TOPIC:

Charles Henry Kitson

Trooper, Matabeleland Mounted Police
Lance Corporal, 75th Coy., (West Kent) 18th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal (Cape Colony) to 15464 L. CORPL: C.H. KITSON. 75TH COY IMP: YEO:



Charles Henry Kitson was very nearly a Jameson Raider - were it not for the fact that he was in hospital and thus missed out on the march, he would have been numbered among those illustrious few.

Born in Antony, Cornwall on 2 March 1875 he was the son of John Francis Kitson and his wife, Charlotte Henrietta Edmonstone. Mr Kitson was a Clergyman, the Vicar of Antony and, at the time of the 1881 England census, Charles was living with his family at the Vicarage in that place. Either endowed with a good Living or a man of independent means to begin with, Reverend Kitson had a very full household with a multitude of servants in his employ.

Already 63 years old in 1881 he was with his 34 year old wife (exactly half his age), along with a host of children – James Buller (10), William Edmonstone (9), John Archibald (7), Charles Henry (6), Walter (5) and baby Geraldine Horatio (3 months). Visiting were his brother-in-law Andrew Murray, an Advocate of the Scotch Bar with his wife and daughter. No fewer than eight servants were in attendance plus Mrs Murray’s Lady’s Maid.

Kitson went on to attend the prestigious Shrewsbury School in Shropshire entering that pillar of learning at the Michaelmas Term in 1888. He was a member of the school rowing team the following year.



Having completed his education, Kitson headed for South Africa where he joined the ranks of the Bechuanaland Border Police on 22 October 1895. He was still with this august body of men a few months later when the abortive Jameson Raid was conducted. This Raid, masterminded by Dr Leander Starr Jameson, a confidant of Cecil John Rhodes, was aimed at overthrowing the Transvaal government of Paul Kruger. Supposedly acting in tandem with the Reform Committee in Johannesburg, Jameson, with about 500 men (mostly British S.A. Police) rode on Johannesburg from Pitsani in the west. Frantic attempts to stop Jameson by the Reform Committee who had got cold feet, went unheeded and, at Doornkop just outside Krugersdorp, he and his armed band were met by Boer Commandos who stopped them in their tracks.


A romanticised image of Jameson crossing the border from Pitsani into the Transvaal

The main perpetrators were imprisoned and, initially sentenced to death by Kruger, were transported to England for trial – this taking place in March 1896. The press of the time was full of articles covering the trial – feeding on the sensation aroused by the foiled attempt.

Kitson, as has been alluded to, was by late 1895/early 1896 a Trooper in the Bechuanaland Border Police and a man earmarked to go on the Raid. He was called as a witness for the Crown, the earliest report appearing in the Echo (London) on 17 March 1896. It read as follows:-

“Other Witnesses – Mr Avory next examined Charles Henry Kitson, a thick-set young man. Who was a trooper in the Matabeleland Mounted Police (sic). He was proceeding to give his impression of what Dr Jameson said to the troops at Pitsani, when Sir Edward Clarke interposed. “We have,” he complained, “had these incidents before. If the Crown is proceeding to contradict its previous witnesses, I don’t object, but otherwise –.” Hereupon the evidence of the witness ended.”

But the courts (and the newspapers) weren’t done with Kitson yet. The African Critic of 21 March 1896 reported thus on the matter:-

“Again, last Tuesday, the Jameson case was before Sir John Bridge at Bow Street, and again it stood adjourned for a week. Tuesday’s proceedings were decorously dull, and the evidence called didn’t throw much fresh light on the dash into the Transvaal. Only one witness during the day succeeded in drawing a general smile. The genius who thus distinguished himself was Mr Charles Henry Kitson, who when at home, lives in Antony, Devonport, but who was for a short time a trooper in the Matabeleland Police.

Under examination as to the alleged recruiting at Pitsani, Mr Kitson declared his ignorance – a favourite form of recreation with witnesses in this trial – of the quality of the men recruited. He however recollected that “there were some sailors and waiters.” The humour of the assertion convulsed the Court; even the most stolid of prisoners waxed risible, and the less solemn simply roared.”

The East Suffolk Gazette of 24 March 1896 wrote that:-

“Trooper Charles Henry Kitson, living at Antony, said that he joined the Matabeleland Police as a trooper on October 22nd last at Bulawayo. He remembered the troops being paraded on Sunday afternoon December 29th (1895). Dr Jameson addressed the troops. He said that women and children were in danger in Johannesburg, and that people wanted help. He said, “We want to get in in 48 hours, and arrangements have been made. ”Witness did not go with them on the march, “as he was in the hospital.”

So there was the confirmation that Kitson was in a hospital bed when the Jameson Raid commenced.

Staying put in England for the meanwhile Kitson made his way to London on 22 March 1900 to offer his services with the newly-formed Imperial Yeomanry. The Anglo Boer War between Great Britain and the two Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had been underway since 11 October 1899. Initially things weren’t going well for the British forces in the country. They had underestimated both their enemy’s resolve and their ability to wage war and, after a succession of military reverses at the end of 1899, the authorities had given permission for the raising of a citizen Yeomanry to help the Regular Army in their fight against the Boers.

The first contingent, made-up of a quality stamp of man, was raised in and around January 1900 and Kitson, the son of an affluent Clergyman, fitted the bill. 26 years old, 5 feet 4 inches in height with a fresh complexion, brown hair and brown eyes, he was, with his prior military exposure to the country, a natural fit. Having been passed as fit by the Doctors, he was assigned the rank of Trooper with no. 15464 and posted to the 75th Company, 18th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry.

The Western Morning News of 19 February 1900 reported that, “Mr Charles Kitson, son of the vicar of Antony, has joined the troop of the West Kent Yeomanry, being raised by Lord Harris for the front. Trooper Kitson took part in the Jameson Raid.”

Two days later, the same publication announced, under the heading “An Antony Presentation,” that:-

“Inhabitants of Antony and St. John’s, on hearing that Mr Charles H Kitson, son of the esteemed vicar of Antony, has joined the West Kent Yeomanry, and was about to go off to South Africa, determined to give him a hearty send-off. Trooper Kitson has, by his genial manner, endeared himself to his neighbours. It was not surprising therefore, that the idea of a presentation met with a splendid response. This took the form of a purse of money. The presentation was made in front of the vicarage, before a very large gathering of friends, by Rev. Wingate, rector of St. John’s. In a stirring address, he wished the recipient “God-speed” and expressed a hope that he would return again. Trooper Kitson was heartily cheered as he drove through the village. He leaves Southampton on Monday in the Cymric.”

Having arrived in South Africa on 7 April 1900 Kitson took to the field in the Cape Colony but, sadly, his service was to be cut short. After 87 days (just short of three months), he was discharged, Medically Unfit, at McKenzie’s Farm – the Imperial Yeomanry Depot – in Cape Town, on 2 July 1900. He had been promoted to Lance Corporal just before this eventuality. His conduct and character were rated as Very Good on discharge.

Back home sooner than he was expected, Kitson went to ground and was to be found in the Vicarage when the 1901 England census was enumerated. By this time his father was 83 years old, his mother 54 and, also at home were his brother John, a Clergyman in the Church of England like their father; Robert Graham, a Solicitor’s Clerk; Rosamund (17), Dorothy Euphemia (12) and Antony Buller (10). Reverend Kitson’s ability to father children in his old age was to be marvelled at.


A street scene in Nome, Alaska in 1910

Disappearing from the scene for many a year, Kitson reemerged as a passenger aboard the S.S. Cedric bound from Liverpool to the United States of America on 14 May 1910. The U.S.A. Declaration of Intention form (as an immigrant) he had completed and signed at New York on 20 May 1910 revealed that he was a 35 year old Miner by occupation who now lived in Nome, Alaska and whose last foreign address, interestingly, was Dordrecht in the Cape Colony of South Africa.

He further confirmed that he was “not an anarchist and not a polygamist.”

Charles Henry Kitson, having returned to the land of his birth at some point, passed away in Kensington, London in April 1944.

Acknowledgements:

- Various newspapers quoted above
- Find My Past & Ancestry for census, migration and shipping details
- Shrewsbury School Register