TOPIC:

I have 6 books which relate to the seige of Ladysmith and each one says Major Gough was first
This is 2 pages from Gibson's "The Story of the ILH" The first is Major Gough's account.






Even Gough says Gough was first and this account has McKenzie 2nd equal. He was however the first of the Carbineers

Iain

Gentlemen,
Where do the ten or eleven men of the Border Mounted Rifles who were part of the composite regiment fit into all of this?

Hi Frank,

For my part, I have come across the fact that there were other members of the Composite Regt. and that they brought up the rear.

regards, Iain

Frank Kelley wrote: Gentlemen,
Where do the ten or eleven men of the Border Mounted Rifles who were part of the composite regiment fit into all of this?

Major Hubert Gough of the relieving force greets General Sir George White in Ladysmith, as portrayed in a painting by
John Henry Frederick Bacon

Just to muddy the water, here is an account written in her diary by an eye-witness (Miss Bella Craw):

"We heard great cheering at Indombi Camp, the town in a few minutes was all excitement, people running from all quarters, so we ran out and joined the crowd at Inman's Corner. They told us the flying column was to be seen coming past Indombi Camp, so we immediately turned down the street in the direction of the cheering. We got so excited that we actually ran at times through pools and puddles that were too big to jump (there had been a heavy rain during the afternoon). We only got as far as Mrs Hayden's when we met a squadron of Imperial Light Horse headed by Major Karri Davis*, 80 so I believe there were. Then came a small number of Natal Police, twenty or thirty, then Natal Carbineers headed by Major Duncan McKenzie looking beaming, his left arm in a sling (they say he is hoarse tonight with cheering). The General and all his staff met them just by our gate**."

* Miss Craw is mistaken with this identification. Karri Davies was with the ILH Squadrons besieged in Ladysmith.

** Miss Craw was living with her uncle and aunt, Major & Mrs George Tatham of Vine Lodge, Murchison Street.

I have long favoured this eye-witness account because Miss Craw gives my personal favourite people, the Natal Police, a leading place in the relief column. The NP are seldom even mentioned in other accounts. I wonder if the story that, in order to share the honours, the ILH and NC formed up in pairs before entering Ladysmith is in fact just that ..... a story.

We may never know for certain.

Brett

In my previous post I meant to add that the ILH and NC were the only full squadrons of the Composite Regiment that took part in that charge into Ladysmith. The company of KRRC Mounted Infantry obeyed Lord Dundonald's order to hang back, while it was the Colonials who seized the chance to make history.

Because the full squadrons of the ILH and NC numerically dominated the Colonial units represented in the Composite Regiment, the smaller units (Natal Police, Natal Mounted Rifles and Border Mounted Rifles) have been largely forgotten by historians.

Brett