Elandslaagte Account and Medal Roll ` Update #2 By David J Biggins Introduction to update #2 – March 2009 This update builds on and expands update #1. All the information that was contained in the previous update has been carried forward to this update. The main changes in this update are: Officer biographies have been expanded. QSA roll entries such as ‘deceased’ or ‘died’ have been replaced, where possible, by the cause and date of death. Occurrences of QSAs with clasp Elandslaagte that have appeared on the market in the last two years have been included. Information from the supplementary and KSA rolls has been included. This work will complete in update #3. The details of 5 new Elandslaagte recipients have been added. This update can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.angloboerwar.com/medalroll/update.htm. This update amends the details of some of the Elandslaagte recipients but is not a full listing. The update needs to be used in conjunction with the Elandslaagte Medal Roll book which is available from Token Publishing: Token Publishing Ltd, Orchard House, Duchy Road, Honiton, Devon, EX14 1YD. Telephone: 1404 46972, fax: 01404 44788, email: [email protected], website: http://tokenpublishing.com. The medal roll information is organised by unit. Within the unit listing, the officers appear first in rank order. These are followed by the NCOs and men who are listed in alphabetical order. The medals rolls have been reformatted so that they are now in portrait layout and the clasps on the QSA appear as they would on the medal in a list rather than separate columns. The column headed ‘Change’ contains a letter or letters explaining what type of alteration that has been made. The abbreviations used, their meanings and the number of occurrences in this update are: Abbreviation Change to Occurrences Elandslaagte QSAs U Number 1 R Regiment 1 Issued: 3,315 N Name 51 B Bars 386 Found: 705 O Notes 1,478 (21%) + New entry 5 - To be deleted 1 The creation of this update has been greatly helped by the generous assistance of contributors. My grateful thanks go to Peter Starling of the Army Medical Services Museum for allowing me to reproduce the picture of Lt Col Crean’s VC group, to Gary Locker, OC Home Headquarters, The Light Dragoons for allowing the picture of Major Dugdale’s medals to be reproduced and to Mark Robinson for the picture of Major Walker and his group. I would also like to thank Henk Loots, Brett Hendrey, Clive Dicks, Martin Smith, Martyn Lovell, David Humphry, Paul Baillie, Erica Utsi, the staff at DNW and my brother Chris for their help and assistance. The members of the British Medal Forum have also been very helpful in identifying existing Elandslaagte QSAs. Since the last update to this information, the Elandslaagte collecting fraternity has lost one of its most active member with the sad death of Terry Burchell. I will miss my conversations with him on Elandslaagte QSAs. If you know of any entries that are missing from the Elandslaagte roll, any corrections or additional data, please email the information to: [email protected] Any information received will be used in the next update to the Elandslaagte Medal Roll. © DJB 2009 2 Introduction to update #1 – December 2006 This update to the Elandslaagte Account and Medal Roll, published in 2003, recognises the fact that publishing a medal roll for the Queen’s South Africa (QSA) Medal is fraught with difficulty. New information continually appears and medals come onto the market that can either reinforce the information in the medal roll or sometimes contradict it. As an author and researcher, the temptation is always to delay publication until all the facts can be ascertained. But the truth is that this point is never reached. The decision has to be taken about when to make the research available in order that it can be of benefit and interest to others and also be corrected where it contains inaccuracies. Since the publication, research on the battle and the Elandslaagte clasp to the QSA has continued. This update makes this information available and also includes other information that was precluded from inclusion in the book. It is planned to release updates on at least an annual basis. This update can be downloaded from the Token Publishing web site. The book is also available from Token Publishing: Token Publishing Ltd, Orchard House, Duchy Road, Honiton, Devon, EX14 1YD. Telephone: 1404 46972, fax: 01404 44788, email: [email protected], website: http://tokenpublishing.com. A new column has been added to the tables in the Medal Roll section. This column explains the change that has been made to the entry. The abbreviations used and their meanings are: Abbreviation Change (∆) to U Number R Regiment N Name B Bars O Notes + New entry The number of changes made for this update are: Change (∆) to Occurrences Number 7 Regiment 1 Name 32 Bars 40 Notes 306 New entry 7 Please email [email protected] if you have any feedback on this update or the book. Also use this email address if you have information that could be included in future updates. In producing this update, my appreciation is extended to Terry Burchell and my brother Chris for their help and support. Audrey Portman, Rob Mitchell and George Mitchell-Innes have been very helpful. Paul Wood, of Morton & Eden, has supplied pictures for this update and Chris Dixon has been a great help. Jim Day continues to support this project and his assistance and perseverance is much appreciated. My thanks to Murray Shaw for the photograph of Captain Forbes’s medals. Phil Skingley and Caroline Holmes have provided me with access to the excellent library of catalogues held by Spink for which I am very grateful. The account by Captain Meiklejohn is reproduced by permission of the Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen. My thanks also to Ian Linney for his contribution. I am also indebted to others who have made positive contributions to the generation and availability of information about Elandslaagte. 3 Contents Colonel Schiel ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 Schiel’s account of the battle .............................................................................................................................. 5 Steevens’ account of the night after the battle ................................................................................................. 13 Trumpeter Shurlock .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Maurice’s account of Elandslaagte ................................................................................................................... 16 Meiklejohn’s account ........................................................................................................................................ 23 Old Elandslaagte .............................................................................................................................................. 27 Views of the battle ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Boer casualties ................................................................................................................................................. 30 The death of General Kock ............................................................................................................................... 31 Elandslaagte QSAs ........................................................................................................................................... 33 The Medal Rolls ................................................................................................................................................ 38 Staff ........................................................................................................................................................... 39 Gordon Highlanders .................................................................................................................................. 46 Devonshire Regiment ............................................................................................................................... 60 Manchester Regiment ............................................................................................................................... 93 5th Lancers .............................................................................................................................................. 101 Dragoon Guards ..................................................................................................................................... 114 Royal Artillery .......................................................................................................................................... 119 Other Imperial units ................................................................................................................................. 128 Medical Services ..................................................................................................................................... 133 Imperial Light Horse ................................................................................................................................ 137 Natal Volunteers ....................................................................................................................................