| Waterhouse | R D | | Lieutenant | Ronald Dockray Waterhouse was born in December 1878 and was educated at ‘a preparatory school on the south coast', where the physical conditions were savage, and at Marlborough, from where he was sent home in disgrace with a shocking report. After due consideration, his father put him on a boat bound for Cape Town with one gold sovereign, and on reaching his destination, young Waterhouse found work at a local barber's shop. Shortly afterwards he made the acquaintance of a Trooper in the Matabele Mounted Police, who promptly stole his gold sovereign, and, in an effort to track down his new found adversary, Waterhouse enlisted in the very same corps at Pietermaritzburg in late 1896. Just a few days later, having joined the Pitsani detachment of his new regiment, he witnessed the arrival of Dr. Jameson at the head of 120 Bechuanaland Border Police, and quickly found himself embroiled in the famous “Jameson Raid”. His part in that desperate enterprise was, however, short-lived, for on 2 January 1895, while advancing with the main force towards Vlakfontein, his knee was grazed by a bullet fired from a Boer farmstead. The same round also brought down his horse, pinning him in the mud of a dango - a wide shallow water basin common to all such farmsteads - but, at great risk, a fellow Trooper rode up and pulled him clear, the same Trooper, it transpired, who had stolen his sovereign back in Cape Town. Having concluded that Jameson's mission was doomed to failure, the pair of them made off in a southerly direction, but Waterhouse remained in great pain - ‘the wound was only skin deep, the bone fortunately remaining undamaged, but they did not know this at the time, for the knee-cap was terribly bruised.' When, in due course, news reached them of Jameson's surrender at Rietspruit, near Doornkop, they made their way to Durban and boarded a vessel of the Union Line, bound for England, and passed a miserable passage in ‘steerage accomodation of an almost forgotten period.' On making amends with his father back in London, it was decided that Waterhouse should “lie-low” in the Shetlands while the Jameson case blew over, but on learning of the outbreak of the second Matabele rebellion in March 1896, he hastened south to take the first available ship to Durban, and, before too long, had rejoined his old troop at Bulawayo, now titled Gifford's Horse. He subsequently served as a Scout, and was once entrusted with carrying an important despatch back to Bulawayo, through very treacherous country, a journey, it is said, of 136 miles, and one which was completed in exactly 36 hours, but not without collecting ‘a nasty gash on his head from a spent bullet'. At a special parade called by Major-General Sir Frederick Carrington on the disbandment of the Bulawayo Field Force in July 1896, the General announced the pending issue of a ‘medal for the show', which according to Waterhouse's second wife, he ‘received from the Chartered Company seven years later in India on the occasion of the Coronation of King Edward VII', a location that might just account for his B.S.A.C. Medal being unnamed - he does not, however, appear on the published roll under Gifford's Horse. Meanwhile, he was among the selected representatives of the South African Contingent who took part in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations back in London, thereby qualifying him for the Jubilee 1897 Medal, on which occasion he also took the opportunity of visiting Dr. Jameson with his old C.O., Maurice Gifford. It was about this time that Waterhouse ‘found himself with a Greek syntax in his hand instead of his cherished carbine', for, following the sudden death of his father, the latter's trustees had deemed it fit for him to complete his formal education at Oxford. That done, Waterhouse applied for a commission in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Lincolnshires, and, in December 1899, soon after the outbreak of the Boer War, gained a regular commission in the 2nd Battalion - he subsequently applied for the Mounted Infantry Company and was duly selected for active service in South Africa. His subsequent adventures in that conflict, latterly as a Lieutenant in the 6th Dragoons, are described in detail in Private and Official, and include accounts of the actions in which he was wounded. The first of these - a flesh wound in the thigh - arose from a sharp engagement fought at Waterval Drift in February 1900, while Waterhouse was serving in the 7th Mounted Infantry: ‘ ... Ronald found himself amongst the few still trying to catch a loose animal, but he succeeded at last and mounted. At that moment a man was hit close to him. He stopped, and helped him on to his own horse, saying, “Go steady, I will hang on to the stirrup leather,” but the horse bolted with its wounded rider, and left him. By this time he, and others in like case, were almost isolated. After considerable difficulty he managed to catch a second horse and started off again, but a bullet went through the fleshy part of his left thigh, and brought his horse down on to its nose. Then Ronald started running for cover nearly half a mile away. He was getting on admirably, and every yard brought him into less concentrated fire, but each running man was none the less a target. Presently - it seemed a very long time - he saw someone coming back to him with a led horse. The fire lifted from him to the pair galloping towards him, and he redoubled his efforts. Then he recognised his Sergeant, Murray, lying low on his horse's neck, riding like a madman, with bullets spitting up the ground all round. Murphy never let go his leading rein, but wheeled and started back when Ronald was still climbing into the saddle. They made an excellent target, because there was now practically nothing else for De Wet's entire commando to fire at. Then Murphy's horse was shot, and after seven or eight strides turned complete somersault over him; Ronald fell off too, but fortunately kept hold of his rein and remounted; Murphy recovered, caught R's stirrup leather, and at last they came out of range together behind the shelter of rising ground.' His second and third, more severe wounds, were picked up at Paardeberg just 48 hours later, when, with a small party of his men, he was ordered to dismount, cross the river and make his way to the firing line, ‘where he found Captain Arnold of the Canadians at his side, and Moneypenny of the Seaforths next but one along, but his own men were scattered, and he saw no more of them.' Later in the day, Colonel Aldworth arrived with two companies of the D.C.L.I., and ordered those present to advance over fireswept open ground. The first to fall was the Colonel, some say with over thirty bullet wounds, and Moneypenny of the Seaforths went next, Waterhouse turning to throw him his flask as he ran on towards the Boers. At this juncture, ‘a shock like ten sledge-hammers, synchronised for a single mighty blow in the chest flung him to the ground. How he fell, how he was hit, or by what, remained a mystery. But there he was flat on his stomach with one arm bent under his face and a heart pumping wildly.' Then a voice called out “Are you hit?” and Waterhouse noticed he had been joined on the ground by Hylton-Jolliffe, a young subaltern of the Coldstreams. Now real disaster struck: ‘Then a terrific shock like the swinging blow of a crowbar, and a bullet whizzed between the wrist-watch and his eyebrow, and went through Ronald's shoulder. But there was no pain at all, simply an intense dullness and a feeling of relief. Jolliffe began moving uneasily, for the same bullet had struck his knee-joint, it expanded and severed the leg. He rolled into Ronald, then rolled back ... Jolliffe's condition was serious and he was unavoidably creating a target. A bullet passed Ronald's face, a sickening thud and Jolliffe's body was raked. They were lying not more than fifty or sixty yards from Cronje's laager, and, standing unconcernedly above their breastworks, the Boers were taking deliberate shots at anything that moved ...' By the time rescue arrived in the form of two hefty stretcher bearers, a Seaforth and a Canadian, Jolliffe had been hit ten times and his remaining leg was barely attac | 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) |
