TOPIC:

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902 (Ghost Dates) with 4 clasps: Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901 named to: 7032 Pte. W. A. Gow, 2 Sea. Highrs.

7032 Private W. A. Gow, 2nd Battalion Seaforth Higlanders was one of 54 taken prisoner-of-war at Swalkranz (sp) (Zwavelkranz) on 4 June 1900 and later released.

Zwavelkranz:
[2726: 2715-2743] a farm, since considerably subdivided, in the Orange Free State (Koppies district; Free State), 25 km north-west of Heilbron. A weakly guarded British convoy of 60 waggons loaded with food for Lt-Gen Sir H.E. Colvile's column in Heilbron* left Vredefort Road* on 2 June 1900 and on the evening of 3 June found Chief-Cmdt C.R. de Wet's commandos blocking its way at Zwavelkranz. De Wet demanded its surrender and whilst Lt Corballis, Army Service Corps, in charge of the convoy, engaged him in discussion a force of some 600 men went out from Vredefort Road under Maj A.E. Haig, but returned having heard no firing. The convoy laagered and on 4 June surrendered to de Wet without opposition. HMG III pp.126-128 (not named) (not mapped); Times IV pp.262-263; Wilson II pp.668-669; De Wet pp.129-130. From A Gazetteer of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 (Military Press, Milton Keynes 1999)

More info below from the Handbook of the Boer War published in 1910.

De Wet now set himself in person to execute the task entrusted to him by Botha of getting behind the British force in the Transvaal and breaking or interrupting the line of communication in the Free State. He had not long to wait for opportunities. He left Frankfort with 800 men, and on June 2 placed himself in observation near Heilbron, where Colvile was awaiting a supply column from the railway at Roodeval. The convoy was harassed from the first by mischances. Against Colvile's orders it was despatched with but a small escort and without guns. When he heard that sufficient protection could not be given, he counter-ordered the convoy, but the message did not arrive until after it had started. On the second day of the march a body of the enemy was found blocking the road at Zwavel Kranz between Heilbron and Heilbron Road Station. It was De Wet waiting for the convoy. The news of its plight reached Heilbron Road Station, and a relieving column was sent out, which came within four miles of Zwavel Kranz. No firing, however, was heard, and the officer in command, hastily concluding that all was well, returned to the railway without finding the convoy, which next morning surrendered, the victim of easy-going indifference and neglect.