TOPIC:

Could any forummer enlighten me about a detail of Colonel Malby Crofton, who commanded the Royal Lancasters (King;s Own) at Spioenkop?
One account says Crofton was wounded, but no other account mentions this; and he isn't a casualty on my copy of the casualty lists.
One possible source of confusion is that Colonel Malby Crofton was a baronet; and no less than four baronetcies were created for persons with the surname Crofton, two in Ireland and two in the United Kingdom. Coincidentally, another one of these baronets was also with Warren on the Upper Tugela. This was Lieutenant Morgan George Crofton of 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers who was severely wounded a few days earlier at Tabanyama. (Casualty list says Venter's Spruit, which is the location of the hospital).
So, to re-phrase my enquiry: does anyone have info about Colonel Malby Crofton being wounded?
Many thanks!
Rob

The Pall Mall Gazette of 19th April 1900 has him wounded at Spion Kop. Many other papers agree with essentially the same short report.

Smethwick,
Thanks! That's useful. Can you find him wounded on a casualty list, or in anything military?
What is the significance of half-pay - is that the reward for being wounded?
Rob

In the 19th century, armies and navies used the half-pay list, which served a similar function to the reserve officer components of modern forces, with officers who were retired or otherwise not required for active service receiving half of the salary of their fully commissioned counter-parts.

The half-pay list could also serve as a means of ridding the service of ineffective or incompetent officers who had too much political influence to be dismissed entirely. Such officers would be placed on half-pay and never recalled to active service. In periods of extended conflict, the half-pay lists became a significant expense for militaries when it was coupled with the selling of half pay-commissions, which was common in the British Army.


Woodgate's  second and third in command were shot dead, leaving Colonel Malby Crofton, CO of the Royal Lancasters, in command. Crofton, who was not a favourite of Gen. Buller’s, found a signaller amid the chaos and told him to send this message to HQ: “Reinforce at once or all is lost. General dead.”

I think the 2nd paragraph may refer ( although unfairly) to Croftons half pay Rob.

Couldn't find Colonel M Crofton on the Natal Field Force casualty list for being wounded,  that's not to say he wasn't ,though its possible he was slightly wounded? See extract from Letter from Private John Cosgrove, C Company, 2nd Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. .....I think the transcription should have spelt Arm and Shell.




Dave......

Rob
This was taken from a Genealogy site.

Thanks, Dave
I had those sources, but it is immensely reassuring when no new sources come up!
Means I must be near the bottom of the barrel...
Col Crofton was one of the bravest men to walk the earth, like Thorneycroft, but both were treated very shabbily after Spioenkop.
I think the Army would have preferred another Isandhlwana to a tactical withdrawal from Spioenkop. If those lads had stayed up another day, everyone would have been killed, wounded, or shell shock. But then again, what do I know of their fibre, I'm just going by today's standards!
The more I read about this War, the more I admire them...
Rob