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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25359

  • Brett Hendey
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The Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 1899-1900

PART 4 – PRELUDE TO THE BATTLE OF SPIOENKOP

On Tuesday, 8 January, the men of the NVAC rose early and, in heavy rain, struck camp and marched soaking wet in ankle deep mud to the Estcourt Station, where they entrained for Frere to “the very same location as that we had occupied before we went to fight at Colenso.” Early the next morning, they were on the march again, not towards Colenso as they had expected, but westwards towards the Upper Tugela to take part in the next phase in General Buller’s plans to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

The going was “very exhausting, and the wagon transport almost indescribable; yet, after three hours’ steady work, we arrived at Pretorius’ Farm, where we rested.” The rain ceased “and the fierce, burning midday sun, which now burst out after the rain, drying, almost scorching, us up in a very few minutes.” It was not until mid-afternoon that the wagons caught up with marchers, and bully beef and biscuits were handed out. “We fell to with such ravenous appetites that our ordinary rations disappeared almost as if by magic.”

While the NVAC men rested, “immense bodies of troops, column after column, without count, trains of transport without end, were continually moving past. Accompanying them could be seen, here and there, immense, ungainly monsters, puffing, snorting, screeching, with slow and solemn stride, like leviathans of a period long remote. These, I may tell you, were not animals imbued with the breath of life; they were traction engines moving by the power of steam, by the will of man. Heedless of obstacles they went on. A blind man could have seen, I almost think, some big move was pending, for all around, from hill top to hill top, the sun obeying man’s command was, with never ceasing flashes, telling tales we could not read.”

From that day until 15 January, the NVAC remained in camp. The only thing of interest that occurred “was a little bit of Boer cheek”. “On Sunday [14 January], just after church parade, which was attended by some thousands of our troops, a man dressed in the uniform of a Gordon Highlander, was detected trying to drive some of our cattle away. Following him closely up, he was found to be a Boer, and, when challenged, he tried to escape. Needless to say, he got his desserts – sweet, short, and decisive!”

On 15 January, the NVAC, which was attached to Major-General A F Hart’s 5th Brigade, crossed the Little Tugela River and marched onwards to Potgieter’s Drift on the Tugela River. The mood of the men was one of optimism about the outcome of the coming meeting with the Boers. The correspondent wrote: “[we] feel that the abominations of days gone by are coming to an end, and that the cruelties, the robberies, the intrigues, the extortion, the cant, so long reigning in the Transvaal, will soon be things of the past.” Events in the days ahead would prove otherwise.

Buller’s second assault on the Boer lines was perhaps better conceived, but as badly executed as the first one at Colenso a month earlier. This time the British Army crossed the Tugela with minimal opposition from the Boers, and it was hampered only by logistical difficulties. On 18 January, the Mounted Brigade advanced northwards outflanking the right wing of the Boers, and an advance party of Colonials from the Composite Regiment successfully ambushed a Boer patrol at Acton Homes. This potentially opened the road to Ladysmith from the west. Such an advance would have left Boer Commandos occupying the high ground between the Acton Homes road and the Tugela River facing the British on two fronts, and under the threat of being cut off from Colenso. Lord Dundonald’s request for reinforcements to exploit this opportunity was rejected. Instead, the Mounted Brigade was recalled to join an attack from the south on the Boer positions occupying the high ground of Thabanyama. As a result, instead of being confronted by the British both north and south of their line, the Boers now occupied a commanding position ahead of an attack only from the south. The single British success in Buller’s campaign thus far, the Acton Homes ambush, was relegated to a footnote in history, and a chance of an earlier lifting of the Ladysmith siege was lost. The next six weeks would be difficult and bloody ones for the British.

The march on Thabanyama started on 17 January 1900. The NVAC’s involvement began with a difficult night march towards Trichardt’s Drift on the Tugela River. The Natal Advertiser correspondent reported that, “we soon began to experience the disadvantage of belonging to the rear guard of the army, the position occupied by our brigade. Every now and then we had to halt suddenly, and then just as suddenly march again without any warning at all. It was exceedingly tiring, more especially as the rain was falling steadily, although it ceased after a while. On, on we trudged and tramped up hill and down until we lost all idea of the situation, and could have sworn we were travelling in a circle. ….. we marched, footsore and weary, until at last just before dawn we halted.

The NVAC remained where it was for the entire day and that night the men camped in sight of the Tugela River. The next morning they watched the army crossing the Tugela on pontoons, and they followed suit in the afternoon. The next day, Friday, 19 January, the NVAC advanced to a position near Venter’s Spruit, in sight of the Boer lines. There was intermittent firing during the afternoon, and several wounded men were brought in at sunset.

The account of the Venter’s Spruit battle by the Natal Advertiser correspondent is given below almost in full, since it tells in some detail of the dangerous and arduous duties of the NVAC stretcher bearers in action. In spite of being another failed attack that resulted in many British casualties, the Venter’s Spruit battle has all but been forgotten, since it was soon to be overshadowed by the far greater disaster at Spioenkop

“The next day, Saturday [20 January], I shall remember as long as I live. We awakened at dawn and told we were to go into action with our Brigade at once. After breakfast we moved out, marching straight to a big hill in front of the Boer position …… The battle had already commenced, but we had to wait until our Brigade got engaged. …… I walked over the hill and watched the fighting. The enemy’s position was in the form of a horseshoe, and they were firing continuously from every direction. Our shells were bursting in beautiful white puffs all along the ridge, and directly in front our men could be seen swarming over a biggish hill and steadily advancing. ….. The fight was now getting warmer, and the bullets went whizzing past our heads every moment.” It was then that one of the seconded officers, Lieutenant Stuart, Gordon Highlanders, was wounded, another officially unrecorded casualty of the NVAC.

“Our time came at last, the 5th Brigade advanced. Suddenly, the bang-bang of the Maxim-Nordenfelt was heard for the first time. …… Soon …. our work commenced in earnest, and such work it was! We had, very carefully and slowly, to carry out under fire our wounded men, and thus clamber down the almost precipitous kopjes with the utmost care in order not to jar them, and then three miles more to the field hospital. The ambulance waggons could not be used, the ground was so rough, in fact, a single journey with one wounded man took an hour and a half to perform.”

“When we returned to the field we were stationed just behind two Maxims, and as these attracted the pot shots of the enemy the corner soon became warm indeed, the bullets humming all around, flattening on the rocks and ricochetting away in all directions. We did not care, use became second nature, although now and then, when the whiz seemed a little too close, we gave a duck. Soon, however, our services were again wanted. This time, we had to go down an almost breakneck precipice, and work up a deep gully, under the kopje that formed the extreme right of the Boer position. Here we could see the hills towering above us, tier after tier, ridge after ridge, to a seemingly inaccessible height, and we could well appreciate the terrible task our poor soldiers had before them. Soon we found a wounded man, and brought him in, and as by this time it was dark, we were halted at the hospital and got something to eat.”

“After a short rest we returned to the field, but as it was dark, and no lanterns were allowed for fear of drawing the Boer fire, our passage was painful and slow. The scene was impressive. Here and there the poor wounded fellows could dimly be seen lying about, but, a solemn stillness reigned over all, broken only by the popping of the Boer rifles as they sniped away at our sentries. Moving the wounded in the daytime was hard enough, but the night work was simply terrible, and how we managed to get them down the rocky kopjes will for ever float as a nightmare before me. We worked until 3 o’clock, and having finished our task dropped down at once to sleep.”

“Next morning (Sunday [21 January]) at daybreak we were up again. Firing had recommenced, and we could see at once that we still had some work to do. We soon found some wounded in a kafir kraal, which had been used as a temporary hospital, and carried them to a new field hospital, six miles away, another terribly fatiguing task. On our return we were told to halt awhile. We took advantage of this, and lay down, utterly worn out, in the shade of some trees, and tried to snatch some sleep. The bullets came whistling past, but so accustomed had we become to them that we did not even stir. Here, one or two of our fellows got wounded, and it soon got a very warm corner. I was fast asleep when a sharp burning pain in my right shoulder rudely awoke me, spinning me round like a top. On turning over I soon found that a bullet had passed through the fleshy part at the back of my shoulder, and consequently I was a wounded man! My wound was quickly dressed, and I was taken to the hospital myself, a change in position that I had not bargained for. Next day I was sent further to the base, and expect to be sent still further down.”

That brought to an end of the correspondent’s reports to the Natal Advertiser.

Atkins (1900: 233, 234) wrote the following about the stretcher-bearer’s at Venter’s Spruit:
“The work of the stretcher-bearers on all these days deserves a chorus to celebrate it. ….. The private soldier may be cool, but he could not be cooler than ‘the body-snatcher’ ….. How many of you, I wonder, have had your own bodies snatched by the fate from which you went to rescue others? A good many, I know, but people do not consult the casualty lists anxiously for your names.”

The Natal Field Force Casualty Roll records the NVAC casualties for the Venter’s Spruit battle as three killed and five wounded, the latter including Charles Finlayson, whose rank is incorrectly given as ‘Bearer’, the date as ‘22 January’, and the place as ‘Natal’. It is clear that this roll is an unreliable and incomplete record of NVAC casualties.

One of the men killed at Venter’s Spruit was Bearer George Charles Robert Doble, who had enlisted in Durban on 9 December 1899. He was evidently a resident of Durban, and in 1898 he had applied for a piece of government land on the Bluff. The only other fact that emerged from an investigation was that his wife, Elizabeth Phoebe, pre-deceased him in 1926. A photograph of his QSA will be given at the end of this series of reports.

By 23 January it was clear that the Thabanyama attack, which had cost the British nearly 500 casualties, had stalled, and the British generals then turned their attention to nearby Spioenkop.
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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25360

  • Brett Hendey
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The Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 1899-1900

PART 5 – THE BATTLE OF SPIOENKOP AND AFTERWARDS

The Battle of Spioenkop on 24 January 1900 was another of the epic disasters in the history of the British Army. The British casualties were given by Torlage (1999b) as approximately 322 killed, 563 wounded, and 300 missing/prisoners. By contrast Boer losses were 58 killed and 140 wounded.

There was clearly an immense amount of work to be done by the stretcher-bearers in clearing the wounded from the summit of Spioenkop, and this began while the battle was still intense. The path to the summit was long and restricted in width and Torlage (1999b) reported that reinforcements “making their way to the summit complained that their advance was hindered by the wounded being brought down and soldiers who were leaving the battlefield.” The day after the battle, the surviving wounded men were brought down and the dead were buried on the summit.

Both the NVAC and NIAC were involved in the battle and its aftermath, and there may well be surviving accounts of their actual deeds, but none were to hand while compiling this report. According to the Natal Field Force Casualty Roll, eight members of the NVAC were wounded on 24 January. There is no casualty record for the NIAC.

The involvement of these Corps in the Battles of Vaalkrans and Tugela Heights are excluded here, owing to the lack of any relevant information. The Ladysmith siege was lifted on 28 February 1900, and the re-organisation of the British forces thereafter saw the demise of the NVAC and the NIAC. The men of the NVAC were discharged on 23 March, and many joined the Imperial Bearer Corps, which was raised in Natal during March to replace the NVAC and NIAC.

The lack of reliable information on NVAC casualties is one of the flaws in their history that was revealed in this review. Not already mentioned were the six men who died of disease during February and March. The totals identified in these reports are four men killed in action, one drowned, 10 died of disease, and 17 wounded. These figures are almost certainly incorrect, and some are of men not named. Local contemporary newspaper reports may offer the best chance of compiling a more complete and accurate list. Memorials of various kinds may also be helpful. For example, the Boer War Memorial in Estcourt, which records the names of men who died in the town, mostly of disease and wounds, has two names, Privates C Brown and W Davis, under the name ‘Voluntary Ambulance Corps’.

These reports on the NVAC are concluded with photographs of the QSA’s awarded to two of its members, both of whom were residents of Natal. They were Bearer George Doble, who was killed at Venter’s Spruit , and Bearer William Tennison, who enlisted on 9 December 1899 and who was discharged on 12 March 1900, thus having served with the NVAC for nearly the entire period of its existence.

REFERENCES

Atkins, J B. 1900. The Relief of Ladysmith. London: Methuen & Co.

Pakenham, T. 1979. The Boer War. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.

Torlage, G. 1999a. The Battle of Colenso 15 December 1899. Randburg:
Ravan Press.

Torlage, G. 1999b. The Battle of Spioenkop 23-24 January 1900. Randburg:
Ravan Press.




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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25362

  • Frank Kelley
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Morning Brett,
Is this another hobby horse of yours then, you have never mentioned it before to me.
Regards Frank

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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25363

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A very well researched article Brett. One could almost say a defining work on the NVAC - a very little understood body of men who helped the war effort enormously in a non-combatant role but still under fire at times.

I think we need to call on you to present a paper on this at a conference in the future.

Well done

Rory

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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25364

  • Frank Kelley
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Hello Brett,
I agree with Rory on this and I would go further and get it both copyrighted and then published, just a simple booklet would suffice as far as I am concerned, but, it really would be worthwhile to do I think, I'd certainly buy a couple of copies from you.
I certainly enjoyed the first read over breakfast today and have since read through it again, the forth paragraph of part four is very interesting in particular. :ohmy:
Kind regards Frank

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Natal Volunteer Ambulance Corps 9 years 1 month ago #25365

  • Brett Hendey
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Frank

I first became aware of the NVAC about 15 years ago when I acquired Bearer Tennison's medal. My interest in medals with a medical connection faded when I was unable to add a QSA to a Natal nurse to my collection - a gap that still exists. Late last year, I acquired Doble's QSA by exchange, and then I bought a Maritzburg Ambulance Corps QSA, more or less by accident, hence my renewed interest in units of this kind.

By an amazing coincidence considering the little attention paid to the NVAC by collectors and researchers, I discovered that a local dealer had been collecting contemporary newspaper reports linked to the NVAC. He offered them to me, but my pockets were not deep enough. Sometime soon, I expect that collection of reports will be offered for sale on the open market, and then someone else will be able to fill the many gaps in the story I told above.

Rory

Thank you for your kind words. I need to remind you that I am a hermit and public appearances never happen.

Regards
Brett

PS An emoticon appeared at the end of one of my posts made above, presumably because the computer gremlins were toying with me again. I tried to delete it, but succeeded only in deleting the entire post, which then had to be resubmitted. The emoticon remains there as evidence of my inability to adapt to life in the 21st Century.

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