at least one officer who has had a year’s experience in fighting against the Boers. We tender our hearty congratulations to Major and Mrs Highet, upon the honour and distinction which have already been conferred on their gallant young son.

This promotion in military life is not only a great honour to Lieutenant Highet, but one, we consider, equally great to Irvine, his native town, and we have no doubt it is one which will be greatly appreciated by his old school fellows and the many friends he had when at home. We sincerely hope that if, as an officer, he has to experience the hot fire and severe fighting it was his lot to come through in the ranks, that the same good luck will follow him through all such engagements, and that we will yet hear of other honours being conferred on him.”

High praise and equally high expectations heaped on shoulders so young! There is an element of truth in the newspaper report. The first IY contingent was known to have been comprised of a better stamp of man than the two that followed. Gone for the moment were the officers on half pay and the gentlemen rankers who had permeated the first contingents ranks; to be replaced by men from the working classes – men from the cities who had never shouldered a rifle and had never mounted a horse. It was, therefore, imperative that if the second contingent were to succeed and make a decent contribution to the war effort, that they be officered by those with experience in the field. If not, they would be sitting ducks for the crafty Boer.


Detailed map showing where Highet did much of his fighting as part of Rundle's brigade

The 17th Company did much of their fighting in the newly renamed Orange River Colony with bands of Boers popping up like wheat in the fields everywhere. By this time the war had entered its guerilla phase – hit and run assaults on scattered and isolated patrols, convoys and lines of communication. The countryside was so vast and the Boers so mobile that this style of fighting suited them down to the ground.

That Highet was in the occasional bother was brought to the attention of the reading public in a newspaper article which appeared in the St Andrews Citizen of 31 August 1901. In a letter written by Lieutenant Mowat of the 20th Company IY the following is of relevance:-

“Near M’Quatling’s Nek, July 8th – The 17th and ourselves started at 4 a.m. with a flying column, leaving the 19th and 18th to follow with on with the ox convoy. To my surprise the advance guard and guns got over the drift and round the corner of the hill and it was only when we (the rearguard) were passing that old “Bester” went “bang” and the ball opened.

The Boers could not have expected us so early – it was now getting quite light – and the guns fired a few rounds; but we moved on. Harry’s men in the rear screen occasionally cantered in under the kopje to make the Boers waste ammunition. We could see about 20 Boers moving along the top and dismounting to fire as we passed towards Zamenkomst. On the right of this is our old camp between Brandsdrift and Allandale.

We now heard heavy firing and saw about 40 men retiring from the kopjes above the old camp. Holme galloped up to say that Highet had been “hotted”; had three men hit, and that Harry had gone out to support him with 20 men. The remainder of the 17th and 20th and Corrie’s pom-pom cantered out. We found that Highet was across the donga running from Allandale to Brandsdrift, so we left the pom-pom behind some kraals.

Harry was holding the donga towards Allandale as about 50 Boers were trying to come up to it. Highet was held up at a dam near a farm and the cattle he had come to get had been driven off by the Boers. Harry found out from natives that Froneman and 200 men with a lot of cattle, waggons etc. had been camped on the other side of the kopje the night before. Meanwhile the column was trekking on to M’Quatling’s Nek, so I was sent back to hold the donga with 30 men and the rest retired on the pom-pom.

Having sent our horses about 400 yards back under cover, we sighted our rifles to 1700 yards and waited for the Boers to gallop down and fire on those crossing the donga. The wounded men were in safety by this time, and soon the Boers began to stream down to the dam; but I told the men not to fire till the pom-pom opened. When they had almost reached the dam the pom-pom opened, and we blazed away. The Boers wheeled away and made for the kopje. Some say two were hit but I did not see them.”

The Froneman referred to above was none other than Christoffel [Stoffel] Cornelis Froneman, Senior Commandant for the entire Winburg Military District and, later, the Vice Commandant General for the Eastern Free State – a formidable adversary indeed.


Froneman and his Commando

Having emerged unscathed from that ordeal, Highet continued to prosper and that his contribution was valued by those higher up in the chain of command can be vouchsafed by an article which appeared in the Volunteer Service Gazette of 25 October 1901 – it read thus:-

“6th Battalion (IY) – Capt. J.D Boswell resigns his Commission – Sept, 27, 1901. Lt. P.B. Highet to be Captain, with the temporary rank of Captain in the Army – Sept. 27, 1901.”

There it was for all to see, including, it is to be hoped, those who had been singing his praises so loudly at home in Irvine. Highet soldiered on with the New Yeomanry, guiding them through their baptism of fire, with the experience he had gained since being in the country, until the declaration of peace on 31 May 1902. The Manchester Courier of 22 July 1902 carried the list of those who boarded the S.S. Malta which left Cape Town for England on 14 July 1902. His name is among those of the officers and men, some 531, of the 17th Company who were returning home.

The Civil & Military Gazette, Lahore, dated 15 October 1902, carried the news that Highet had relinquished his commission and was granted the honorary rank of Captain in the Army “with permission to wear the uniform of the Corps.”

Back on home turf Highet felt the pull of Africa and, at some stage, returned to the country for good. He completed a Last Will and Testament in Pietermaritzburg on 19 September 1917 stating that he was residing in East Griqualand (this is the southern part of Natal including Kokstad and Matatiele). In terms of the Will he bequeathed all his worldly goods to his sister, Johanna Fairrie Highet.

Patrick Blair Highet passed away at 93 Tenth Avenue, Durban on 26 March 1943 at the age of 66. He had never married. His sister Johanna had moved to South Africa before his death and was a spinster living at 17 Madeline Road, Durban. His death notice described him as a Retired Imperial Army Major and ascribed his death to Respiratory Failure and Acute Bronchitis. His mortal remains lie buried in the Stellawood Cemetery in Durban.



Acknowledgements:
- Absent Minded Beggars – Will Bennett
- Androssan & Salcoats Herald of 4 May 1888
- Irvine Herald of 12 April 1901
- St Andrews Citizen of 31 August 1901
- Volunteer Service Gazette of 25 October 1901
- Civil & Military Gazette, Lahore, dated 15 October 1902